Writer and director Robert Rodriguez admits he couldn’t have asked for better timing for Machete, as it comes just months after Arizona passed its controversial immigration law.
“When you make an exploitation film you always want to have a real issue,” he says. “That’s how they were always done. Exploitation films were famous for taking an issue and exploiting it because they could move much faster than a studio. Any hot topic, they could run out and make a movie and make a buck on it.”
While immigration has always been a hot-button topic in Arizona, current events have raised the temperature on the situation.
“Just recently, this just became more relevant and just gave this movie another layer of entertainment,” he says.
“It’s done in a huge sense of fun. It’s supposed to make you feel, ‘Wow, some of this is really not far off the mark.’ Even though I tried to make it as much made up as possible, you couldn’t escape that reality is stranger than fiction.”
