By Joshua Knopp/entertainment editor

If there was ever a movie that was exactly what it was advertised to be, that movie would be Machete.

The plot, a combination of revenge drama and political scandal, features Machete (Danny Trejo), a former Mexican police officer, on the run from American officials. He has been framed for the attempted murder of Sen. John McGloughlin (Robert De Niro) by McGloughlin’s spin doctor, Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey), in an attempt to fuel McGloughlin’s “build-a-fence-along-the-border” re-election campaign.

The Robert Rodriguez film is, as advertised, a classic example of an exploitation film, or movie whose main draw is thoroughly advertised graphic violence and nudity.

It’s also a classic example of racially driven exploitation — casting a lot of minority actors in an attempt to draw that minority to the theaters. Machete belongs wholly to one of the subgenres that this developed, called “mexploitation.”

The movie delivers its gore and nudity in abundance. The title character spends most of his time walking around with a machete killing everyone in his path and having whatever relations he can with the river of women desiring him. The dialogue seems hastily written, but the plot is surprisingly good, and Fahey and Cheech Marin are astounding. But many going to see this movie will be seeing it for the gore and nudity.

The downfall of Machete is its political message. 

The film features only the most extreme examples of anti-immigrant behavior and only the most obvious arguments in favor of assisting illegal immigration. So flagrant is the movie’s standpoint on the topic, so blind of any other topic, that anyone against illegal immigration will find themselves extremely alienated.

Educated audience members, even those in favor of assisting illegal immigrants, could find themselves thinking of arguments on the other side that Machete ignores, leaving them less inclined toward immigration.