One of the things that struck me about this film was that the main character, El Mariachi, name was never revealed or used. He was only referred to as "El Mariachi". In a way this is very fitting and maybe done on purpose, since his one and only goal in life is to be a Mariachi. As he stated, "All I want is to be a Mariachi like my ancestors". Mariachi music has become symbolic of Mexican music. He seemed truly dedicated to becoming the best Mariachi he could. He realized he wasn't as good as his ancestors and needed to travel town to town to gain experience in his craft. He is willing to work for only tips and/or room and board just to gain experience. I think his statement "I want to die with my guitar in my hand" summed up his devotion to his music. Little did he know Moto's men would soon mistake him for Azul and try to kill him just because he carried his guitar case.
"Bandido-violence" is commonly associated with Mexican culture. Many movies and TV shows revolve around this type of violence. Even movies and TV shows set her in America show rival Mexican gangs at war with each other. News programs show real life examples of this going on today with Mexican drug trafficking gangs. Of course, this occurs in other nationalities, not just Mexican.
The role of music was a very integral part of the movie, as it is in most movies. It is used to enhance and compliment the action occurring in the film. For example, the music got louder and more ominous during the gun fights and when Mariachi was being chased by the gangsters. Contrast this with the soft, pleasant music playing during the scene between Mariachi and Domino when she is asking him if there was someone special he wrote his song for. If I had watched the movie with my eyes closed I could have guessed when something good or bad was happening just by the type and volume of the music playing.
This movie had many other examples of Mexican stereotypes throughout it. The men are dark skinned, have dark hair, wear mustaches, like their beer in bottles, and love women and being waited on by them. There was alot on violence and disregard for life amongst Moto and Azul and their henchmen. The Mariachi music was enjoyed by everyone in the bar and it appeared that having Mariachi play at the bar was going to increase business.
When trying to remember the movie to write my blog I to realized that they never gave the Mariachi a real name. I think that the writer did this on purpose to give the character more depth. It really gives the character a label as the Mariachi and lets the viewer know how badly he wants to become one without really giving too much background information. I think that the beer in the bottle stereo type really stood out to me. It was almost as if the writer was forcing the point and I found it to be very comical. The sound and music in the movie gave it an interesting twist because the sound effects and background noises were so much louder then compared to most other films. The bandido violence is very common place for Mexican culture.
ReplyDeleteI too thought it was strange that the mariachi’s name was never revealed. When writing my blog, I even looked up the movie online to see if maybe I had just missed it. When realizing that I hadn’t, I wondered why his name was never used. But now it makes sense; this man lived to be a mariachi, so it is only fitting that the viewer has nothing more to associate with him than ‘El Mariachi’. Pedro or Jose just wouldn’t have cut it!
ReplyDeleteThe mariachi was very dedicated to his work. You illustrate this well when you mentioned that he agreed to work for only tips to gain experience. And the fact that he says he wants to die with a guitar in his hand or even in the scene where he risks his life to get his guitar back from Azul, expresses to the viewer how truly passionate he is about being a mariachi.