Desperado

with Antonio Banderas, Quentin Tarantino, Salma Hyek
Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez
(Columbia Pictures, 1995)
by Ronnie Kray

Movie buffs will remember director Robert Rodriguez’ first film, El Mariachi, a lower-than-low budget Mexican shoot ’em up which he completed in 1993 for a mere $7,000. After directing a segment of Four Rooms and taking the helm for the Tarantino-penned From Dusk Till Dawn, Rodriguez has finally earned the respect of a major studio and was able to make the kind of film he was trying to accomplish with El Mariachi, but didn’t have the budget for.

Desperado follows the legend of a gun-toting mariachi singer and his cohorts. Antonio Banderas shines as a sweaty, 6 Ft., 200 lb. Spanish diesel who pumps lead into Mexican outlaws and romances a scrumptious señiorita. Rodriguez has a talent for using his camera like a weapon. Tarantino spews out caffeine-laced monologues before taking a bullet in the head. While not Oscar quality, Desperado holds its own in the one-horse-town genre.