El Mariachi gave special mention to director Robert Rodriguez and his ability to merge two separate genres of films—"the narcotraficante film, a Mexican police genre, and the transnational warrior-action film, itself rooted in Hollywood Westerns"—successfully "despite the constraints of a shoestring budget." The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: El Mariachi El Mariachi is a 1992 American contemporary western action film and the first installment in the saga that came to be known as Robert Rodriguez's "Mexico Trilogy". It marked the feature length debut of Rodriguez as writer and director. The Spanish language film was shot with a
El Mariachi a 73 out of 100 rating based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". "El Mariachi" won multiple international awards, and writer/producer/director Rodriguez went on to gain international fame; he was interviewed on such shows as "Sábado Gigante" and proceeded thereafter to secure Hollywood-backing for films such as "The Faculty" and "Sin City". In December 2011, "El Mariachi" was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Citing it as the film that "helped usher in the independent movie boom of the early 1990s", the Registry