Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Chicanos With Moolah Doing Everything They Can With Their SuperPowers to Ingrain Specific "Mexican" Stereotypes



I am a huge fan of Tarantino and Rodriguez--but you've got to admit that the subversive agit prop semiotics of the original Spy Kids is not fueling his cinematic furnace these days! I know, color me pedantic Mother Superior, but you KNOW I have a point! At some point, faced with the pleasure of making cinema and the responsibility that comes with having been tapped as an outpost of Chicano-ness in Lala-land, you've got to find a way to make it work--elsewise, Robert Rodriguez becomes like Richard Rodriguez in Hunger of Memory, the scene where he, in a scene of academic/existential malpractice, counsels Chicano undergraduates AWAY from academe. Ok, it's not really the same thing, but close. That piece is archived here. Meanwhile, Robert's got lots of other things on his mind as he conjures the bloody contours of Machete.

2 comments:

  1. OK, it is stereotypical, but I am so glad that Trejo is finally getting a lead role.

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  2. What would be the agitprop semantics of Machete? If that flick is going to be anything like the trailer of it that was in Grindhouse, then I can't help but assume it will be another exploration of ridiculous very much like Planet Terror (therefore it will be awesome.)

    Could it be that Mexican people are big fans of machetes?

    Or, will this be an extension of the common western movie motif of the lawlessness of Mexico?

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