El Mariachi – Literary Elements

1.0) What is the point of view of the movie?

2.0) What is the plot of the movie?

3.0) Describe the following characters using the Fox Character Analysis Pyramid which includes name/title, physical appearance, personality, character’s role, character’s problems/challenges, major accomplishments, cultural context, and world view.

Monomyth?

3.1) Carlos Gallardo as El Mariachi

3.2) Consuelo Gómez as Dominó

3.3) Peter Marquardt as Mauricio (a.k.a. Moco)

4.0) What are the themes of the movie?

5.0) What are some of the topics of the movie?

5.1) Drug Trafficking

Mexico’s Drug War

5.2) Corruption in Mexico

Mexico Corruption Spurs Increase In Illegal Immigration

Rank 103

http://www.transparency.org/country#MEX

Rank 85

http://www.transparency.org/country#THA

6.0) What is the setting of the movie? How important is the setting?

6.1) Mexican Border Town

Life in Zona Norte – Short Documentary – Cannes 2009

7.0) What is the genre of the movie?

7.1) “Mezcla” (Mix) of exploitation genres

7.2) Narcotraficante films of Mexico in the 80’s

7.3) Hong Kong action cinema

7.0) Does the movie have any cultural lessons?

8.1) Mariachi

“Historia del Mariachi Parte 1” [English Subtitles] – Mariachi Sol de Mexico

8.2) Latino stereotypes

The hero looks Latino but doesn’t act like the Latino stereotype! The villain looks gringo but doesn’t act like a stereotypic gringo but like a Latino stereotype. This role reversal alerts us to the fact that the director is going to have some fun with Latino stereotypes.

Latin American Stereotypes in the Media