Sometime during the middle of this past summer, I was perusing the assorted DVDs at the local Best Buy when I came across a special double-pack.

The first movie was Desperado, starring Antonio Banderas. I love this movie, and still didn't have the pleasure of owning it. Plus, the price was right, and for two movies it was still pretty cheap. I didn't recognize the second movie, El Mariachi, but my friend who was with me -- who is quite the movie aficionado -- told me if I liked Desperado, then I would enjoy El Mariachi.

How right he was.

El Mariachi is the film debut of director Robert Rodriguez, director of blockbuster Hollywood productions like Desperado, Once Upon A Time in Mexico, and yes, even the Spy Kids movies. El Mariachi is the film that enabled him to reach Hollywood status.

His secret? He did it all with a budget of less than $7,000.

From a directing standpoint, you need a darn good story and/or incredible acting from all of your actors to get a low-budget film of this variety any real attention.

Lucky for Rodriguez, El Mariachi not only delivers on both of these points, but also shows why Rodriguez is now one of the most sought-after directors today: because of his clever and interesting camerawork.

Made in 1992 and done in Rodriguez's native language of Spanish (with English subtitles), El Mariachi's story revolves around a man we simply know as "El Mariachi," a man who, along with his guitar, walks into a Mexican town to find work at one of the local area bars. The problem is, El Mariachi's guitar case matches the gun case of a local killer, Azul, who has happened to upset the local drug lord, known only as Moco. El Mariachi is then thrown into a fiasco of mistaken identity that makes for very tense and intriguing action.

Now, I'm not one who particularly likes watching movies with subtitles -- case in point: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- but in El Mariachi, it didn't seem to faze me.

On the contrary, it actually helped to make the story more authentic. Every actor in the movie was unpaid -- in fact most were only friends of Rodriguez -- but seem to come across very genuinely because they are able to converse in their native language rather than strained English.

Carlos Gallardo, the actor who plays El Mariachi, does an amazing job of portraying a frightened young man who has had his working-musician's life turned into hell and will do anything to put an end to the insanity. Also good is Consuelo Gomez as Domino, the barmaid who El Mariachi falls in love with and subsequently pulls into the storyline.

Rodriguez used some fantastic camera angles to get the most from his weak budget to make the viewers feel like they were right amongst the chaos of the Mexican streets.

the special features of the DVD, there is a short film in which Rodriguez talks about certain ways he used light, angles, and viewpoint to make the movie seem "bigger." I'm not even a film major, and hey, I'll admit, even I was sucked in.

Shortly after El Mariachi was released to rave reviews and won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Rodriguez began working on what was to be the sequel to El Mariachi. Desperado, starring Banderas and Salma Hayek, went on to blow audiences away, literally, with its high intensity big budget explosions and big name actors.

However, after watching El Mariachi, it's easy to see where each one of the three amazing movies that makes up the saga of our hero El Mariachi -- beginning with El Mariachi, and ending with Once Upon A Time in Mexico -- got it's start.

That in itself makes it worth not only seeing once but also owning in your DVD collection as well.