DESPERADO

Set on a border town in modern day Mexico, DESPERADO features Antonio Banderas as the nameless Mariachi player who carries a guitar case filled with guns and various other weapons. Traveling from town to town, the Mariachi destroys anyone that comes in his way as he looks for Bucho, a drug lord who killed his girlfriend. When the Mariachi enters a bar, he asks for Bucho’s whereabouts. The response is a round of bullets, so the Mariachi opens his guitar case to play his own tune. Wounded, the Mariachi finds help from a beautiful bookstore owner named Carolina. She stitches him up and tells him she wants Bucho dead. Bandaged, the Mariachi escapes a vicious knife throwing thug, returns to Carolina for a steamy romantic tryst, kills some more of Bucho’s thugs, and prepares for his ultimate showdown with Bucho at Bucho’s own home.

There is a temptation to place a higher production value on this film than it deserves. What could be perceived as entertaining is actually titillating and shocking. This picture doesn’t equal the complexity of a PULP FICTION, nor the style of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. There is an attempt to provide moral value to this picture by depicting the Mariachi as a struggling Catholic, but in the end his desire of revenge overcomes him — not God’s grace.