Saturday, July 10, 2021

The Infernal, Deadly Machine Gun.

In La Metralleta Infernal: El Temible Cuerno De Chivo, we meet Roman (Edgardo Gazcon). A young guy with a huge burnt scar on his face and works a terrible cleaning job at a bank where he simps hard towards the pretty banker Nancy (Claudia Guzman). Roman lives with his jerk older brother Juan (Julian Garza) who’s nickname is “El Tahur” since he is a compulsive & terrible gambler. Roman and El Tahur do not get along whatsoever and El Tahur’s girlfriend often teases Roman as well. Roman is clearly living a shit life where he has nothing good going for him and every day is just so damn repetitive; but things are about to change for him and for El Tahur as well. After losing hard on a card game, El Tahur & his lady spot a car accident and see the driver laying on the floor dead and right next to him is an unusual-looking machine gun with a long curved magazine clip that is dubbed “Cuerno De Chivo” (Goat Horn). El Tahur then takes the weapon, feel its supernatural power and blasts his fellow cheating gamblers away with it and just when he thinks he’s gonna run away after his blasting; Roman takes possession of the machine gun, robs the bank where he works at and kidnaps Nancy so he can run away with her & get his disfigurement fixed up! 


La Metralleta Infernal: El Temible Cuerno De Chivo began as a corrido written by composer Lombardo Higuera (whom makes a small appearance in the movie as the 1st owner of the machine gun) and then Julian Garza wrote up the idea for the movie alongside screenwriter Manolo Cardenas. Julian Garza clearly wrote the movie for himself to be the lead and according to the book “Narcocorrido” by Elijah Wood, Julian was to be the lead of the movie, but director Juan Manuel Herrera had altered the story so a “handsome” & “young” actor can be the lead because he felt Julian wasn’t “fit” for it. When you watch the movie you do notice how the story seems to be focusing on El Tahur as the main man to inherit the powers from the machine gun, but then all of a sudden he's no longer has possession of it because Edgardo Gazcon’s character Roman takes it away all fast and goes on with his plan to run away & get his face fixed up. The sub-plot with Roman truly does feel forced in, but nonetheless it worked out just barely and even so, the movie is still remembered because of Julian Garza, not "The little faggot" (Edgardo Gazcon) as Julian called him in the Narcocorrido book.


La Metralleta Infernal: El Temible Cuerno De Chivo is one of those movies I had been wanting to see for the longest time and when I finally did get a copy of it several years back, I was surely not disappointed by it at all since it was everything I had expected & then some. It’s also such an unusual movie since this is perhaps the first time I’ve seen a movie about a “mythical” machine gun. La Metralleta Infernal has plenty of satisfying gun-firing action, plenty of intense running & chasing and betrayals all around as well. The satisfying gun-firing action of course comes from the mythical machine gun that I’m not exactly sure what kind it is because it’s not quite an AK-47 and seems to lean towards to being a Galil ACE rifle. Maybe a combination of both ala Chitty Chitty Bang Bang style? Any gun enthusiast out there that can provide further context on this rifle, do let me know. One thing I do know for sure and that is that the rifle‘s magazine is very much curved up like a goat horn. A Mexican gun enthusiasts’ favorite. 


The music in the movie is pretty good which consists of famous brother duo Luis y Julian singing “Dinero Manchado” at a dive bar and Los Federales De Terán performing “El Potro Salvaje” at a sleazy outdoor card room. And it being a Julian Garza movie & all; his quirky friend the comedic singer Jesus Gonzalez Leal “Chis Chas” makes an appearance in the movie where he performs his most popular song “El Picaro Norteño”. Chis Chas had collaborated with Julian Garza & his brother Luis for many, many years on various projects and this of course includes movies. 


After a few Tecate tall cans, a blunt and some chile rellenos to fill the hunger pains, La Metralleta Infernal: El Temible Cuerno De Chivo is the perfect movie to watch. It is a very laidback movie to watch and if you're a fan of Julian Garza then of course you must watch it. How are you gonna claim to be a fan of "El Viejo Paulino" without watching La Metralleta Infernal? Psh!