Rebel Without a Crew, or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player

Alexia

Rating: really liked it
now that i'm a month from earning my bachelor's degree in film production here's how i would do it if i were to do it all over again:

1. take out a student loan, but use it to buy a camera instead of classes.

2. get the super maxed out netflix subscription that allows for 10 dvd's at a time. start from the silents and watch every important film anyone ever mentioned (and some bad ones for balance)

3. purchase 'rebel without a crew'. read it in two hours (it really is a fast read) and follow every word of advice rodriquez lays out. which essentially is to watch some movies, buy a camera, and get out there and shoot some movies.

his book is a quick read, to the point and more importantly it is incredibly useful information for any aspiring filmmaker. he broke all the rules, did everything his own way and still became a well-paid and better yet well respected filmmaker (that's if we don't count spy kids 3D or once upon a time in mexico).

even those who don't make movies, but like to watch the behind the scenes docs on the DVD extras will get a kick out of his smart-ass tone and rebel style.

Ian

Rating: really liked it
I was one of those people who was really taken by El Mariachi when I first saw it in the nineties. I actually much preferred it to its big budget remake, Desperado. Although it was clear to me straight away that the original had been low budget, to begin with I hadn’t realised it had initially been made for the astonishingly low sum of $7,000, albeit that Columbia Pictures spent considerably more on sprucing up the cinema version.

This book relates the remarkable story of the making of El Mariachi, as told through a diary kept by Rodriguez at the time. He wanted to be a filmmaker and decided the best way to learn was to make his own film, doing all the filming and production himself. He aimed to sell it to the Mexican home video market, hopefully for about $25,000, although he would have taken an offer of $10K. That’s where he set his budget - any less and he was in danger of losing money. He raised $3K for the film by volunteering for a month as a lab rat at a drug test facility. Whilst there, he made friends with another volunteer called Peter Marquardt, and persuaded him to play the part of the crime boss “Moco”. The character was meant to be an American who spoke bad Spanish, but Marquardt didn’t speak any Spanish at all. In one scene, Marquardt is seated and speaking into a phone held in his right hand but has his left hand cupped, as he was reading his lines from there. He is wearing sunglasses to hide the fact he is looking down to read. Rodriguez says Marquardt felt bad about doing the scene like that, but Rodriguez told him not to worry as only about 5 people would ever watch the movie.

I found the stories of improvisation in making the film to be the most entertaining part of the book. Rodriguez did his filming in Ciudad Acuña, on the Mexican side of the Coahuila-Texas border, and he benefited from the “relaxed” attitude of local law enforcement. The reference below to “Carlos” is to the lead actor, Carlos Gallardo.

"Carlos asked the Chief there at the jail if they have any machine guns. The Chief opened the drawer to his desk and there was a Mac-10. In another drawer was the extension barrel. We asked if we could shoot it outside with our blanks. They came outside with us and we shot a few blanks. Carlos said that we can get permission from the mayor to borrow a few guns, as long as the cops are around when we use them. Cool."

I don’t know about the US, but if you were an independent film maker in the UK, you would be as likely to travel to Mars as persuade the Police to let you borrow submachine guns.

The second part of the main text covers how the film got noticed by several big studios, and how Rodriguez eventually signed a deal with Columbia Pictures. Originally the plan had been just for him to remake the film with a proper budget, and Columbia bought the rights to the original just so they had control of that. Eventually though they decided to release El Mariachi itself. Rodriguez was mystified at this decision, describing the film as “my blow-off Spanish home video mexploitation flick”, and thought people would laugh at it.

There’s quite a lot of technical stuff in the second part, which would be of more interest to film makers. Because it’s a diary, there’s also quite a lot of banal information about what Rodriguez had for dinner, and so on. The book ends with a couple of appendices, one of which has the original script for the film.

It’s fairly clear from the book that Rodriguez has a high opinion of his abilities. Then again, he wouldn’t have made it in the film industry otherwise. A decent read for anyone interested in that industry or for those who, like myself, are just fans of El Mariachi.

Michael Finocchiaro

Rating: really liked it
There are fans of Roberto Rodriguez and there are detractors. The latter will point to Spy Kids (even if their kids love watching them) and Once Upon a Time in the West as proof that he sold out years ago. Personally to them I would point out Sin City (both 1 and 2) as proof that his ability to create visual effects that look like they are straight out of his vivid imagination is hard to surpass. This book of course talks about the legendary filming of El Mariachi which made Roberto a man with a reputation to contend with fellow UT film school friends Richard Linkletter (Boyhood!!! and A Waking Life) and the universally acclaimed Quentin Tarantino). The story of selling his own plasma and robbing dozens of McDonalds for their ketchup packets and filming a full-length movie for an astoundingly tiny budget of $7000 are the stuff of film legend - particularly for this renegede who loves to be involve in every piece of production end-to-end. This is a great read and again putting aside the controversy about what came later (even if one has a hard time stifling a laugh during even the most grotesque scenes of From Dusk to Dawn or Planet Terror or Machete), no one can deny Rodriguez' particular genius that led him from broke visionary to Hollywood insider based mostly on this book and this initial film.

da AL

Rating: really liked it
definitely fun & inspiring. what's happened to him since? rolling in dough & chillin'?...

Roland

Rating: really liked it
This is probably the most inspiring film I've read on going out and just making a film. Rodriguez doesn't want to hear your excuses: if you have access to a camera, ANY kind of camera, there's no reason why you can't go out and make a film. My favorite insight in this book is early on regarding screenplays. Basically, he says that everyone has to write a bunch of crappy screenplays until they get good at it; likewise, everyone has to make a bunch of crappy films until they get good at it. His decision was brilliant: as soon as your write your first crappy screenplay, film it as cheaply as possible, that way you start getting both out of the way. I love the "learn by doing" approach, and the fact that not having a tripod and just having a shaky, hand-held camera actually works well if you're doing an action film, since it makes the scenes more lively than if you kept the camera still. The wheeling and dealing stuff near the end of the diary got kind of repetitive, but it's a fantastic book and a must for film fans.

Leo Robertson

Rating: really liked it
Lovely

Dylan

Rating: really liked it
Brilliant. An amazing, creative, get it done story. Rodriguez is the man and an inspiration. It's impossible to read this and not feel creatively charged and challenged.

Eitan

Rating: really liked it
I originally bought this for an independent study in literature and film I did last year, but I only just got around to reading it through. Robert Rodriguez is certainly not the best director when it comes to impactful and meaningful films, but this book is a great look into how he made his first film. It’s meant to serve as inspiration for beginner filmmakers to simply go out and make movies, and it definitely achieves its goal. It intentionally stays away from “industry advice,” or how to make movies with any sort of budget or crew, which is a good mindset for any beginner filmmaker without any budget or crew. However, a considerable chunk of the book is devoted to the film festival circuit and the industry deals, which is a bit less inspirational/educational and more just somewhat entertaining.

Eidul Abdullah Shahrasti

Rating: really liked it
the most important & useful thing you need to be a filmmaker is "experience in movies" ,as opposed to "movie experience"...
and what is a movie, anyway? a completely creative endeavor. Anything you can do to get away from the things that aren't important,the better chance you have of being truly creative...
There's a million different ways to achieve the same result, so find what works for you & DO IT !!!!!

Jeremy LaLonde

Rating: really liked it
I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading - this was ridiculously inspiring, even for someone whose made several films. The advice is a bit dated, but aspiring filmmakers should have this on their must-read list.

Khairul Hezry

Rating: really liked it
Aspiring film makers who have made movies with smartphones probably have Rodriguez as an inspiration. He loves to talk about movie making and his dvd commentaries on El Mariachi and Desperado were basically classes on how to make movies with little to no money. This book are those commentaries in written form. Inspiring, honest and eye opening.

Mark

Rating: really liked it
In 1991, Robert Rodriguez was just another film fanatic who wanted to make his own feature-length movie. Unlike the bulk of people in the same situation, he actually did something about it - volunteering himself for medical trials to raise the funds, being his own crew, sorting out his cast and location and actually making a film. Then his $7,000 movie, intended as a test-run to be sold to Spanish-language direct-to-video, was picked up by Columbia Pictures and Rodriguez became “a Hollywood Player”. I remember reading about him in Premiere at the time (though it was long after this that I got a chance to see the film - in fact, I think I saw “Desperado” first) and being impressed both with his attitude and his story. When I was in London recently, on the Crusty Exterior get-together, I found the book in Skoobs and picked it up and I’m glad I did. A diary, from 8th March 1991 (the start of the project) to 26th February 1993 (as the film opens wide), this follows the “El Mariachi” saga all the way through - we experience the highs, lows and great fun of shooting, the frenzy from the studios and what happened next. Rodriguez is a good guide to the whole thing, as amazed as anyone - though full of self-belief - and not quite able to believe his luck (but constantly thinking about how he can help his large family with the funds he suddenly has access too). It helps that he has a great approach and knows his stuff (and what he doesn’t, he’s more than willing to learn) and has clearly put the work in (his previous short films had won various awards at film festivals). The Hollywood experience is dazzling - he’s unsure about his “little” movie being on the big screen (“It’s not that I fear failure. I just fear failure in front of other people.”) - and absurd at times, though the roots of his on-going friendship with Quentin Tarantino are clearly shown, as both film-makers approach each other with mutual respect. The book also includes “The Ten Minute Film School” (a sort-of ‘call to arms’ that could apply to someone working in any of the creatives fields, that’s really quite galvanising) and the full screenplay to “El Mariachi”, with some amusing annotations. Funny, well told (though a bit of judicious copy editing wouldn’t have gone amiss) and thoroughly enthralling, this is a great read for anyone creative who’s ever had a dream. Highly recommended.

Jay Lamm

Rating: really liked it
Robert Rodriguez is a fine example for what can be accomplished with a bit of talent and work ethic. This book is actually his published journal from the time he spent making his first feature-length film, El Mariachi.

It's a fascinating account of how one guy can make something happen. It's the whole "if you want something done right you have to do it yourself" thing. For those who don't know, El Mariachi was shot for just seven thousand dollars. How was he able to keep it so cheap? He pretty much did everything himself. He wrote the script while donating his body to science testing drugs. It was from these tests that he got the initial capital to begin filming. He acted not only as director but also as cinematographer, lighting crew, sound crew, ADR guy, subtitler, catering, etc. etc. You name it, he did. It's incredible.

The book then goes into detail about how El Mariachi blew up popularity and the enormous amount of work it took to take it from 16mm film to large screen format.
This isn't the standard "making of" account. If you need inspiration to get your own creative project off the ground, then you should probably check this out to spark your drive.

Josh

Rating: really liked it
I think I would give this book 2.5 stars really. Rodriguez definitely knows how to craft a story, whether it is in a film or this book laid out in diary form. It moves quickly, like the movie he describes making, but sometimes he goes a little too quickly, especially once he becomes enamored with Hollywood (he protests he isn't, but I think what he tells us about really shows that he is). One of the most frustrating parts is when Rodriguez tells us that Quentin Tarentino gives him some writing advice that really helps him, but doesn't tell US what it is.

But overall, if you can get past the gloss of a self-marketing whiz afraid to tell the details (this book is all forest and few if any trees), the book is fun. It's not going to help you make your own movie on the cheap, but it very likely will motivate you to want to. And that's a start.

Chris Russell

Rating: really liked it
Not sure why I didn't review this when I finished a couple months ago. As a fan of the Desperado movies it was fun to get this behind the scenes story. It was an easy read and a good story. Unlike many readers I'm not a film student so all that didn't carry as much fascination to me.
It's a classic Horatio Alger - rags to riches story - through hard work and unflagging focus on a goal he gets the big dream, happy ending. I liked the "read-my -journal" format and this speaks to the value of journaling if nothing else. You can see Robert crafting his own narrative in the background as he goes through the journey. I don't buy all the "aww-shucks-poor-country-boy" stuff. He knew what he wanted. He worked tirelessly and sacrificed for it.
It's a great example of a growth mindset in action.
The American Dream.
Chris Russell - September 2017