Robert Rodriguez(I)
- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas,
USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a
salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of
John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi
parable,
Escape from New York (1981),
none were as captivated as the 12-year-old Rodriguez, who sat with his
friends in a crowded cinema. Many people watch films and arrogantly
proclaim "I can do that." This young man said something different: "I
WILL do that. I'm gonna make movies." That day
was the catalyst of his dream career. Born and raised in Texas, Robert
was the middle child of a family that would include 10 children. While
many a child would easily succumb to a Jan Brady sense of being lost in
the shuffle, Robert always stood out as a very creative and very active
young man. An artist by nature, he was very rarely seen sans
pencil-in-hand doodling some abstract (yet astounding) dramatic feature
on a piece of paper. His mother, not a fan of the "dreary" cinema of
the 1970s, instills a sense of cinema in her children by taking them on
weekly trips to San Antonio's famed Olmos Theatre movie house and
treats them to a healthy dose of Hollywood's "Golden Age" wonders, from
Sergio Leone to the silent classic
of Charles Chaplin and
Buster Keaton.
In a short amount of time, young Robert finds the family's old Super-8
film camera and makes his first films. The genres are unlimited:
action, sci-fi, horror, drama, stop-motion animation. He uses props
from around the house, settings from around town, and makes use of the
largest cast and crew at his disposal: his family. At the end of the
decade, his father, a salesman, brings home the latest home-made
technological wonder: a VCR, and with it (as a gift from the
manufacturer) a video camera. With this new equipment at his disposal,
he makes movies his entire life. He screens the movies for friends, all
of whom desperately want to star in the next one. He gains a reputation
in the neighborhood as "the kid who makes movies". Rather than handing
in term papers, he is allowed to hand in "term movies" because, as he
himself explains, "[the teachers] knew I'd put more effort into a movie
than I ever would into an essay." He starts his own comic strip, "Los
Hooligans". His movies win every local film competition and festival.
When low academic grades threaten to keep him out of UT Austin's
renowned film department, he proves his worth the only way he knows
how: he makes a movie. Three, in fact: trilogy of short movies called
"Austin Stories" starring his siblings. It beats the entries of the
school's top students and allows Robert to enter the program. After
being accepted into the film department, Robert takes $400 of his own
money to make his "biggest" film yet: a 16mm short comedy/fantasy
called Bedhead (1991).
Pouring every idea and camera trick he knew into the short, it went on
to win multiple awards. After meeting and marrying fellow Austin
resident Elizabeth Avellan, Robert
comes up with a crazy idea: he will sell his body to science in order
to finance his first feature-length picture (a Mexican action adventure
about a guitarist with no name looking for work but getting caught up
in a shoot-'em-up adventure) that he will sell to the Spanish video
market and use as an entry point to a lucrative Hollywood career. With
his "guinea pig" money he raises a mere $7,000 and creates
El Mariachi (1992). But rather than
lingering in obscurity, the film finds its way to the Sundance film
festival where it becomes an instant favorite, wins Robert a
distribution deal with Columbia Pictures and turns him into an icon
among would-be film-makers the world over. Not one to rest on his
laurels, he immediately helms the straight-to-cable movie
Roadracers (1994) and
contributes a segment to the anthology comedy
Four Rooms (1995) (his will be the
most lauded segment).
His first "genuine" studio effort would soon have people referring to
him as "John Woo from
south-of-the-border". It is the "Mariachi" remake/sequel
Desperado (1995). More lavish and
action-packed than its own predecessor, the movie--while not a
blockbuster hit--does decent business and launches the
American film careers of
Antonio Banderas as the
guitarist-turned-gunslinger and Salma Hayek
as his love interest (the two would star in several of his movies from
then on). It also furthers the director's reputation of working on low
budgets to create big results. In the year when movies like
Batman Forever (1995) and
GoldenEye (1995) were pushing budgets
past the $100 million mark, Rodriguez brought in "Desperado" for just
under $7 million. The film also featured a cameo by fellow indie film
wunderkind, Quentin Tarantino. It
would be the beginning of a long friendship between the two sprinkled
with numerous collaborations. Most notable the Tarantino-penned vampire
schlock-fest
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).
The kitschy flick (about a pair of criminal brothers on the run from
the Texas Rangers, only to find themselves in a vamp-infested Mexican
bar) became an instant cult favorite and launched the lucrative film
career of ER (1994) star
George Clooney.
After a two-year break from directing (primarily to spend with his
family, but also developing story ideas and declining Hollywood offers)
he returned to "Dusk till Dawn" territory with the teen sci-fi/horror
movie The Faculty (1998), written by
Scream (1996) writer,
Kevin Williamson. Although it's
developed a small following of its own, it would prove to be Robert's
least-successful film. Critics and fans alike took issue with the
pedestrian script, the off-kilter casting and the flick's blatant
over-commercialization (due to a marketing deal with clothing designer
Tommy Hilfiger). After another three-year
break, Rodriguez returned to make his most successful (and most
unexpected) movie yet, based on his own segment from
Four Rooms (1995). After a string of
bloody, adult-oriented action fare, no one anticipated him to write and
direct the colorful and creative
Spy Kids (2001), a movie about a pair of
prepubescent Latino sibs who discover that their lame parents
(Antonio Banderas and
Carla Gugino) are actually two of the
world's greatest secret agents. The film was hit among both audiences
and critics alike.
After quitting the Writers' Guild of America and being introduced to
digital filmmaking by George Lucas,
Robert immediately applied the creative, flexible (and cost-effective)
technology to every one of his movies from then on, starting with an
immediate sequel to his family friendly hit:
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
which was THEN immediately followed by the trilogy-capper
Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003).
The latter would prove to be the most financially-lucrative of the
series and employ the long-banished movie gimmick of 3-D with
eye-popping results. Later the same year Rodriguez career came full
circle when he completed the final entry of the story that made brought
him to prominence: "El Mariachi". The last chapter,
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003),
would be his most direct homage to the
Sergio Leone westerns he grew up
on. With a cast boasting
Antonio Banderas (returning as the
gunslinging guitarist), Johnny Depp (as a
corrupt CIA agent attempting to manipulate him),
Salma Hayek,
Mickey Rourke,
Willem Dafoe and
Eva Mendes, the film delivered even more of
the Mexican
shoot-'em-up spectacle than both of the previous films combined.
Now given his choice of movies to do next, Robert sought out famed comic book writer/artist Frank Miller,
a man who had been very vocal of never letting his works be adapted for
the screen. Even so, he was wholeheartedly convinced and elated when
Rodriguez presented him with a plan to turn Miller's signature work
into the film Sin City (2005). A
collection of noir-ish tales set in a fictional, crime-ridden slum, the
movie boasted the largest cast Rodriguez had worked with to that date.
Saying he didn't want to mere "adapt" Miller's comics but "translate"
them, Rodriguez' insistence that Miller co-direct the movie lead to
Robert's resignation from the Director's Guild of America (and his
subsequent dismissal from the film
John Carter (2012) as a result). Many
critics cited that Sin City was
created as a pure film noir piece to adapt Miller's comics onto the
screen. Co-directing with Frank Miller and bringing in Quentin Tarantino to guest-direct a scene allowed Rodriguez to again shock
Hollywood with his talent.
In late 2007, Rodriguez again teamed up with his friend Tarantino to
create the double feature Grindhouse (2007). Rodriguez's
offering, Planet Terror (2007), was a film
made to be "hardcore, extreme, sex-fueled, action-packed." Rodriguez flirts with his passion to make a showy film
exploiting all of his experience to make an extremely entertaining
thrill ride. The film is encompassed around Cherry
(Rose McGowan), a reluctant go-go
dancer who is found wanting when she meets her ex-lover El Wray (played
by Freddy Rodríguez) who turns
up at a local BBQ grill. They then, after a turn of events, find
themselves fending off brain-eating zombies whilst trying to flee to
Mexico (here we go off to Mexico again). Apart from directing,
Rodriguez also involves himself in camera work, editing and composing
music for his movies' sound tracks (he composed Planet Terror's main theme).
He also shoots a lot of his own action scenes to get a direct idea from
his eye as the director into the film. In
El Mariachi (1992), Rodriguez spent
hours in front of a pay-to-use, computer editing his film. This allowed
him to capture the ideal footage exactly as he wanted it. Away from the
filming aspect of Hollywood, Rodriguez is an expert chef who cooks
gourmet meals for the cast and crew. Rodriguez is also known for his
ability to turn a low-budgeted film with a small crew into an example
of film mastery. El mariachi
was "the movie made on seven grand" and still managed to rank as one of
Rodriguez' best films (receiving a rating of 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes
film review site).
Because Rodriguez is involved so deeply in his films, he is able to
capture what he wants first time, which saves both time and money.
Rodriguez's films share some similar threads and ideas, whilst also
having differences. In
El Mariachi (1992), he uses a
hand-held camera. He made this decision for several reasons. First, he
couldn't afford a tripod and secondly, he wanted to make the audience
more aware of the action. In the action sequences he is given more
mobility with a hand-held camera and also allows for distortion of the
unprofessional action sequences (because the cost of all special
effects in the film totaled $600). However, in
Sin City (2005) and
Planet Terror (2007), the budget
was much greater, and Rodriguez could afford to spend more on special
affects (especially since both films were filmed predominately with
green screen) and, thus, there was no need to cover for error.
Playing by his own rules or not at all, Robert Rodriguez has redefined
what a filmmaker can or cannot do. Shunning Hollywood's
ridiculously high budgets, multi-picture deals and the two most
powerful unions for the sake of maintaining creative freedom are
decisions that would (and have) cost many directors their careers.
Rodriguez has turned these into his strengths, creating some of the
most imaginative works the big-screen has ever seen.
USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a
salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of
John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi
parable,
Escape from New York (1981),
none were as captivated as the 12-year-old Rodriguez, who sat with his
friends in a crowded cinema. Many people watch films and arrogantly
proclaim "I can do that." This young man said something different: "I
WILL do that. I'm gonna make movies." That day
was the catalyst of his dream career. Born and raised in Texas, Robert
was the middle child of a family that would include 10 children. While
many a child would easily succumb to a Jan Brady sense of being lost in
the shuffle, Robert always stood out as a very creative and very active
young man. An artist by nature, he was very rarely seen sans
pencil-in-hand doodling some abstract (yet astounding) dramatic feature
on a piece of paper. His mother, not a fan of the "dreary" cinema of
the 1970s, instills a sense of cinema in her children by taking them on
weekly trips to San Antonio's famed Olmos Theatre movie house and
treats them to a healthy dose of Hollywood's "Golden Age" wonders, from
Sergio Leone to the silent classic
of Charles Chaplin and
Buster Keaton.
In a short amount of time, young Robert finds the family's old Super-8
film camera and makes his first films. The genres are unlimited:
action, sci-fi, horror, drama, stop-motion animation. He uses props
from around the house, settings from around town, and makes use of the
largest cast and crew at his disposal: his family. At the end of the
decade, his father, a salesman, brings home the latest home-made
technological wonder: a VCR, and with it (as a gift from the
manufacturer) a video camera. With this new equipment at his disposal,
he makes movies his entire life. He screens the movies for friends, all
of whom desperately want to star in the next one. He gains a reputation
in the neighborhood as "the kid who makes movies". Rather than handing
in term papers, he is allowed to hand in "term movies" because, as he
himself explains, "[the teachers] knew I'd put more effort into a movie
than I ever would into an essay." He starts his own comic strip, "Los
Hooligans". His movies win every local film competition and festival.
When low academic grades threaten to keep him out of UT Austin's
renowned film department, he proves his worth the only way he knows
how: he makes a movie. Three, in fact: trilogy of short movies called
"Austin Stories" starring his siblings. It beats the entries of the
school's top students and allows Robert to enter the program. After
being accepted into the film department, Robert takes $400 of his own
money to make his "biggest" film yet: a 16mm short comedy/fantasy
called Bedhead (1991).
Pouring every idea and camera trick he knew into the short, it went on
to win multiple awards. After meeting and marrying fellow Austin
resident Elizabeth Avellan, Robert
comes up with a crazy idea: he will sell his body to science in order
to finance his first feature-length picture (a Mexican action adventure
about a guitarist with no name looking for work but getting caught up
in a shoot-'em-up adventure) that he will sell to the Spanish video
market and use as an entry point to a lucrative Hollywood career. With
his "guinea pig" money he raises a mere $7,000 and creates
El Mariachi (1992). But rather than
lingering in obscurity, the film finds its way to the Sundance film
festival where it becomes an instant favorite, wins Robert a
distribution deal with Columbia Pictures and turns him into an icon
among would-be film-makers the world over. Not one to rest on his
laurels, he immediately helms the straight-to-cable movie
Roadracers (1994) and
contributes a segment to the anthology comedy
Four Rooms (1995) (his will be the
most lauded segment).
His first "genuine" studio effort would soon have people referring to
him as "John Woo from
south-of-the-border". It is the "Mariachi" remake/sequel
Desperado (1995). More lavish and
action-packed than its own predecessor, the movie--while not a
blockbuster hit--does decent business and launches the
American film careers of
Antonio Banderas as the
guitarist-turned-gunslinger and Salma Hayek
as his love interest (the two would star in several of his movies from
then on). It also furthers the director's reputation of working on low
budgets to create big results. In the year when movies like
Batman Forever (1995) and
GoldenEye (1995) were pushing budgets
past the $100 million mark, Rodriguez brought in "Desperado" for just
under $7 million. The film also featured a cameo by fellow indie film
wunderkind, Quentin Tarantino. It
would be the beginning of a long friendship between the two sprinkled
with numerous collaborations. Most notable the Tarantino-penned vampire
schlock-fest
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).
The kitschy flick (about a pair of criminal brothers on the run from
the Texas Rangers, only to find themselves in a vamp-infested Mexican
bar) became an instant cult favorite and launched the lucrative film
career of ER (1994) star
George Clooney.
After a two-year break from directing (primarily to spend with his
family, but also developing story ideas and declining Hollywood offers)
he returned to "Dusk till Dawn" territory with the teen sci-fi/horror
movie The Faculty (1998), written by
Scream (1996) writer,
Kevin Williamson. Although it's
developed a small following of its own, it would prove to be Robert's
least-successful film. Critics and fans alike took issue with the
pedestrian script, the off-kilter casting and the flick's blatant
over-commercialization (due to a marketing deal with clothing designer
Tommy Hilfiger). After another three-year
break, Rodriguez returned to make his most successful (and most
unexpected) movie yet, based on his own segment from
Four Rooms (1995). After a string of
bloody, adult-oriented action fare, no one anticipated him to write and
direct the colorful and creative
Spy Kids (2001), a movie about a pair of
prepubescent Latino sibs who discover that their lame parents
(Antonio Banderas and
Carla Gugino) are actually two of the
world's greatest secret agents. The film was hit among both audiences
and critics alike.
After quitting the Writers' Guild of America and being introduced to
digital filmmaking by George Lucas,
Robert immediately applied the creative, flexible (and cost-effective)
technology to every one of his movies from then on, starting with an
immediate sequel to his family friendly hit:
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
which was THEN immediately followed by the trilogy-capper
Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003).
The latter would prove to be the most financially-lucrative of the
series and employ the long-banished movie gimmick of 3-D with
eye-popping results. Later the same year Rodriguez career came full
circle when he completed the final entry of the story that made brought
him to prominence: "El Mariachi". The last chapter,
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003),
would be his most direct homage to the
Sergio Leone westerns he grew up
on. With a cast boasting
Antonio Banderas (returning as the
gunslinging guitarist), Johnny Depp (as a
corrupt CIA agent attempting to manipulate him),
Salma Hayek,
Mickey Rourke,
Willem Dafoe and
Eva Mendes, the film delivered even more of
the Mexican
shoot-'em-up spectacle than both of the previous films combined.
Now given his choice of movies to do next, Robert sought out famed comic book writer/artist Frank Miller,
a man who had been very vocal of never letting his works be adapted for
the screen. Even so, he was wholeheartedly convinced and elated when
Rodriguez presented him with a plan to turn Miller's signature work
into the film Sin City (2005). A
collection of noir-ish tales set in a fictional, crime-ridden slum, the
movie boasted the largest cast Rodriguez had worked with to that date.
Saying he didn't want to mere "adapt" Miller's comics but "translate"
them, Rodriguez' insistence that Miller co-direct the movie lead to
Robert's resignation from the Director's Guild of America (and his
subsequent dismissal from the film
John Carter (2012) as a result). Many
critics cited that Sin City was
created as a pure film noir piece to adapt Miller's comics onto the
screen. Co-directing with Frank Miller and bringing in Quentin Tarantino to guest-direct a scene allowed Rodriguez to again shock
Hollywood with his talent.
In late 2007, Rodriguez again teamed up with his friend Tarantino to
create the double feature Grindhouse (2007). Rodriguez's
offering, Planet Terror (2007), was a film
made to be "hardcore, extreme, sex-fueled, action-packed." Rodriguez flirts with his passion to make a showy film
exploiting all of his experience to make an extremely entertaining
thrill ride. The film is encompassed around Cherry
(Rose McGowan), a reluctant go-go
dancer who is found wanting when she meets her ex-lover El Wray (played
by Freddy Rodríguez) who turns
up at a local BBQ grill. They then, after a turn of events, find
themselves fending off brain-eating zombies whilst trying to flee to
Mexico (here we go off to Mexico again). Apart from directing,
Rodriguez also involves himself in camera work, editing and composing
music for his movies' sound tracks (he composed Planet Terror's main theme).
He also shoots a lot of his own action scenes to get a direct idea from
his eye as the director into the film. In
El Mariachi (1992), Rodriguez spent
hours in front of a pay-to-use, computer editing his film. This allowed
him to capture the ideal footage exactly as he wanted it. Away from the
filming aspect of Hollywood, Rodriguez is an expert chef who cooks
gourmet meals for the cast and crew. Rodriguez is also known for his
ability to turn a low-budgeted film with a small crew into an example
of film mastery. El mariachi
was "the movie made on seven grand" and still managed to rank as one of
Rodriguez' best films (receiving a rating of 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes
film review site).
Because Rodriguez is involved so deeply in his films, he is able to
capture what he wants first time, which saves both time and money.
Rodriguez's films share some similar threads and ideas, whilst also
having differences. In
El Mariachi (1992), he uses a
hand-held camera. He made this decision for several reasons. First, he
couldn't afford a tripod and secondly, he wanted to make the audience
more aware of the action. In the action sequences he is given more
mobility with a hand-held camera and also allows for distortion of the
unprofessional action sequences (because the cost of all special
effects in the film totaled $600). However, in
Sin City (2005) and
Planet Terror (2007), the budget
was much greater, and Rodriguez could afford to spend more on special
affects (especially since both films were filmed predominately with
green screen) and, thus, there was no need to cover for error.
Playing by his own rules or not at all, Robert Rodriguez has redefined
what a filmmaker can or cannot do. Shunning Hollywood's
ridiculously high budgets, multi-picture deals and the two most
powerful unions for the sake of maintaining creative freedom are
decisions that would (and have) cost many directors their careers.
Rodriguez has turned these into his strengths, creating some of the
most imaginative works the big-screen has ever seen.