Did You Know?
Steve Buscemi's character's name is "Buscemi" because the part was written with him in mind.
Share this
Santa Cecilia (St. Cecilia) is the patron saint of music, which is an obvious reference to the Mariachi theme. Both Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel wrote Odes to St. Cecilia's Day (22 November 1683, and 1739, respectively). Few hard facts are known about St. Cecilia who may not have existed at all, other than in legend.
Share this
The bar in the beginning of the film where Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin talk is an actual bar in Acuna, Mexico called the Corona Club. The bar is a lot cleaner and bigger in reality, but it's like walking right into the movie. They also have quite a few pictures of the stars and crew of the movie on the walls.
Share this
The bathroom scene before the 2nd bar shootout was directed by Antonio Banderas. Robert Rodriguez said he didn't like using 2nd unit crews and Banderas asked if he could direct the scene, so Rodriguez agreed.
Share this
Antonio Banderas performed all of his own guitar work, including "Cancion Del Mariachi" during the opening credits.
Share this
The movie was originally entitled "El Pistolero" ("The Gunman") to be consistant with the first film (El mariachi) but was changed at the request of the studio. In Mexico it was released as "Pistolero".
Share this
Robert Rodriguez had originally written a rock version of the song "Malagueña Salerosa" into the screenplay. It would later be performed by his band "Chingon" during the end credits of Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
Share this
Director Robert Rodriguez said in his DVD commentary that the day they shot Salma Hayek's love scene with Antonio Banderas, the entire crew showed up to see it.
Share this
Though Quentin Tarantino wasn't initially cast in the movie, the character he plays was based on him. Steve Buscemi was originally cast in the role, but when Tarantino expressed an interest he was immediately given the part.
Share this
The scenes with Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin had to be shot quickly because they could only afford Buscemi for seven days and Cheech for six.
Share this
During the shoot out in the bar Cheech Marin's character is rarely seen. This is because they could only shoot his scenes in the six days they had him, so they made an approximation of what the shot up bar would look like and shot his scenes with it, putting his character behind it for most of the shootout.
Share this
For most of the killings they used a gun that essentially fired fake blood at the characters instead of squibs. This unfortunately created too realistic of an effect resulting in them having to edit out much of the deaths for the censors.
Share this
Due to the film's relatively low budget, the same two stunt men were used throughout the movie.
Share this
The huge black handgun that is seen throughout the movie (used by the bad guys) is a Desert Eagle .50AE pistol.
Share this
This film cost approximately $7 million to make, 1000 times the amount of money Rodriguez spent to make El mariachi.
Share this
A week after finishing shooting this film, Robert Rodriguez and Antonio Banderas were back in the studio, working on Rodriguez's segment of Four Rooms.
Share this
Cameo
Los Lobos:
During the bar scene during the opening credits, the composers can be seen in the audience.
Share this
Diego Sandoval:
The accountant at the end of the bar shootout was the second assistant director.
Share this
Spoilers
Late in the film we discover Bucho's real name to be "Cesar". Bucho calls El Mariachi "Manito". Manito is short for "Hermanito" in Spanish, which means little brother.
Share this
