El Mariachi/Desperado


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Action Theatrical Trailer(s) El Mariachi:
Yes, 1 - 1.33:1, non-16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0
Desperado:
Yes, 1 - 1.33:1, non-16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0
Rating Other Trailer(s) El Mariachi:
No
Desperado:
Yes, 1 - Dolby Digital City
Year Released El Mariachi:
1993
Desperado:
1995
Commentary Tracks El Mariachi:
Yes, 1 - Robert Rodriguez (Director)
Desperado:
Yes, 1 - Robert Rodriguez (Director)
Running Time El Mariachi:
78:12 minutes
Desperado:
100:17 minutes 
Other Extras El Mariachi:
Featurette - The Ten Minute Film School (14 mins)
Filmographies - Cast and Crew
Short Film - Bedhead (10 mins)
Desperado:
Featurette - Ten More Minutes: An Anatomy of a Shootout (10 mins)
Filmographies - Cast and Crew
Music Videos, 2 - Los Lobos with Antonio Banderas Morena De Mi Corazon and Tito & Tarantula Back To The House That Love Built
RSDL/Flipper No/No
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,4 Director Robert Rodriguez
Studio
Distributor

Columbia TriStar
Starring El Mariachi:
Carlos Gallardo
Consuelo Gomez
Peter Marquardt
Desperado:
Antonio Banderas
Joaquim De Almeida
Salma Hayek
Steve Buscemi
Cheech Marin
Quentin Tarantino
Case Transparent Amaray
RRP $34.95 Music El Mariachi:
Marc Trujillo, Alvaro Rodriguez, Chris Knudson, Cecilio Rodriguez and Eric Guthrie
Desperado:
Los Lobos

 
 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame No MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio El Mariachi:
1.78:1
Desperado:
1.78:1
Dolby Digital El Mariachi:
2.0
Desperado:
5.1
16x9 Enhancement El Mariachi:
Yes
Desperado:
Yes
Soundtrack Languages El Mariachi:
Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0, 256 Kb/s)
German (Dolby Digital 2.0, 256 Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0, 256 Kb/s)
Desperado:
English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s) 
German (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio El Mariachi:
1.66:1
Desperado:
1.85:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision Yes Smoking Yes
Subtitles El Mariachi:
English
Spanish
German
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Swedish
Turkish
Desperado:
as above except delete
Spanish (!)
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

Plot Synopsis

    For those that have not yet caught on as to why this should be the first double feature DVD in Region 4, get ready for a guide about how to make yourself a directorial star with not a heck of a lot of money! El Mariachi is an early film by director Robert Rodriguez made for the amazingly paltry sum of USD 7,000. It was intended to be a way of gaining experience and exposure, and was designed for direct release to video in Mexico, to be followed by two more such films. However it proved to be so good, being a winner at The Sundance Film Festival, that it was picked up for theatrical release by Columbia. After proving what he could do with USD 7,000, Robert Rodriguez was then given the opportunity to make a film with a slightly bigger budget - USD 7,000,000 - and what resulted was Desperado, which is a sort of sequel/remake of El Mariachi.

    El Mariachi is the story of a young Mariachi (a wandering guitar player, sort of like a minstrel) wanting to carry on the tradition of his family. El Mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) wanders into a small Mexican town carrying his guitar case seeking work. Unfortunately, he is mistaken for a criminal type and recent jail escapee, Azul (Reinol Martinez) who happens to carry his prodigious weaponry around in a guitar case. Accordingly, El Mariachi becomes the mistaken target of every hired gun that local crime lord Moco (Peter Marquardt) has. Along the way El Mariachi becomes involved with barmaid Domino (Consuelo Gomez) who helps him in his avoidance of Moco's hitmen. Unfortunately all does not end up well, notably for Domino and Moco, but also for El Mariachi.

    Desperado is a sequel of sorts, starting off at the point that El Mariachi finished, only a few years later. El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) is a now a bitter ex-Mariachi hell-bent on exacting revenge against the man who killed the woman he loved. Accordingly his guitar case no longer packs a guitar, but rather an impressive armoury under the false lid. El Mariachi has a side kick Buscemi (Steve Buscemi) who precedes him into a small Mexican town (well actually the same small Mexican town was the location) to spread fearsome stories of this legendary man with the guitar case, in search of the criminal known as Bucho (Joaquim De Almeida). After arrival in town and a fairly impressive expenditure in ammunition in a bar shootout, El Mariachi saves local book store owner Carolina (Salma Hayek) from being shot by a badly aiming hitman, taking the bullet instead. Naturally, Carolina nurses him back to health and naturally they fall in love and team up to get Bucho, who just so happens to be the local drug lord. After a few more fairly impressive ammunition expenditures, we have a little twist to the saga's ending.

    El Mariachi might have been made for a very paltry sum of money, and the bulk of the money went in film and processing, but what ends up on screen is a surprisingly good little action film. Whilst the acting is not the best, these essentially amateurs (most with no designs to be actors) were by no means disgraced in their performances. With an odd assortment of local people and family members filling out most roles, and with zero crew, Robert Rodriguez put together an entertaining, pacey little romp of a film, filled with a fair deal of action for such a low, low budget. Sure there are quite a number of problems with the film, but what do you really expect for $7,000? There is certainly a degree of naive charm in Carlos Gallardo's El Mariachi, but Consuelo Gomez is very convincing as Domino.

    Of course Desperado is a somewhat different proposition again. Here we get some very fine actors putting in some very fine performances, even though $7,000,000 is still not a whole heap of money to make an action film with. The likes of Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin are guaranteed to produce quality performances and they certainly do here, as does Quentin Tarantino in a surprisingly understated but effective minor role as the pick up guy. Joaquim De Almeida is suitably understated as the local drug lord, but this really is all about Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas, both of whom are very effective in their roles. It does not hurt that Salma Hayek is one of the most drop dead gorgeous women in film and she actually demonstrates that the action genre suits her well. Whilst not an Antonio Banderas fan, I have to admit that he is very convincing in the role of El Mariachi. This sort of action romp he can handle with aplomb. And to be honest, Desperado comes across as a lot more expensive film than $7,000,000 - proving that Robert Rodriguez is a master of achieving big things from little (or positively minute) budgets.

    Overall, this is a fine double feature of two entertaining action flicks. Just be warned though: copious amounts of fake blood are well expended here. Robert Rodriguez is obviously developing quite a reputation and on the basis of the evidence here, it is deserved.

Transfer Quality

Video - El Mariachi

    Okay, what do you really expect from $7,000?

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    Obviously this is a very variable transfer in terms of sharpness and clarity, although it is by no means shocking. At times it is quite good, and totally belies the dollars expended on it. Naturally, the transfer is somewhat grainy (and this is partly explained in the commentary as the film print was taken from a less than pristine video copy). Shadow detail is generally quite good, although being an experimental film, mistakes were made (and Robert Rodriguez lets you know about them in the commentary!). Surprisingly, there did not appear to be any significant low level noise in the transfer.

    The colours are not too vibrant, but are consistently rendered giving a very natural colourscape that evokes the right sort of impression of a small Mexican town - slightly washed out, dusty. There is no oversaturation of colour during the transfer.

    There did not appear to be any MPEG artefacts during the film. Film-to-video artefacts comprised a few relatively minor instances of aliasing, which are not that noticeable and did not really detract from the film. Film artefacts were somewhat of a problem although this is understandable given the source (and cost) of the film: they were not especially intrusive however.

Video - Desperado

    Okay, what do you really expect from $7,000,000?

    The transfer is also presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    Well let me tell you that this is a very fine transfer, nicely sharp with a very nice clarity to it and some gorgeous definition and detail. Shadow detail is generally very good, even in the relatively darker confines of the opening bar sequences. There did not appear to be any low level noise in the transfer, and overall this is a quite impressive transfer.

    The colours are again not too vibrant, they are quite nicely richer in tone and very consistently rendered. Again this is a totally believable colourscape. There is no oversaturation of colour during the transfer.

    There did not appear to be any MPEG artefacts during the film. There did not appear to be any film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, and there were only quite minor instances of film artefacts that were not at all disruptive to the film.

    This is a dual sided disc with each movie self contained on a side with all its associated extras.

Audio - El Mariachi

    Since it was recorded on a Marantz cassette player using a Radio Shack microphone (Robert Rodriguez insists that we know this), what we have is actually far better than we have any right to expect! No fancy recording equipment here - and quite rudimentary recording techniques too.

    There are three audio tracks to the film: the default Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and an English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0. I listened to the default Spanish and English Audio Commentary soundtracks. Since my Spanish is not so good ('que?') I had the English subtitles running too.

    The dialogue was reasonably clear and easy to understand at all times.

    Audio sync is a problem with the transfer at times, and again Robert Rodriguez comments upon this inherent problem with the film, but it is quite well covered by the editing of the film.

    The music score is really a collection of songs provided by Marc Trujillo, Alvaro Rodriguez, Chris Knudson, Cecilio Rodriguez and Eric Guthrie, which make a suitably evocative contribution to the film.

    This is a pretty raw soundtrack lacking all the niceties of detail and surround encoding that we normally expect. However, it is quite an effective soundtrack that suits the film pretty well indeed and you really do not feel any significant loss through not having the surround and bass channels in use.

Audio - Desperado

    This is clearly where you hear the difference that money can make.

    There are three audio tracks to the film: the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0. I listened to the default English and English Audio Commentary soundtracks. Since my English is good it would have been nice to have the opportunity to use Spanish subtitles but for some perverse reason we do not have any!

    The dialogue was clear and reasonably easy to understand at all times, although I would suggest that the listening level needs to be just a little above your usual for this film.

    Audio sync did not appear to be a problem with the transfer at all.

    The music score is from the great Los Lobos and is a very stylish, very Spanish sounding effort that is very enjoyable and well supportive to the film.

    This is really a glorious soundtrack with some exquisite detail through the rear channels in particular. Wonderfully balanced, the effects work really thumps out at you. There is some gorgeous subtlety to the soundtrack that can be easily missed. The soundscape is very good and you really feel as if you are sitting at a table in the bar when the shootout goes off. The bass channel is very well used in the mix, suitably adding all the right punch to the action scenes.

Extras

    Well, just what do you want? This could be considered the ultimate special edition collection with Desperado supported by a feature length film if you like! Not only do we get two good films to enjoy but some damn fine extras too.

Menu - El Mariachi and Desperado

    Both pretty well themed to the films themselves although they both lack enhancement.

Theatrical Trailers - El Mariachi and Desperado

    Both trailers come with the choice of German subtitles.

Audio Commentary - Robert Rodriguez (Director) - El Mariachi

    This is absolutely essential listening. Not only is Robert Rodriguez enthusiastically engaging, but the insights he gives into low, low budget film making are fascinating. He unmercilessly points out the flaws in the film (even though you would have missed most of them otherwise) and is completely self-deprecating. This is almost worth the asking price alone.

Featurette - The Ten Minute Film School - El Mariachi

    This is another look into low, low budget film making and again is quite fascinating. What you cannot learn about inexpensive film making from this probably is not worth knowing. Actually though it is a misnomer as it runs over fourteen minutes! Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Short film - Bedhead - El Mariachi

    This is a very early example of Robert Rodriguez' work, which apparently won an award of some sort. Only nine minutes long, it is quite interesting in its own way but lacks a little bit of context. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, black and white and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Audio Commentary - Robert Rodriguez (Director) - Desperado

    Whilst not quite as good as that for El Mariachi it is still essential listening, as once again Robert Rodriguez espouses upon low budget film making - or how to make $7,000,000 look like $30,000,000. Where necessary he still points out the flaws in the film. This is most welcome inclusion in the package.

Featurette - Ten More Minutes: Anatomy of a Shootout - Desperado

    It is actually ten minutes long this time, and a nicely detailed look at how the bar shootout was choreographed. Another welcome inclusion in the package. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Music Video - Los Lobos with Antonio Banderas "Morena De Mi Corazon" - Desperado

    How many knew that Antonio Banderas could sing - and pretty well too? Well I didn't. Nicely Mexican feel to this song.

Music Video - Tito & Tarantula "Back to The House That Love Built" - Desperado

    Very nice song this one.

Filmographies - Cast and Crew - El Mariachi and Desperado

R4 vs R1

    The Region 1 and Region 4 releases appear to be identical so there is no reason to prefer one version over the other except for the inherently superiority of the PAL system - and the fact that the US recommended retail price is $39.95! My rough calculation says that is about $60 in our language.

Summary

    If you love action films, then this is an essential addition to the collection. If you love low budget film making of rare quality, then this is an essential addition to the collection. If you like great commentaries, then this is an essential addition to the collection. If you love Salma Hayek this ... got my drift yet? And best of all is that Columbia TriStar have done the right thing by us and kept this at their usual $34.95 retail price. That alone should see us all heading off to buy this disc! Well done to Columbia TriStar I say.

    Overall a good video transfer, with Desperado being very good.

    Overall a good audio transfer, with Desperado again being very good.

    If you don't like this extras package, I have no idea what will satisfy.

    And all I can say now is ... phew!

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris
19th November 1999

Review Equipment
   
DVD Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display Sony Trinitron Wega 84cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Built in
Amplification Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL