Three Amigos

(source: tmdb.org)

Current war in Eastern Europe looks frustratingly protracted for many outside observers, at least those who have based their expectations on Hollywood films where the events of such apocalyptic scope always ended quickly due to valiant efforts of few dedicated superheroes. Inability to distinguish from fiction on the big screen and real life isn’t new phenomenon. It was something as relevant a century ago as it is now. This serves as basis for premise behind Three Amigos, 1986 western comedy directed by John Landis.

The plot is set in 1916 and the title characters are Lucky Day (played by Steve Martin), Dusty Bottoms (played by Chevy Chase) and Ned Nederlander (played by Martin Short), actors who became stars by playing trio of black-clad noble adventurers in silent westerns. Their latest films, however, flopped and their studio executive Harry Flugleman (played by Joe Mantegna) have them fired. In the meantime, small Mexican village of Santa Poco is terrorised by gang of bandits led by El Guapo (played by Alfonso Arau). Carmen (played by Patrice Martinez), beautiful daughter of village head, goes to nearby town to seek help, but gets none. Instead, she attends projection of Three Amigos film and mistakes their on-screen exploits for real thing. Deeply impressed by their gunfighting skills and noble character, she sends them telegram to Hollywood seeking their assistance against El Guapo and offering financial rewards. Due to series of misunderstandings, the trio, which suddenly became penniless, believes that they are invited to take part in acting gig and quickly decide to travel to Mexico. Misunderstandings continue and only during the encounter with El Guapo and his thugs they realise that they have to deal with real bandits. At first, they are more than willing to quit and return to Hollywood, but after witnessing El Guapo harassing the village, they feel ashamed and decide to fight him and become real life Three Amigos.

Despite the interesting idea, with huge potential for comedy of errors and “fish out of water” humour, many things went wrong with this picture. Script failed to make three main characters distinguishable from each other, although actors playing them try their best to compensate that with different styles of acting. Steve Martin (who co-wrote script) is the more successful than somewhat sedated Chevy Chase and at times annoying neurotic Martin Short in his first screen role. On the other hand, veteran Mexican actor Alfonso Arau leaves somewhat better impression as parodic over the top villain. Director John Landis seems strangely disinterested in film, never establishing proper balance between humour and action, which might be explained by him being distracted during production with manslaughter trial over the tragedy at Twilight Zone set. Humour is of varied quality, from embarrassing to occasionally brilliant and near the end it suddenly wanders into surreal territory. What elevates this film and makes it watchable is mostly music. That includes music score by Elmer Bernstein, very much inspired by his work on classic western The Magnificent Seven which this film indirectly parodies. But even better contribution is by songwriter Randy Newman (who also co-wrote the script) whose catchy songs give this film extra charm, including the surreal scene when three protagonists sing in the desert accompanied by horses. Despite its flaws, Three Amigos is sufficiently entertaining film, although it could be best enjoyed by cinephiles familiar with early and classical westerns.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA

Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7

-via IMDB.com

Jefe, what is a plethora?

Steve Martin! Martin Short! Chevy Chase! They are Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander and Dusty Bottoms and they are... The Three Amigos!!!

Lucky, Ned and Dusty are three silent film stars who are the Three Amigos, characters in the movies. When they are fired by the studio, they luck into a telegram from the village of Santo Poco, in Mexico, asking them to come help the village defeat the evil and dangerous El Guapo. Misreading it and thinking they are invited to do a show, they rush down to discover that it is real. They run for it.

Returning later they find the village ravaged and Carmen, the woman who brought them down to Mexico, taken by El Guapo. They head out on an adventure to rescue her.

What follows is some really funny stuff. Three Amigos is a parody of westerns and silent films, it is lots of fun. I can't just reel off a list of the jokes, I can only say that I really enjoyed it. This was Martin Short's first movie, which was cool. On the downside, there were moments where Chevy Chase seemed out of character, and I couldn't tell if that was a character trait or Chevy Chase just really unhappy to be there (I've read that he didn't like the film and exhibited that sort of behaviour on other projects, cough Community cough).

Beyond that, it's great stuff. The "plethora" scene is so memorable between El Guapo and Jefe, as well as pretty much anything the three leads do. It's fun. See it if you can.

Reviews

Comments

1 more review