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Low budget doesn't even begin to describe Robert Rodriguez's shoestring mariachi tale. This is guerilla filmmaking at its rawest and most inventive. Rodriguez uses every trick in the book (and probably invents a few along the way) to craft a lean, mean action machine. Think of it as a $7,000 film school, where a wheelchair becomes a dolly, and lighting continuity is a luxury. What it lacks in polish, it more than makes up for in sheer energy and ingenuity. It's a testament to what you can achieve with a camera, a dream, and a whole lot of chutzpah.

There's a raw, unpolished charm to it. The degraded film quality lends a silent-era slapstick feel, and the lack of synchronized sound almost makes you think you're watching an Italian Spaghetti Western.

A low-budget indie film made for $7,000, "El Mariachi" is, in every sense, Robert Rodriguez's one-man show. A cult classic, it's filmed with wild energy, featuring rapid-fire editing, comic book-style treatment, and Rodriguez's openly displayed penchant for the bizarre and darkly humorous.

That morning began like any other, devoid of love, luck, or a ride thumbed on the side of the road. [A good novel opening, this is :)]

RR made this film for $7,000, $3,000 of which he earned being a human guinea pig, testing new cholesterol-lowering drugs. He wrote most of the script during his 30 days confined to the lab. Mauricio was another "guinea pig." RR acted as producer, director, writer, and special effects artist, handling everything except acting, because then no one would be behind the camera. The actors were so amateur, their mouths would still twitch after they were "dead."