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El Mariachi
1992
A traveling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal and must hide from a gang bent on killing him. PLEASE NOTE: THIS DISC MAY BE DOUBLE SIDED Read more
| Starring | Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gómez, Jaime de Hoyos, Peter Marquardt |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Rodriguez |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Thriller |
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El Mariachi
A traveling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal and must hide from a gang bent on killing him. PLEASE NOTE: THIS DISC MAY BE DOUBLE SIDED
| Starring | Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gómez, Jaime de Hoyos, Peter Marquardt |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Rodriguez |
| Studio | COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 3 hrs 1 min |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Thriller |
| Language | DVD: English, Latin American Spanish |
| Dubbed | German |
| Subtitles | DVD: Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 01 Nov 1999 Production year: 1992 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (2)
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Desperado had a big-name star, Antonio Banderas, plus the seal of Quentin Tarantino credibility (he had a cameo role), but Robert Rodriguez's debut feature is still the more endearing film. Essentially, this is a no-budget (reportedly made for just $7,000), no-frills dry run for Desperado, but with a much more ambivalent hero. Where Banderas is a heroic figure from the outset, Carlos Gallardo, the mariachi of the title, is an innocent musician mistaken for a lethal killer who's gunning for Mob boss Peter Marquardt. The film's origins are clearly visible — let's just say that the acting is enthusiastic — but Rodriguez carries off the action set pieces with confidence and style, and there are some truly comic moments.
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In terms of plot, there's little remarkable about Rodriguez's debut feature: the tale of a loner mistaken for a killer... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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15 out of 16 people found this review helpful
Rodriguez does it again!!
Before getting this DVD, I had already had the benefit of watching 'Desperado' and I already thought it as a wonderful film. I had heard about 'El Mariachi', but had heard different stories. The first being that 'El Mariachi' was made on a majorly small budget and that 'Desperado' was just a remake, and the second was that it was the first of a trilogy, with 'Desperado' as the sequel and 'Once Upon A Time In Mexico' as the final part. I haven't yet seen 'Once Upon A Time In Mexico' so I don't know if it's totally true, but the others are related.
The story is the stuff of pulp novels, old TV Westerns and Victorian melodrama. The mariachi is a harmless romantic who only wants to sing, but people start shooting at him. He defends himself, while trying to figure out why he is the center of attention. A sexy barmaid named Domino (Consuelo Gomez) believes his story and befriends him, and before long they are falling in love, which adds another complication: Domino is the object of the local warlord's unrequited lust, and the warlord's men have confused the mariachi with the other man in black.
'El Mariachi' is already gathering a legend around it, about how Rodriguez sold his body to medical science to raise money to buy film, and wrote the screenplay while working as a guinea pig for cholesterol medication.
'Desperado' is an obvious sequel, and obviously budgeted alot better, but the film hasn't quite got the charm of the first. The dark humour isn't quite as slick, but Rodriguez manages to pull it off well. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
An interesting experience
I borrowed this to see El Mariachi, I already have Desperado on VHS and find it an enjoyable film. Mariachi is an incredibly impressive film given the budget it was originally produced for - $7,000 - and has more action and character development than many 'straight to video' efforts costing hundreds of thousands. Having said that, it is slower and has less action than nowadays we'd expect in an action film, which films such as Desperado and Once Upon a time in Mexico deliver in abundance. The extra from director Rodriguez about how the film was constructed was particularly interesting. One downside of the DVD was that Mariachi does not have an English dub so you have to use subtitles - the US DVD release had an English dub.
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News and features
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El Mariachi
A traveling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal and must hide from a gang bent on killing him. PLEASE NOTE: THIS DISC MAY BE DOUBLE ...
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