This is El Mariachi remade for Hollywood. Rodriguez wanted to continue his originally planned trilogy rather than simply remake his first movie (he’d planned to make three Mariachi movies before even thinking of being noticed by any bigshots… funny how things change) but I think with Desperado he got a little of both. While Desperado is pretty much the same again only bigger, slicker, and with better music, it does purport to being a continuation of the story that began with El Mariachi: this is the Mariachi’s revenge for the girl he lost in Part One. But it’s still a case of, “There’s a bad guy after me, and he has lots of henchmen, and I’m going to shoot them, and then him, and, hey, I can replace the girl on the way too!” (with apologies to Robert Rodriguez: you know I love your work really!) The difference is, this time, the Mariachi is after them too – in Part One, he’s just trying to survive.

There’s something about Desperado on this viewing that made me think Tarantino may have had more of a hand in it than just his acting turn (more of which in a second). The dialogue is too good for Rodriguez (again, apologies to Rodriguez: you know I love your work). Having now seen the Spy Kids Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, I have to say that dialogue is not Rodriguez’s strong point… not that it’s actually a point at all, to him it’s all about story and fun. The dialogue in Desperado is not only the best in any of his movies, it’s some of the best in all movies (“You know – it’s easier to pull the trigger than play guitar. Easier to destroy than create. They kill the woman I love. They ruined my life…”). And it really rings of Tarantino. But maybe it’s just ‘cos they were hanging out more back then (they became buddies when both their debuts, El Mariachi and Reservoir Dogs, were luvvies of the year in movie land). There’s also a lot more swearing than in any of his other movies – not that it bothers me, but again it sets off Tarantino bells. Like the “real” budget of Mariachi, this is another question I’d love to know the answer to, who else contributed to the script?

Tarantino has a great bit part in the movie. He is really good at physical comedy and I wouldn’t mind seeing him act more (I’ll have to get Little Nicky some time soon). The business he does when entering the “backroom” of Tarasco Bar, walking through the dirty toilet, is hilarious, and his telling of the pissing joke at the same bar is just too descriptive for words (coupled with Rodriguez’s editing, even funnier).

Overall, this is everything that’s missing from El Mariachi – slickly shot like a Michael Bay movie, sun bouncing off everything, every sweaty face looking too beautiful for sweaty, music that plays from song to song so lazily it’s perfect (note how “Strange Face of Love” by Tito & Tarantula plays from the middle of a gunfight across a scene change, builds with the ending of a whole sequence, and ends on a scene transition… one of the best soundtrack moments ever), great actors really slumming it in a movie like this (the work between Banderas and Hayek is probably the best acting in all Rodriguez’s work to date) and genuine big explosions (plus real machine guns: in Part One Rodriguez had guns that only fired one shot!) But all this money means that the one thing that made El Mariachi great is lost… an undefinable thing, really… you’ll know, I’m sure, when you see them. Mercifully, Rodriguez broke past this studio phase and is now free to continue seeking imperfection with whatever budget he desires. This is still probably the most “complete” film in the Mariachi series though.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2004 at 7:44 pm in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews and tagged as misunderstanding, remake, sequel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.