Robert Rodriguez isn’t exactly a nobody now, but this is 1992 and Robert Rodriguez is indeed a nobody. The film was shot on 16mm and Rodriguez raised $3000 out of the $7000 budget, as a volunteer for experimental drug testing.
The story is about a wannabe Mariachi, who is a guitar player. He gets mistaken as a killer, who also carries a guitar case (full of ammunitions), in a gangwar between two parties, kills some people of one of the gangs, then runs away and hides with a bar girl, and falls in love with her.
when the real killer appears on the scene, he captures the girl. in the end there is massive shootout of sorts where he gets shot in his hand, thereby rendering his musical aspirations redundant. he then sets out to take revenge picking up the other guy’s guitar case.
According to Wikipedia:
“The US$ 7,000 production was originally intended for the Hispanic home video market, but executives at Columbia Pictures liked the film so much that they bought the American distribution rights. Columbia eventually spent several times more than the 16 mm film’s original budget on 35 mm transfers, promotion, marketing and distribution.”