Pre-Order The Mexico Trilogy: El Mariachi, Desperado & Once Upon A Time In Mexico (1992-2003) (4k UHD) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

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Amazon.com

 

[Robert Harris]

Always nice to have more Leone.

 

[Robert Crawford]

There is some confusion about this release. According to Arrow's site, only Desperado is in 4K/Dolby Vision while the other two films are in 1080p.

The Mexico Trilogy: El Mariachi, Desperado & Once Upon a Time in Mexico Limited Edition 4K UHD + Blu-ray

Buy The Mexico Trilogy: El Mariachi, Desperado & Once Upon a Time in Mexico Limited Edition 4K UHD + Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

www.arrowvideo.com

 

[tenia]

That's indeed the case : El Mariachi and Mexico will only be released on Blu-ray, while Desperado will also be getting a 4K disc (and a simultaneous standalone release).

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's indeed the case : El Mariachi and Mexico will only be released on Blu-ray, while Desperado will also be getting a 4K disc (and a simultaneous standalone release).

Last week, I preordered the single Desperado 4K/UHD. I did the same with Silence of the Lambs.

 

[tenia]

I don't really dislike the other 2 movies, but I think Desperado clearly is the most interesting movie within all 3 and will probably also only get the standalone.

 

[JoshZ]

There's been a lot of complaining on social media about this set only having one 4K disc. However, that was a very pragmatic decision on Arrow's part. Desperado is the only of these movies with actual 4K potential.

El Mariachi was shot on 16mm with a budget of less than $8,000 (yes, thousand). Not even good 16mm, but whatever scrap odds-and-ends stock left over from other student films that Rodriguez could wrangle together. The photography is very soft, flat, grainy, and has nowhere near 4K worth of detail on the negative (likely well below 2K), nor anything that would benefit from HDR. A 4K disc would only serve to over-emphasize the grain even more than Blu-ray already does.

Meanwhile, Once Upon a Time in Mexico was shot in 1080p HDCAM with early digital cameras and looked very smeary, video-ish, and downright awful in the theater. I doubt those cameras were capable of anything we would classify as HDR or Wide Color Gamut, either.

Desperado is the only 35mm production of the trilogy, and has by far the best photography and production values.

I'm fine with this decision Arrow has made, and even happier that they're issuing a standalone copy of Desperado on its own, since I already have El Mariachi on Blu-ray, and ...in Mexico frankly stinks as a movie altogether.

 

[Robert Crawford]

There's been a lot of complaining on social media about this set only having one 4K disc. However, that was a very pragmatic decision on Arrow's part. Desperado is the only of these movies with actual 4K potential.

El Mariachi was shot on 16mm with a budget of less than $8,000 (yes, thousand). Not even good 16mm, but whatever scrap odds-and-ends stock left over from other student films that Rodriguez could wrangle together. The photography is very soft, flat, grainy, and has nowhere near 4K worth of detail on the negative (likely well below 2K), nor anything that would benefit from HDR. A 4K disc would only serve to over-emphasize the grain even more than Blu-ray already does.

Meanwhile, Once Upon a Time in Mexico was shot in 1080p HDCAM with early digital cameras and looked very smeary, video-ish, and downright awful in the theater. I doubt those cameras were capable of anything we would classify as HDR or Wide Color Gamut, either.

Desperado is the only 35mm production of the trilogy, and has by far the best photography and production values.

I'm fine with this decision Arrow has made, and even happier that they're issuing a standalone copy of Desperado on its own, since I already have El Mariachi on Blu-ray, and ...in Mexico frankly stinks as a movie altogether.

I agree with everything in your post especially your last paragraph. I dislike the third movie.