Wow, that’s a fun film!




They don’t make them like they used to; except when they do. Machete is filmed as if it was filmed in the 70s, and it is interesting to think what makes us feel that. Is it the cars, is it the slightly grained film with those specific colors, or is it simply the atmosphere. Why can’t such films be done these days? They just don’t make them like they used to.

In case it wasn’t clear, I was being ironic, as Machete was done these days, yet it still felt that it needed to seem like a movie from the 70s to be this much fun. Perhaps it’s the way that violence is mixed with sex in the way it was done in the 70s and not in the 80s, 90s, or 00s.

The name, Machete, a film by Robert Rodriguez, pretty much sums up the film. You know what you are going to get (the film previewed as a trailer in Grindhouse, Rodriguez latest film) and you are correct, and yet it is invigorating. 

A mix of action, beautiful women, blood shed, but mostly a simplicity and subtleness of a character study, that of one who is not the smartest tool in the shed, but the sharpest one - Machete. (I can't do the voice-over here.)
The actors:

        

     

The film's line can be said to be: "We didn't cross the law, the law crossed us." The age old question of Justice or Law and discussing the Immigration laws, and how in some ways they may not be about stopping aliens but about making money. (As an aside, the fact that a newspaper can unabashedly write how Obama is moving along a law towards greater surveillance on the border because it is an election year, not in a slanderous but in a kind of nonchalant obviousness, tells about much about the state of affairs.)
But of course the film is mostly about the man, the legend, Machete. A movie with such lines as:
"He's a federale: DEA, CIA, FBI, all rolled into one." and other such gems is obviously going to be a hoot. As long as you don't mind bloodshed of course.
A warrior angel:



But one who is vulnerable and constantly needs the help and rescuing of the machine-gun-wielding women.

One of my favorite aspects of the cinema as art is that the intersection of the audience of Machete and of The kids are all right is quite large. In both cases these films have their own specialized audience, but they also have the art-house crowd which just goes to good movies.

If you can stand bloodshed, and definitely if you like action, it's a fun film which makes you smile. But hey, it was clear from the name (and the director).