The Message of “Machete”: Latino Violence is Sexy

Who would want to deport Mexican migrants when they are led by sexy, black-leather-clad revolutionaries?

by Richard Spencer

I was intrigued by the idea of writing a review of the race war-cum-slasher flick Machete, which I attended this past Labor Day weekend. (Don’t worry: Lest my money went to the men who made the film, I bought a ticket for the most wholesome, least culturally destructive movie I find, which in this case was Nanny McPhee Returns  starring Emma Thompson. The sleepy-eyed man taking tickets didn’t notice or care when I instead walked into the theater showing a movie that averages three gruesome deaths per minute.)

By the end of Machete, I felt like I could have reviewed the film without actually having to subject myself to it. Machete the movie amounts to little more than a 105-minute version of its notorious trailer — now viewed by tens of millions on YouTube — in which a Mexican day-laborer gets hired to make a hit on a senator, is double-crossed, exacts revenge from his tormentors, and inspires a sort violent Latino uprising in the process.

Director Robert Rodriguez originally made the trailer as a spoof in 2006; it ginned up enough interest online for him get the funding to reverse-engineer an entire film. In May of this year, he recast the project as “a special message — TO ARIZONA!” a reference to the recent passage of SB 1070.

Most translated Machete’s “special message” as Kill Whitey! Kill Whitey! Kill Whitey!

More

2010-09-07