Mariachi

UPC: 043396093065

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Graphic Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children]

Summary: Filmed in two weeks on a budget of 7,000 dollars, El Mariachi was one of the singular pleasures of the 1993-1994 movie season. Kind-spirited guitarist El Mariachi (Carlos M. Gallardo) simply wants to wander through life as his father and grandfather did, with a song in his heart and a smile on his lips. He wanders into a small mob-run town, guitar case in hand. It so happens that the local criminal element is awaiting the arrival of vicious hit man Azul (Reinol Martinez), who is well known for carrying his weapons in...a guitar case. Just when you think you've got a lock on what's going to happen next, director Robert Rodriguez throws us for a loop, unexpectedly alternating whimsical comedy with graphic violence. Rodriguez later retooled the plot of El Mariachi for his far more expensive (and far less satisfying) Antonio Banderas vehicle Desperado (1995). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Action

Awards: Best Foreign Film – National Board of Review Best Director – Independent Spirit Awards Best First Feature – Independent Spirit Awards Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival Audience Award – Sundance Film Festival

Features: ccNew film transfer from original negatives supervised by Robert Rodriguez
Director's commentary
Robert Rodriguez's short film Bedhead
"10-Minute Film School" featurette
Sneak peek: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Mariachi

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 08/26/2003

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 81 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,Spanish,French

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Start
2. Azul Checks Out
3. Different
4. One-Man Hand
5. Looking for a Friend
6. Domino
7. Cheap Room
8. Eluding Moco's Boys
9. End of the Chase
10. Just Killed Four Men
11. In Domino's Room
12. Looking for a Man
13. Interrogation
14. Staying on His Side
15. Back to the Hotel
16. A Beer for Azul
17. Wrong Guitar Case
18. Self-Defense
19. First Aid
20. Moco Strikes
21. Past Relations
22. Wrong Truck Choice
23. At Moco's Ranch
24. Coming for His Case
25. Back to the Ranch
26. Too Late the Hero
27. El Mariachi's Revenge
28. Memories

Rebecca Flint Marx

With its almost nonexistent production cost and unanticipated success, Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi has become a legend among independent filmmaking. The work of an unheard-of 23-year-old director who reportedly acted as a drug-test guinea pig to finance his project, the film represented the ultimate rags-to-riches fantasy, a Blair Witch Project for the early '90s. If El Mariachi gained fame for the circumstances of its making, it endured on its merits as a film. Simple, unpretentious, and addictive, its strengths rest largely on Rodriguez' storytelling abilities, specifically his skill at weaving a sustained narrative out of the simplest plot contrivance. Bare-boned, charming, and crackling with unforced freneticism, El Mariachi is a reminder of the cinema's simpler pleasures, where bad guys carry guns and grudges, good guys carry guitar cases that contain only guitars, and justice is served sunny side up with a helping of deadpan humor. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Maria Castillo  Actor 
Jaime DeHoyos  Actor 
Fernando Martinez  Actor 
Juan Garcia  Actor 
Carlos Gallardo  Producer 
Carlos Gallardo  Screenwriter 
Robert Rodriguez  Director 
Robert Rodriguez  Producer 
Robert Rodriguez  Screenwriter 
Carlos Gallardo  Actor 
Consuelo Gomez  Actor 
Reinol Martinez  Actor 
Peter Marquardt  Actor 
Ramiro Gomez  Actor 

Country: USA