Robert Rodriguez Backpedals on His ‘Message to Arizona’

Amy de Miceli
No One Has to Die Tomorrow
May 24, 2010

Rodriguez is now labeling his Machete trailer a “fake” and excusing himself by calling it a “case of too much tequila”.

After weeks of being at the forefront of controversy over his ‘Cinco de Mayo Message to Arizona’, Robert Rodriguez is on the run.

Rodriguez is now labeling his Machete trailer a “fake” and excusing himself by calling it a “case of too much tequila”. His pathetic and arrogant backpedaling was posted on Ain’t it cool news, the same site that originally released the illegal Machete trailer. Here is a small sampling of his recent interview with Harry:

SOME PEOPLE WROTE IN THINKING THAT IT WAS FOR A MOVIE ABOUT A RACE WAR.

It isn’t. I would not put out a movie like that. Not only would that be irresponsible, it’d be dull and un-entertaining.

I simply wanted to make a special trailer that was as absurd as what was happening in Arizona. So I took some coincidentally timely lines of dialogue from the old original fake trailer from 3 years ago and from the new movie, reconfigured action beats, and cut it all out of context to make it look like the entire film was about Machete leading a revolt against anti-immigration politicians and border vigilantes. What can I say, it was Cinco de Mayo and I had too much tequila.

SO THE FILM’S NOT A RACIST FILM CALLING FOR REVOLUTION & VIOLENCE IN THE STREETS?

The movie is very over the top satirical, and it’s only because of what’s happened in Arizona that some scenes actually feel at all grounded in reality, which is pretty nuts and says more about Arizona than any fictional movie. I will admit that there were a few scenes that became so real in the past month because of what’s going on that they’ll be best left as a fascinating case study for the DVD extras. This will be my best DVD special features to date, that’s for sure.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Rodriguez claims that the movie has nothing to do with a race war, “Not only would that be irresponsible, it’d be dull and un-entertaining.” But the trailer is about a race war, and he purposefully directed it towards Arizona, while they are in the midst of controversy over a new law to round up and deport illegal immigrants. Calling it irresponsible is putting it mildly, and his unapologetic acknowledgment, (yet denial) of such behavior only reiterates his lack of respect for his audience. He is only trying to find a way out of the hole he has dug himself, while keeping his ego intact.

Rodriguez would like to prove that his trailer was a fake and prove all of us wrong, there is even talk about Machete re-shoots in Austin, Texas right now. However, that matters little if at all because the trailer was released and it had a sinister warning wrapped up for Americans in an entertaining package.

It looks as though Robert Rodriguez thought Americans would be too preoccupied by his masterful film making to notice that his racist propaganda piece calls for Mexicans to take up arms against them. What he does not realize yet is that this cannot be undone, not with the best editors or the most creative writers or the most talented actors. It matters not what the movie is to become, because the trailer said it all.

This article was posted: Monday, May 24, 2010 at 10:52 am

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