Robert Rodriguez is a filmmaker with an incredibly eclectic filmography. Sometimes he’ll do a big-budget sci-fi film, such as “Alita: Battle Angel,” but then he might go and make a new ‘Spy Kids’ film with his kids. Perhaps he’s best known for films like violent action films like “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “Desperado,” or even “Machete.” So, what happens when a filmmaker who is no stranger to heaping amounts of gun violence decides he doesn’t want to do that sort of thing anymore?
In a new interview with The Wrap, while promoting his ‘Spy Kids’ reboot film on Netflix, Robert Rodriguez was asked a simple question—Is there a film or franchise from your past that you’d like to revisit? Again, this is a guy who is willing to do a sequel from time to time. Well, interestingly, Rodriguez did have an answer, but it’s more complicated than you might think. For the filmmaker, he’d like to go back to his ‘Desperado’ franchise (which also includes “El Mariachi” and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.” There’s only one problem—he doesn’t want to glorify gun violence anymore.
“I would love to revisit the ‘Desperado’ series,” Rodriguez said. “I thought it was way ahead of its time. It’s really hard to do today, for me, anything with guns. Gun violence has gotten out of control. Even those are very tongue-in-cheek and kind of fun. It’s just hard to do.”
He continued, “There’s always some terrible shooting and you just go, I don’t know if I can responsibly do anything with guns. I really love those films, they are so fun. They’re like ‘Spy Kids’ for grownups, with guitar cases that fired missiles and gadgets galore. It was still made by a kid. Still the glorification of it would be hard for me to pull off responsibly.”
Now, there is a huge debate going on in society today about gun violence. It’s one of the most hotly discussed topics in politics. And ultimately, the argument always comes back to pop culture. Does violence in films, TV series, video games, and other media promote the use of guns and glorify them? There’s no real easy answer. And there are filmmakers struggling to answer that themselves. Clearly, Rodriguez is struggling, as he would love to make silly violent action films, but he’s concerned about what that might do to society. And if he’s worried about that, can he make a new ‘Desperado’ film without a ton of gun violence?
It would appear it’s not as simple as his desire to continue that franchise. For film fans, the idea of a new ‘Desperado’ film would be exciting. But again, it’s been 20 years since “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and the debate surrounding guns has only gotten more contentious and complicated. We’ll just have to wait and see how this internal struggle shapes Rodriguez’s career moving forward.
