Machete: the B-Movie as Bloated Illegal Immigration Agitprop
This movie is supposed to be a homage to the Blaxploitation action films of the Seventies. Some afroed-out fellow from the ghetto, with an honest income (Shaft) or not (Superfly, Mack Daddy) would challenge Mister Big, blowing away white thugs and gangsters, helping out the brother man and sending a message to The Man that black folks weren’t going to take it lying down any more. the movies usually wore their “social justice” message on their sleeve, no apologies made for sounding like a recruitment campaign for the Black Panthers either. The neo-blaxploitation film “Undercover Brother” a few years ago had a rather sharp tone underneath its satire, but nobody had thought to comment on it. So,”Machete” is sort of a “mexploitation” film, although its production during the current time frame makes the plot theme less entertaining than it is supposed to be.
