10 Films That Stick It To The Man

A modern day Mexploitation movie, Machete features all the elements found in the subgenre in the 60s and 70s: violence, drugs, sex and crime. There’s even a nod to the El Santo movies, with one of the villains wearing a luchador mask.

Movies with Mexican heroes and American villains are a rare breed but even though writer/director Robert Rodriguez touches on politics and makes several good points about the treatment of immigrants, Machete never pretends to be anything more than an outrageous exploitation movie.

That said, the plot is uncannily prescient: facing an uphill battle to be re-elected, a Texas Senator (who runs death squads that hunt and kill illegal immigrants) stages a fake assassination attempt, then uses his sudden upswing in popularity to campaign for an electrified border fence that will keep America safe….and allow him to control the drug trade.

What he doesn’t realize is that he’s f**ked with the wrong Mexican and that Machete (Danny Trejo) is a former federale who always gets his man. As the trailer informs us: “If you’re gonna hire Machete to kill the bad guy, you better make sure the bad guy isn’t you!”