Entertainment
Salma Hayek’s Sexy, R-Rated Action Classic Turned Its Cast Into Mega Stars
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
1995 is notable for being the year that Toy Story redefined animation, Apollo 13 reshaped history, and, well, Waterworld existed. It’s also the year that two of Hollywood’s sexiest stars broke through, but not in any of the blockbusters. Roberto Rodriguez’s Desperado, returning to Netflix after years away from the streaming service, turned the director into one of Hollywood’s hottest talents while his two leads, Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek, have been setting screens on fire for over 30 years and counting.
Antonio Banderas’ Bloody Revenge Path
Desperado is the sequel to Rodriguez’s debut, the extremely low-budget El Mariachi (shot for $7,500 only two years earlier), with Banderas taking over the role of the wandering Mexican out for revenge. Blaming the drug lord Bucho for the death of his love, El Mariachi massacres an entire bar of criminal underlings in a small, nondescript border town and happens to take refuge with the local bookstore owner, Carolina, played by Salma Hayek. The pairing immediately pays off with their chemistry melting the screen in between firefights so bloody and gruesome, the original cut was NC-17.
The plot is simple, but that’s not a bad thing. Desperado’s tale of revenge pays homage to classic spaghetti westerns with Rodriguez’s signature stylistic flair. By the time El Mariachi is back wandering the roads with his guitar case of weapons, you won’t care that there are no real twists or turns to the story. It’s fun, it’s bloody, and it both looks and feels like nothing else from 1995.
The World Was Not Ready For Banderas And Hayek
With a tiny fraction of the budget of Waterworld ($7 million versus $175 million), Rodriguez is able to make his stars pop off the screen. The opening sequence even includes Antonio Banderas playing his own guitar, singing, and bashing a robber in the head with the best el-kabong since Quick Draw McGraw. Banderas had already been featured in Philadelphia and Interview With The Vampire, but Desperado was his big breakthrough as an action star and a sex symbol.
Salma Hayek was already gaining popularity in Mexico when she signed on as Carolina. Desperado was her English-language breakthrough, followed a year later by a memorable dance sequence in Rodriguez’s follow-up, From Dusk Till Dawn. It’s rare for a low-budget film to launch a career these days. Desperado did one better and turned both of its leads and its director into stars.
No One Thought The Mexico Trilogy Would Lead To Spy Kids
The problem with Desperado is that it’s so over the top, so bloody, and so violent that it can be hard to watch. If you loved The Kingsman’s church fight, you owe it to yourself to see El Mariachi take down an entire bar of cartel members. You should also hunt down the third movie in the Mexico trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which is even bigger, though it lacks the charm of Desperado. Remember that while you’re watching Mariachi open his guitar case for the first time that Rodriguez would go on to cast his action lead as the dad in Spy Kids, which also includes a returning Danny Trejo (who plays two different characters in the Mexico trilogy).
Desperado is an action classic that launched its own wave of low-budget imitators in the 90s. Other filmmakers could duplicate the blood and guts, but no one could ever replace Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. Now you can catch both stars’ breakout performances on Netflix and remember back when $7 million got you an action classic and not a third of an episode of Stranger Things.
