Movie Review: 'Desperado' (1995)

Written, produced, edited, and directed by Robert Rodriguez, this propulsive rock & roll spaghetti Western is both a sequel to and an expansion of his $7,000 south-of-the-border shoot-'em-up, El Mariachi, this time with an even more outrageous body count. The plot has all the sophistication of a dime-store novel cover, but in Desperado the gunplay is the story. The characters use their bullets like words, as an instant communiqué of rage and will. The camera loves Banderas — a velvet stud — as much as it did the young Clint Eastwood. B