MACHETE
They Just F**ked with the Wrong Mexican
MACHETE Comes to the Big Screen
By Beth Accomando
In 2007, the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse opened with a faux trailer for a film called Machete. The announcer proclaimed, “If you’re going to hire Machete to kill the bad guy, you’d better make damn sure the bad guy isn’t you!” The trailer, with its 70s gritty exploitation sensibilities, set the tone for Grindhouse and immediately had audiences demanding to see the trailer turned into a real feature. And now, three years later, Machete is set to In September with Danny Trejo starring in the title role.
The film is a labor of love for Rodriguez who met Trejo in 1995 when he cast him in Desperado. “I remember when we were shooting Desperado and it was in a small Mexican town, people didn’t know who the star of the movie is but everyone would flock to Danny,” Rodriguez said as he introduced Trejo to the crowd at the Machete party off-site at Comic-Con.
“They thought he was the star,” Rodriguez added, “I would see the looks on people’s faces because he had this iconic face, this iconic look. This was before he was a star, before people knew who he was, and it has not changed. People everywhere just flock to Danny when they see him. So I always wanted that on the big screen. There’s a lot of love from other people he’s worked with. [Steven] Seagal killed him in a few movies of his. [Robert] DeNiro put a bullet in his head in Heat.”
“Everyone came to be a part of this movie to help Danny because Danny was finally going to be where he belonged, front and center.”
In the film, Trejo plays Machete, a Federale hired by some unsavory types to assassinate a senator. But his employers double cross him and that sets the revenge plot in motion. To help him even the score, he enlists the aid of an old friend played by Cheech Marin. But his friend is now a priest and reluctant to break his vow of nonviolence. Okay, maybe not that reluctant. Carnage ensues and Machete settles the score.
Trejo is joined on screen by some ass-kicking women most notably Michelle Rodriguez. She was also at the parking lot Machete party this past July. She thanked the director for the awesome opportunity to “live out that fantasy of just kicking ass and taking names.”
But Robert Rodriguez said, he was “raised by five sisters who beat the crap out of me. So strong women are part of my worldview.” And Michelle, sporting an eye patch in the movie, looks to be one strong woman.
The film looks like it will live up to its trailer and deliver a kick-ass action film in the 70s grindhouse tradition. So I know exactly where I’ll be on September 3… lined up for a midnight show of Machete.
