Machete (review)

Yesssssssssss....

I had high hopes for this movie, and Rodriguez rarely disappoints. Definitely on the "must see" list now.

I HAVE to ask this: are Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly actually in this movie somewhere, or did you devote three paragraphs towards a political posturing that will likely make no sense to anyone who reads this review a few years from now? Love your show!

So we finally get the back story on "uncle Machete" from the Spy Kids trilogy. Cool. :)

Yeah, hate to tell you MAJ, but the boat has already sailed on conservative talking heads claiming Rodriguez is inciting a class/race war with Machete. It already happened after the Cinco de Mayo trailer was released.

Oh sorry, forgot I'm not supposed to talk about anything topical since it won't make since years from now... since the movie isn't topical or rooted in the context of today...

If only that so-called "political posturing" didn't make sense in a few years. Any world where O'Reilly and Beck are so removed from the public consciousness that people don't remember their names seems like a wonderful world to me.

Hehe... I since I'm not making since sense I stopped sinceing which since of the word sense I'm using...

Sounds like it's also timely for the white-washing talk that's been kicking up more and more. Although this time in reverse, with Segal cast as the bad Mexican.

Dudes, this is pure hate propaganda. You think it's cool, eh? Well in this media age where life imitates art you must dream of killing White people. So is killing White men entertaining or do you want women and children also?

Dudes, this is pure hate propaganda.

Lindsay Lohan does not actually get naked in the movie, FYI. It's clearly carefully chosen footage from the original Grindhouse -- if the blonde actress' hair is covering her face, it's in the film.

The abundant returning characters from Grindhouse are a kick, but my favorite references are to two other movies: a distinctly Escape From New York-inspired digital diagram of a wall, and Robert De Niro driving a taxi.

I can’t remember the last mainstream movie that featured so many Latinos in all the major good-guy roles, including not one but, miraculously, two women.

Spy Kids? Selena? My Family?

Yes, they are a bit rare.

So here we have former Mexian federale Machete (Danny Trejo: Predators, Battle for Terra), who ran north of the border to escape Torrez’s wrath after the cop dared to try to take the druglord down...

Mexian? So Trejo's character comes from an imaginary country instead of Mexico?

Oh sorry, forgot I'm not supposed to talk about anything topical since it won't make since years from now... since the movie isn't topical or rooted in the context of today...

I guess that explains why the humor of An American Carol seems even less funny after two years of Great Recession II than it did when it first came out.

On a more serious note--and noting the irony in CB's comments--the illegal alien issue has been with us for some time and so have the various conservative attempts to make hay of the issue. It seems silly to pretend it's not topical when just five years ago it was the topic of one of the biggest series of political demonstrations this country has ever seen.

I'm not going to pretend it's the only issue people should talk about but it hasn't exactly gone away since 2006.

This is the first film for a while that looks as though it might be genuinely fun.

What I've seen of blaxploitation generally has black bad guys too - "we have problems, but we take care of them ourselves". This sounds rather more simplistic than that - which for a film like this isn't necessarily a bad thing at all.

Great to see a leading man who isn't a pretty boy.

@MAJ

are Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly actually in this movie somewhere,

Yes. They are played by Robert DeNiro.

Nice one!

@Tonio

Mexian? So Trejo's character comes from an imaginary country instead of Mexico?

Mexian isn't a nationality, it's an adjective meaning "likely to chop you up with a machete, official federale procedure be damned". Capitalizing it was a typo. ;)

It seems silly to pretend it's not topical when just five years ago it was the topic of one of the biggest series of political demonstrations this country has ever seen.

Indeed. This movie was conceived of long before the recent iteration of the debate involving the Arizona law came around, and the issue isn't going away.

And while (with any luck) the names Beck and O'Reilly won't mean anything to a future reader but an awesome alt-rocker and a series of highly informative computer books, I'm pretty sure they'll still understand the sentiment.

While I loathe to spoil the righteous, ever-so-WASPy lefty anger on display in the review, a few quick points:

1. Mexico is a (predominantly) European-immigrant, caucasian (white) country.
2. It has an ugly 'race' problem, in that it's mestizo (mixed Indian) population (Mexican underclass) is treated like crap.
3. Mexico's army brutally enforces immigration at *it's* southern border, annually drawing criticism from the UN.

'Machete' apparently, natch, doesn't exactly deal with any of that. If you think it's a rousing B-grade action tale....great. A lot of 70's era B-grade flicks featured stilted lefty politics, that's true. But don't play at 'Machete' making any substantive social points; it's race-based harrumphing that plays to North American WASP (re: Coastal idiots) sensibilities.

@ KingSoup. What does any of that have to do with anything? Is this like when certain white people try to suggest slavery wasn't the fault of their ancestors because black people had slaves in Africa too? It's nothing but an attempt to salve your own guilt and anxiety by reminding the rest of us--but mostly yourself--that your own racist xenophobic screeds are somehow okay because "they" do bad things too. Which of those three points justifies the continued dehumanization of Mexican immigrants in America? Which of those three points renders a critique of the American immigration system as well as America's penchant for exploiting immigrant labor while simultaneously demonizing immigrants somehow less valid a critique to engage in? They don't. Those points exist purely to distract from the issue, red herrings meant to pull us away from the bad shit our own country is implicit in. The only reason you percieve it as not making any substantive social points is because it isn't going out of its way to portray a more "balanced" (read: more forgiving to racists and the people that apologize for them) sentiment.

But don't play at 'Machete' making any substantive social points; it's race-based harrumphing that plays to North American WASP (re: Coastal idiots) sensibilities.

Heh. I don't know about MaryAnn but I don't consider myself a WASP. I'm a Latino half and half who also happens to be Catholic--though I will admit that my skin has a tendency to turn pink when exposed to the sun. And the closest coast in my area is the Gulf coast--which is at least a day's drive from where I'm at.

And yes, the Mexican government has a lot to answer for. But so what? I wasn't aware that the theme of Rodriguez' movie was "Yay, PRI!" or "Up with PAN people!"

Nor do I recall any of Rodriguez' critics having issues with all the Mexicans killed in El Mariachi, Desperado or From Dusk to Dawn. Nor did they seem to have any issues with the fact that the hero of one such movie was played by a Spaniard and the hero of another by a white non-Hispanic. So may I assume that some types of race-based harrumphing are more acceptable than others? ;-)

I'm a Latino half and half who also happens to be Catholic--though I will admit that my skin has a tendency to turn pink when exposed to the sun.

I'm a 'Latino half and half' as you say as well. Assuming a person isn't heavily mestizo, most all Latinos get pink with too much sun. We're caucasian. Mexican/Latin is an ethnicity, not a race. Just like Ukrainian, Irish, Italian, etc. isn't a race. :/

And yes, the Mexican government has a lot to answer for. But so what?

....because what the article is describing is a movie that's postulating 'evil Yankee gringos' as the source of the immigrant problem. Immigration/treatment of Hispanics is what the movie is about. As somebody who has lived in both America and Mexico, the Mexican government does a brutal job with it's underclass. That's why there's freaking mass immigration in the first place.! Do Americans send their poor to Canada as a solution to poverty? I've only lived in the US for five years, so maybe I've missed that.

There are points to be made about a decent life for labor-immigrants (overwhelmingly from Oxaca)in the US for sure. But if you want to take a REAL, SERIOUS angry kind of movie look at the issue, Mexico's shitty treatment of the poor is half the equation.

Nor do I recall any of Rodriguez' critics having issues with all the Mexicans killed in El Mariachi, Desperado or From Dusk to Dawn.

Unless those movies were about gringos killing Mexicans for political/ethnic reasons, I think you're talking apples vs. oranges in terms of framing. And I'm not saying 'Machete' is some serious affront: it sounds like it's a decent B-grade action flick. However, Evil Gringos vs. Angelic, class-unified Mexicans is a pretty simplistic view of a serious issue.

But if you want to take a REAL, SERIOUS angry kind of movie look at the issue, Mexico's shitty treatment of the poor is half the equation.

Yeah, and here's what's going to happen with such a movie. Americans will see it. They will subsequently realize that Mexico has it's own share of problems. They will then use these problems to justify their absolutely shitty treatment of immigrants from Mexico and absolve themselves of any blame whatsoever. It's happened time and time again and is one of the oldest methods for ducking out of responsibility. Americans--or really any people implicit in something heinous--have a tendency to look for scapegoats to avoid having to deal with their role in problems.

A side-note: you seem to be chastising Rodriguez for not focusing on an issue you deem more important. While I can understand that frustration, it helps no one to say that he shouldn't talk about a very real issue unless he's also addressing a particular grievance you want him to address. Rodriguez has spent most of his life in America and grew up in Texas, not Mexico and thus he may feel that he is only qualified to speak to his experiences in America. Given this, would you even want him exploring an issue he could so easily screw up due to lack of knowledge and experience? Why is it his responsibility to speak to a problem he has no experience with? I don't expect MaryAnn to spend a review talking about the homophobia or racism present in a movie, because that's not something she can really speak to the way I'd probably want someone to. But I also don't hold it against her or consider her reviews somehow less meaningful because they tend to focus more on gender and not race and sexuality. I just find reviewers that do.

We're caucasian. Mexican/Latin is an ethnicity, not a race. Just like Ukrainian, Irish, Italian, etc. isn't a race. :/

If you want to play that game then everything is an ethnicity, not a race. There's no such thing as race except as it exists in your mind.

I'm also a hispanic-white mutt. My grandmother was a poor native from Zacatecas. Does that make me more qualified to speak on this issue, or are you spouting nonsense and hoping none of the coastal idiots will notice?

Flyover idiot.

You think it's cool, eh? Well in this media age where life imitates art you must dream of killing White people. So is killing White men entertaining or do you want women and children also?

Movies about killing white people are clearly entertaining. Did you enjoy Braveheart? How about Friday the 13th? Saving Private Ryan? Psycho?

What political statement was Rodriguez making with the intestinal rappelling scene?

What political statement was Rodriguez making with the intestinal rappelling scene?

Obviously protesting the 1983 Texas law which made what would otherwise be 2nd Degree Murder into 1st Degree when the victim's intestines were subsequently used for rappelling.

There are other movies that bring to topic the horrific situation in both Mexico and the United States regarding illegal immigration and our border problems: The Border starring Jack Nicholson in 1982, El Norte in 1983, 2006 documentary Arizona Crossing, there are others.

Machete is aimed as a more action-packed entertainment film: but it does bring up how politicians and businesses use anti-immigrant fervor to stir up hatreds of Mexican/Hispanic Illegals, and yet perpetuate a criminal system of smuggling and human/drug trafficking to profit from it at the same time.

Like the TV Tropes says: Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped.

Also, the movie was awesome. So there.

What political statement was Rodriguez making with the intestinal rappelling scene?

It takes guts to stand up against the Man?

I wish I could see this movie, but I just cannot take graphic violence. I'll use your review to recommend it to people I know will love it though. It sounds wonderful!

Hey Maryanne, I've noticed that in some of your other reviews you are critical of the age differential between the male and female romantic leads. I am a Danny Trejo fan but the guy is like 65 or 66 years old. The females in the film that he (well, can't really call it romances can we?) plays opposite, appear to be barely out of their teens.

Wow, I thought the Fahey character *wanted* the Deniro character to get elected because the secure border was actually better for the drug business or something. I thought that that's why Fahey ordered the fake assassination to enhance Deniro's sagging electability. At any rate, I don't care exactly what the plot details are as it's just not that kind of movie. Whenever the hero gets shot in the head and is saved because the bullet hits another bullet already in his head, the plot is irrelevant. I'm not sure exactly what the best immigration policy is re Mexico but I figured that any sort of statement I may perceive from this movie is irrelevant. It's just a great movie. I'm not normally a laugh-out-loud viewer, but I couldn't help it here. Highly recommended. I agree that Lohan was not naked. That must have been a stand in for the kissing scene with Machete.