Synopsis

After years of wandering, a mysterious mariachi arrives in a Mexican border town carrying a guitar case packed with weapons. Seeking revenge for the murder of his lover, he is drawn into a violent campaign against Bucho, a powerful drug lord. With help from Carolina, a bookstore owner, the gunman battles assassins, old wounds, and a conspiracy that reaches closer to home than he expects.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is a sequel to *El Mariachi*, but Antonio Banderas took over the role of El Mariachi from Carlos Gallardo. Gallardo returns in a supporting role, and the earlier film's climactic confrontation was recreated as a flashback.

• The production budget was approximately $7 million, compared with the reported $7,000 budget of *El Mariachi*.

• Principal photography took place entirely in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, across the border from Del Rio, Texas.

• During production, Danny Trejo and Robert Rodriguez discovered that they are second cousins. Trejo subsequently became a regular presence in Rodriguez's films.

• Rodriguez avoided using a conventional second-unit crew. Among the production's reported cost-saving measures, a small number of stunt performers handled many of the film's falls and physical gags.

• The film's theatrical release followed cuts to some of its most graphic violence after an initial NC-17 rating. The effects used to depict bullet impacts were considered unusually realistic.

• *Desperado* screened out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and helped establish Salma Hayek as a major presence in American cinema.