El Mariachi changed my life
Well, ok the accompanying book was also a major factor in it (http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-without-Crew-23-Year-Old-Filmmaker/dp/0452271878 if anyone’s interested in reading it), but I honestly accredit this one film with turning my life around at a low point.

I’d just finished film school for the summer and already knew that I’d failed as I just wasn’t interested in the course in the slightest. I didn’t get the grades to go on the course I wanted in the first place, but agreed to try the drama based one that required less points and see how it went, instead of going back to college to resit A levels to get onto the filmmaking course. My friend Alper had been pestering me over and over to watch El Mariachi and then Desperado from this guy called Robert Rodriguez who I’d never heard of and I admit I’d been putting it off in order to watch more poncey French films (to fit in with the poncey French geeks) and Kevin smith films (to fit in with my own kind). So I finally sat down to watch them one night in June 1999 and was totally blown away.

For those who haven’t seen it, El Mariachi is a low budget western about a musician who comes into town and is mistaken for a hitman and has to hide from the guys out to kill him. It’s got elements of a love story, comedy and action. To the casual observer it’s just another low budget straight to video film, but when you know that he wrote, directed and shot all of it himself and on a budget of $7000 – some of which was contributed through him undergoing guinea pig testing for drugs, it makes it so much more compelling to view. I ended up speaking to tutors and going back to finish my degree, but on the course I wanted to in the first place as I hadn’t failed all the courses, just the irrelevant ones like Art history and drama.

Since finishing film school and working in the industry for a while, I can safely say I have no desire to make films for a living, but some of my friends from uni are still out there working hard and providing entertainment for the rest of us and I really respect them for it. None have gone to as many extremes as Rodriguez did for El Mariachi, but one or two have come pretty close.

Edit: If you want to bypass the first year of film school, but still get all the knowledge you’ll need to pass exams, watch the directors commentary of Doug Liman’s ‘Go’ (1999).
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 23:53, 1 reply)

Agreed
Damn fine film. We have the boxed trilogy set (including Desperado & Once Upon a Time in Mexico) and El Mariachi is by far the best. We also have the soundtrack from Desperado - top feckin' notch.
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 12:54, closed)