"Machete" — Robert De Niro's Circle of Trust
Who’s in and who’s out?
Synopsis: When he’s double-crossed after being hired to do a hit on a Texas state senator, ex-Federale Machete grabs his blades—and his network of Mexican immigrants—to settle the score.
Note: In this ode to B-movies, Machete marks Robert De Niro’s fourth attempt at a southern accent after Bloody Mama (1970), Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), and Cape Fear (1991).
Who is Sen. John McLaughlin?
In his bid for reelection, Texas state Senator John McLaughlin makes a cartoonishly racist promise: constructing an electrified border wall to keep Mexicans out and Americans safe.
“Don’t get caught on the wrong side of the fence,” an ad slogan in Word Art reads.
Racism disguised as nationalism often works in politics. It appeals to the simplest-minded, lowest common denominator of voters. McLaughlin boasts that he’s “built a reputation as a hardliner against wetbacks.” It’s unclear if that was a public statement, but it’s exactly what his most fervent supporters love to hear.
It’s also why he thinks it’s a good idea, politically, to get footage of him gunning down border crossers to share with his highest-dollar donors. They love that shit.
For some reason though, this election year, the general population is not loving that shit. In fact, McLaughlin is finding that his messaging is turning constituents away, so much so that he’s tanking in the polls.
Desperate to regain support and refocus the attention on illegal immigration, he hatches a deranged plot: staging an assassination attempt on his life by a Mexican.
The problem is, the Mexican they choose to frame is a former Federale, whose legal birth name is Machete, whose weapon of choice is a machete, who answers only to his machete, and who’s filled with a vengeful rage after his wife and daughter were brutally murdered by McLaughlin’s biggest donor.
No bueno.
This miscalculation sets off a chain reaction that derails his campaign, exposes his corruption, and ends with his kidnapping by white nationalist vigilantes.
Like any politician espousing charged rhetoric, it’s hard to tell where the shtick begins and the real viewpoints end.
Whatever side of the fence McLaughlin barks from is the one he sees as the most politically advantageous. Being anti-Mexican works, until it doesn’t—until his best choice is to become pro-Mexican. Specifically, when the Mexicans rescue him from the vigilantes and invite him to join their side in the fight.
He enthusiastically agrees, literally switching out of his suit to dress like a Chicano. Given this abrupt switcheroo, the true depth of his prejudice is largely unclear.
In the end, he disobeys his own warning by getting caught on the wrong side of the fence and is gunned down by some vigilantes who mistake him for a border crosser—a fitting end for a virtueless man.
Who’s in the Circle of Trust?
Ironically, a Mexican drug kingpin named Rogelio Torrez. Torrez is bankrolling McLaughlin’s reelection campaign in exchange for full control over the new border wall, which will enable him to corner the drug market.
Does anyone move in or out of the Circle of Trust?
Mexicans. Per McLaughlin, illegal Mexicans are “parasites” and “cockroaches” bleeding this country dry, robbing jobs from hard-working Americans (sound familiar?). However, after the group of white nationalist vigilantes disowns him, he swaps allegiances to side with Machete and the Mexican immigrant network.
Once McLaughlin becomes an adopted cholo, Von Jackson, the vigilante group's leader, is subsequently kicked out of the Circle of Trust after he attempts to kill McLaughlin over his ties to the Mexican drug cartel.
His top aide, Michael Booth, is also ejected from the Circle of Trust for accidentally exposing McLaughlin’s corruption on camera. McLaughlin fires him by shooting him three times in the chest.
Join us next week for Brazil (1985).
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