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Review: ‘Machete’
If you take immigration politics, religion or the sanctity of fictional human life too seriously, you will probably want to stay away from “Machete.” But if you like over-the-top action, blood by the bucketful, unapologetic B-movie homage and satirization of sensitive and nuanced political issues, Robert Rodriguez’s latest film will leave your head spinning with grindhouse glee.
Although `Machete’ was ostensibly born from the fake trailer in Rodriguez and pal Quentin Tarantino’s `Grindhouse,’ the director had long wanted to make a sort of Mexican action hero of the titular character played by Danny Trejo. At the beginning of the film, as Machete stoically sets out on a mission to save a damsel in distress, it is clear the craggy-face Mexican Federale knows his heroic place in Rodriguez’s world.
“If not us, then who?” he asks as he walks unflinchingly into a torrent of bullets.
Despite, or maybe because of, his best efforts, Machete is double-crossed on his mission by a Mexican drug cartel leader (played to hilarious effect by Steven Seagal, whose accent wavers more than his commitment). After seeing his wife and daughter slaughtered, Machete narrowly escapes, reappearing years later as a day laborer in what locals will easily recognize as Austin.
Much like Rodriguez once he finally fleshed out his original trailer, Machete finds himself in a hostile political environment stoked by anti-immigration fears and impassioned resentments.
Although doing his best to stay off the radar of the feds and the drug kingpins, our hero ends up in trouble, with more backstabbing - literally or metaphorically.
After he reluctantly takes a large cash payment to assassinate right-wing state Sen. McLaughlin (Robert De Niro dipping into his “Cape Fear” accent and obviously relishing his irony-drenched role), Machete finds himself betrayed again. This time, he has been made a patsy by crooks on both sides of the border who are conspiring to keep McLaughlin and his immigrant-bashing policies in office.
Hunted by law enforcement officials (a robotic but somehow still sexy Jessica Alba) and the criminals who would like to finally silence him, Machete goes on the run, aided and abetted by an underground network run by a woman named Luz, aka Shé (Michelle Rodriguez playing a cross between Che Guevera and Subcomandante Marcos with an eye patch and killer body).
As he tries to clear his name and seek revenge against those who set him up, Machete goes on a blood-thirsty rampage that would make ’70s exploitation filmmakers blush. Heads roll as we follow Machete’s war path, examined in grotesque, tight close-ups and jarring quick cuts, extreme low angle shots popping up as quickly as rounds of bullets are popped off.
Along the way Rodriguez introduces us to an absurdly rich cast - Lindsay Lohan playing a slightly fictionalized version of her public persona of an oversexed, addled adolescent, Jeff Fahey as The Most Interesting Henchman in the World, Don Johnson as an evil militia man and Cheech Marin as a dope-smoking, machine-gun-wielding priest.
It’s almost too much to digest, but fortunately the film does not give you the time to chew, it just continues to force-feed you with oversaturated morsels of gam-wrapped gunplay and gore. All the action and stereotyping kneecap the overtly political film to keep it from getting too high on the soapbox.
Though its heart seems definitely on the pro-immigration side of the fence - scenes of immigrant workers humbly putting in an honest day’s work speak to their humanity and quiet dignity that is often lost in the political debate - Rodriguez does not spend too much time sermonizing.
If there is an outright political message to be pulled from the bloody mess and cleansed for closer examination, it seems to be that dishonesty lurks everywhere and motivations can often be malleable and fluid as villains of all stripes thirst for power over honor.
But this is not intended to be an exercise in crafting policy or changing hearts and minds. It’s an experiment in a guilty, retro pleasure on which Rodriguez has as tight a grasp as Machete does on any number of pointed objects he uses throughout a movie that aspires to make him the first Mexican superhero.
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