Does the end justify the means?

“Mr. President, look out the window, your people are fighting for you.” This is simply the best line in the movie titled Once Upon a Time in Mexico. This third installment in the Rodriguez’s trilogy is a far cry from its predecessors. Having an all-star cast is one, a huge budget is another, and lastly a good cinematography are just some of the factors that make this movie simply fly above the rest.

The plot largely centers on Antonio Banderas playing a gun-throttling mariachi. In this movie, he was hired by Sands to stop a coup d'etat sponsored by a drug lord to oust the Mexican president. Here El Mariachi found himself face-to-face with General Marquez, the very same person who killed his wife and daughter.

The movie has a very high visual rating. The special effects were great. It has to be so because this film was only other film that used the innovative special effects cameras of Star Wars Episode 2. The graphics is good, and despite a lot of gun scenes, it is good that we don’t get to see the overly used “bullet-time” of The Matrix. For gun enthusiast, this would be a good movie to watch. One would be able to see a wide variety of pistols, sub-machine guns, rifles and bazookas. One would also be able to study the different effects of bullets on the human body. One would also be able to see the tremendous firepower of the Magnum on the frail human anatomy. This film is overly exaggerated with El Mariachi killing hundreds of his enemy without sustaining a single scratch. With this violent aspect of the film, it got an R-18 rating on all continents, except of course Antarctica.

Taking into consideration the audio aspect of the film, it is simply superb. You can’t ask for anything more from a film that uses Dolby Digital for its sound. Whenever El Mariachi would be playing his guitar, one can simply feel the string vibrations emanating from the speakers of the cinema. During the massive gun fights in the film, the human heart can’t help but to alter its beating to the rhythm of the bullets flying into the Mexican landscape. The musical soundtrack of the film is also good with the revival of the all-time favorite Cucaracha. The actors simply seem to “dance” through the whole film just like a ballet production.

Now for the storyline, the film lacks a coherent story. At the middle of the story, one can’t simply ask who’s working for whom. The film was mainly created to impress and not to tell a good story. This film is like no others, for it trashes its lead actress into the sideline. That is surely a waste. Salma Hayek should have been given a more prominent role not just appearing in the flashback of El Mariachi’s past. It is just a waste to put a potential crowd-gatherer into the background. The film managed to remain fun in most of its 97 minutes. The film uses a lot of funny remarks to induce the light-hearted nature of the film. One example would be “Are you a MexiCan or a MexiCan’t.” Again, if you are going to watch this movie, watch it for everything except its story.

Another thing unique in the film is that Robert Rodriguez directs it. He is also the editor, production designer, composer, scriptwriter and cinematographer. That is what you can call multi-tasking and it only took him seven weeks to shoot. This is a Rodriguez film all the way. There should have been delegation in the job. This is to eliminate biases and to create a more coherent story. Maybe this is where cost cutting comes in an all-star cast film.

This film portrayed El Mariachi being a patriot of his country. He saved the president from the coup d’etat without even taking the pay in the end. Here the Mexicans were also portrayed being patriotic. Some of the citizens even took arms to fight a whole army under General Marquez. When the president asked who Banderas was, he simply replied “Son of Mexico.” At the end of the film, El Mariachi was shown wearing the Mexican flag around his body much like a sash and kissing it. Though the film lacks coherence, there is still some symbolism used. A boy helped Sands, being blind, defeat his enemy. This is like guidance in the darkness. It clearly showed that the youth would ultimately be the hope of any country. As for El Mariachi and his using of unlawful ways to bring back law and order. It would always be history that would tell if the end would justify the means or not, as a contradiction to Machiavelli’s “The end always justifies the means.”

If you happened to finish your finals week and simply would like some relaxation and laughter watch this film but if your looking for a good storyline, cross this film out of your choices. Once Upon a Time in Mexico merits a 6 out of 10 Lee Hok stars.

Sources: http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesReviewsO/onceupontimemexico-sun.html
http://www.apolloguide.com/mov_fullrev.asp
http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf