Arrow Video has released Robert Rodriguez’s classic ‘Mexico Trilogy’ as a Blu-ray box set and we have a copy to give away to one lucky reader! Just read on and enter below…
A Tex-Mex tornado of fire and fury, writer-director Robert Rodriguez’s astonishing ‘Mexico Trilogy’ broke fresh new ground in American independent and action cinema, catapulting the filmmaker and his largely Hispanic cast and crew into the Hollywood stratosphere.
Rodriguez’s ingenious 1993 debut El Mariachi (infamously filmed for only $7000) sees a naive young musician entering a godforsaken border town and finding himself in the middle of a deadly case of mistaken identity. The major studio follow-up Desperado sees Antonio Banderas take up the mantle of the mysterious Mariachi, stalking the Mexican underworld with enough bullets up his sleeves for every bandito in his path. Finally, 2003’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico sees Rodriguez use every cutting-edge technological innovation at his disposal to bring the trilogy’s grand conclusion to the screen, as the Mariachi finds himself in the centre of a bloody war for the soul of Mexico itself.
Fun, fast and full of invention and inspiration, this deadly trio cemented Robert Rodriguez’s reputation as an action auteur worth following, and are accompanied here by insightful new interviews with the director and his crew of collaborators.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all three films
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of Desperado
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Carlos Aguilar and Nicholas Clement
• Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
• Collectable poster featuring Robert Rodriguez’s original poster concept for El Mariachi
DISC 1 – EL MARIACHI (BLU-RAY)
- Original uncompressed Latin-American Spanish stereo audio, plus an English dub in lossless stereo
• Optional English subtitles, plus English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Commentary by writer-director Robert Rodriguez
• Big Vision Low Budget, a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez
• The Original Mariachi, a newly filmed interview with producer/star Carlos Gallardo
• The Music of ‘El Mariachi’, a newly produced featurette on the music in the film, featuring interviews with composers Eric Guthrie, Chris Knudson, Alvaro Rodriguez and Marc Trujillo
• Ten Minute Film School, an archive featurette produced and narrated by Rodriguez
• Bedhead, a 1991 short film by Rodriguez
• Theatrical trailer and TV spot
DISCS 2 & 3 – DESPERADO (BLU-RAY / 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
- New 4K restoration from the original camera negative by Sony Pictures
• Original uncompressed stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Audio commentary by writer-director Robert Rodriguez
• Lean and Mean, a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez
• Shoot Like Crazy, a newly filmed interview with producer Bill Borden
• Kill Count, a newly filmed interview with stunt coordinator Steve Davison
• Lock and Load, a newly filmed interview with special effects coordinator Bob Shelley
• Game Changer, a newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Gareth Evans (The Raid)
• Ten More Minutes: Anatomy of a Shootout, an archive featurette narrated by Rodriguez
• Textless opening (“Morena de mi Corazón”)
• Theatrical trailers
DISC 4 – ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (BLU-RAY)
- Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Commentary by writer-director Robert Rodriguez
• The Revolution Will Be Digitized, a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez
• Troublemakin’, a newly filmed interview with visual effects editor Ethan Maniquis
• Eight deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Rodriguez
• Ten Minute Flick School, an archive featurette narrated by Rodriguez
• Inside Troublemaker Studios, an archive featurette on Rodriguez’s studio in Austin
• Ten Minute Cooking School, an archive featurette in which Rodriguez shows you how to cook Puerco Pibil
• Film is Dead: An Evening with Robert Rodriguez, a presentation by the director given in 2003
• The Anti-Hero’s Journey, an archive featurette on the arc of the Mariachi
• The Good, the Bad and the Bloody: Inside KNB FX, an archive featurette on the film’s special effects
• Theatrical trailers
Robert Rodriguez’s The Mexico Trilogy: El Mariachi, Desperado, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico is out now on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. Buy it here.
