'Machete's' timely tale to become a political pinata? (THR)
By Nancy Tartaglione
Robert Rodriguez' new grindhouse feature "Machete," about a former federale who gets mixed up in a messy conspiracy on the US side of the border, is rather a timely tale -- taking place as it does amid the highly-charged immigration debate and on the heels of Arizona's controversial anti-illegal immigration legislation. Given the scenario, The Hollywood Reporter estimates it could become "a political pinata."
As THR notes:
Crooked politicians, powerful drug kingpins, malicious border vigilantes, antsy day laborers, conflicted customs agents and angry revolutionaries seethe along the US-Mexico border in Rodriguez's film. In real life, confusion and violence have peppered both sides of the line.
Rodriguez told the trade: "It feels like this movie couldn't have come at a more perfect time even though we came up with it a long time ago."
"I think Arizona is going to like this movie," Danny Trejo, who stars as Machete, told THR. "It doesn't just deal with the guy who comes over the border to support his family; it deals with the corruption on both sides -- the drug dealers, the guys who are getting paid to bring people here and the politicians who, any time they need a good platform, choose immigration. So the feds may now really do something."
There's already been a stir over the film -- a trailer released on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) drew criticism from various outlets for a tacked-on introduction where Trejo, in character, says "This is Machete with a special Cinco de Mayo message...to Arizona."
As over-the-top as the movie is, says THR, Rodriguez and his co-writer cousin, Alvaro Rodriguez, load the script with such call-to-arms lines as "We didn't cross the border -- the border crossed us!" and "The system is broken. So we built our own." The senator played by Robert De Niro barks at a campaign stop, "Make no mistake, we are at war."
At the same time, the movie has fun with cultural cliches attached to Chicano culture while still being suffused with Mexican pride, THR says.
At the end of the day, however, controversy could help "Machete" -- a low-budget B-movie without superheroes and with a lot of nudity, profanity and gore -- at the box office, THR opines.Indeed, whether it upsets the patriots, Latino-American groups, the right-wingers or just plain everyone, the upshot could support the Fox release in theaters when it opens next month, says the trade.
"I think the movie is someone's personal agenda," Shannon McGauley, president of the Texas Minutemen, self-appointed immigration-law enforcers, told THR. "But it seems interesting. If you don't have a sense of humor, no matter what side you're on, it probably makes you a boring person. I imagine that a lot of people who complained will be the first ones to buy a ticket."
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