Robert Rodriguez sparked a mass of internet buzz in 2007 with a faux trailer for a B-movie called Machete – more buzz, you might say, than the Grindhouse double-feature Death Proof and Planet Terror that accompanied it. While I personally loved watching stunt-woman Zoe Bell kick the crap out of Kurt Russell in Death Proof and witnessing Black Eyed Peas’ front-woman Fergie get mauled by zombies in Planet Terror, Grindhouse fell flat at the US box office and didn’t even receive a theatrical release here in Australia. But it wasn’t a complete loss for the penultimate filmmaking bromance that is Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez; inspired by the popularity of the faux trailer, Rodriguez has ingeniously turned Machete it into a full-blown feature film starring the walking man of muscle, sixty-three year old Danny Trejo. As Machete, Trejo’s anti-hero slices and dices his way through one ridiculously over-the-top vengeance plot that belongs to one of the funniest and most socially aware screenplays of the year.
Machete, an ex-federale trying to forget the past and start anew, illegally crosses the border from Mexico into Texas looking for casual work. But violence and vengeance compliment him like salt and lemon to tequila: when Machete is double-crossed and framed for something he didn’t do, he must follow through with his bloodied blade and sharpened wit to prove his innocence. “Machete – he gets the women and he kills the bad guy.”
Unlike Planet Terror, Machete has a real sense of humour, specifically in the bad accent that comes with casting a white guy with an Asian fetish as a Mexican drug lord: Steven Seagal (Under Siege, Half Past Dead) hits the caricature of bad-ass gangster Rogelio Torres spot on (although there is room to wonder whether the ex-action man is entirely in on the joke). The casting is uniformly great: Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver, What Just Happened) plays a Bush-inspired Senator who is tough on immigration, while Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, Herbie: Fully Loaded) pokes fun at her public image as an oversexed and overdosing spoilt brat. Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, The Killer Inside Me) rocks a gun, an ‘Immigration and Customs’ officer’s badge and a deadly pair of black heels as she tries to restore order. Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, Fast & Furious) ignites as the revolution-inspiring Shè, a bikini clad freedom fighter complete with an eye patch. The tale of one man’s revenge quickly borderlines a racial war, with Machete the man transcending into something much more powerful: Machete the myth.
Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis share directing duties, adding extra spice to their politically-fuelled story with an onslaught of original action sequences that showcase their flair for over-the-top violence – Machete does not discriminate, decommissioning the likes of gangsters, corrupt politicians and trigger-happy border patrol officers without hesitation. Alvaro Rodriguez, Robert’s cousin, contributed to the screenplay and, always a highlight of all Rodriguez films, the score is once again by Rodriguez’s band Chigon, who get better with every film they contribute to. Touching back on the B-Movie exploitation style of the 1970s, there is enough firepower and nudity in equal measure that even blaxploitation star Pam Grier would blush, while the grainy, colour-washed cinematography is used in all the right places.
Excessively violent and gleefully ridiculous, Machete knows exactly how to be exploitative. But it’s not without a point; the film doubles as biting political satire, blatantly critiquing the new immigration laws recently passed in some US border states. As a result, Machete has more brains than most movies out this year, even if a good portion of them are splattered across the pavement.
