Geekscape Reviews Machete On Blu-Ray!
There are two things that Jonathan London and I seem to talk about more than anything these days: How I could possibly like Tron Legacy when I criticize it so much, and how I could possibly like Machete when Jonathan London criticizes it so much. They’re both flawed films but I see the good in them. Also, Jonathan’s a dick. Machete just came out on Blu-Ray from Fox Home Entertainment last week, and I would have reviewed it then but Jonathan, Brian Walton and Georg and I were out in Vegas covering CES and AEE for all you lovely people. So now I’m playing catch up. If it’s any consolation I didn’t have that much fun.
Well, okay… except…
Well, okay… I had fun.
Anyhoo, in my original review of Machete for The California Literary Review, I wrote that “it’s a pleasant surprise to find that this supposedly brainless piece of mainstream entertainment has something on its mind other than Lindsay Lohan’s breasts, Jessica Alba’s ass and Michelle Rodriguez’s abdominal muscles.” Rewatching it confirms that Machete is perhaps Rodriguez’s most ambitious film, reinventing the 1980’s male power fantasy by placing it in new contexts, politically and sociologically. Say what you will about movies like Commando, Cobra and Out For Justice, but they were generally about white experiences, or at least subcultures that are often considered “white” like Italian-Americans. They too had topical issues on their minds but things like CIA conspiracies, drug trafficking and Cold War paranoia are a little old hat now. And frankly these plot points usually weren’t so much “themes” as excuses for the action. With a few exceptions from the likes of Paul Verhoeven and John McTiernan, the 80’s action mold didn’t usually present many unique notions nor did they tend to examine familiar ones in much depth. Machete’s different. Maybe not entirely successful, but impressively different.
Danny Trejo stars as Machete, an ex-Federale now living as a daylaborer in Texas. He’s the world’s biggest badass, but somehow the world beat him down. (Steven Seagal was involved. ‘Nuff said.) It takes a clandestine offer from Jeff Fahey – with his best material in God only knows how long – to give him the adversity needed to once again rise to greatness. Machete is offered $150,000 to assassinate Senator McLaughlin, an anti-immigration zealot who spends his free time with a vigilante group, personally killing illegal immigrants as they cross the border. Machete accepts the job with no intention of fully carrying it out, but soon becomes a patsy: the assassination was a set-up to turn McLaughlin into a martyr, and now Machete is Public Enemy #1.
Machete doesn’t break new ground for Rodriguez: his “You Can’t Look Trashy Till You Spend A Lot Of Money” filmmaking style returns with a vengeance, with intentional continuity errors and cheesy special effects dominating many scenes. He also indulges in his cloying habit of cluttering movies with supporting characters, many of which are merely glorified cameos for Rodriguez regulars like Daryl Sabara and “The Babysitter Twins” Electra and Elise Avellan. This kind of thing backfired considerably in the messy Once Upon A Time In Mexico, but here he manages to remain focused throughout most of the film. Perhaps having an actual point – blunt though it may be (immigrants are people too, etc.) – gave these roles a sense of purpose. They all revolve around the story rather than merely pad it. (Sabara plays an adopted chollo in an amusing marriage of “how do I give him a part in this film” and genuine ethnic inclusiveness.) Or maybe co-directing with his editor Ethan Maniquis was simply good for him. This was Maniquis’s first credited directorial effort so it’s difficult to determine what exactly he brought to the film, but whatever it is apparently worked like gangbusters.
Machete makes no effort to solve any of the problems it addresses. This isn’t Salt of the Earth. This is a cathartic piece of outlandish ultraviolence in which the people who piss off the target audience – no longer the Russians or corrupt politicians of the 1980’s but the conservatives and… well, the corrupt politicians of the 2000’s – are punished for the sins. Preferably explosively, and if possible with on the nose irony. It’s a very fun film. It deserves credit for having a little narrative ambition. I called it The Most Kick-Ass Movie of 2010 and even name-checked it as one of the Best Films of 2010, albeit in a tie for 10th place with a host of other B-Movies that elevated their game while the A-Movies for the most part phoned the rest of the year in. I highly recommend it.
The Blu-Ray, in contrast, is a little disappointing. Rodriguez was one of the directors who originally embraced the Special Features market on DVD, filling his discs to the brim with added content like how to make your own movies, commentary tracks, documentaries and more. Machete doesn’t get nearly as much love. The film looks and sounds great, but the added content is limited to some deleted scenes and an “Audience Reaction Track.” The deleted scenes are actually really interesting, I have to admit. Many deleted scenes these days are merely longer versions of ones that actually made it into the film, or character and plot moments that seemed redundant after production was finished. Machete’s deleted scenes included a variety of characters and one whole subplot that was cut from the finished product. An extra bounty hunter played by Rose McGowan and a slutty twin sister played by Jessica Alba were both excised completely. It’s easy to see why: they contributed nothing to the film. But it’s enough content to be of interest to anyone who even somewhat enjoyed the movie.
The Audience Reaction Track, however, is genuinely insulting. It’s exactly what it sounds like: You watch the movie and listen to a large audience hooting and hollering throughout the experience. It has the same effect as a Laugh Track, telling you when to enjoy what you’re watching. Machete is good enough to make this sort of thing clear on its own, but apparently somebody in charge thinks the movie sucks in the home environment. They think that without a gaggle of idiots reacting annoyingly to the jokes, sexuality and violence on display you won’t be able to enjoy it by yourself. A well-made movie – like Machete, incidentally – actually inspires you to make those noises yourself. This Special Feature is a declaration of “No Confidence” in their own film and deserves to die as horribly as any of the most bastardly characters within this film.
The Machete Blu-Ray also promises some Behind The Scenes content on BD-Live, but I’m a pretty tech-savvy guy and I couldn’t get the update to download properly. My Blu-Ray player itself is 100% up-to-date, but I guess Machete is just so badass that it deserves its own specific update… which doesn’t work. Oh well.
Machete is an excellent film, no matter what Jonathan says. It may not be one for the ages (or maybe it is) but fans of action cinema should see it for themselves to determine if it’s just plain fun or actually worthwhile as an artistic expression. I lean towards the latter. Machete is on Blu-Ray now and while the movie itself is strongly recommended, the actual Blu-Ray squeaks by with a “B-.”
