Three Amigos (1986) Orion/Comedy RT: 104 minutes Rated PG (language, comic violence, sexual references) Director: John Landis Screenplay: Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin and Randy Newman Music: Elmer Bernstein Cinematography: Ronald W. Browne Release date: December 12, 1986 (US) Cast: Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Alfonso Arau, Patrice Martinez, Tony Plana, Joe Mantegna, Phillip Gordon, Kai Wulff, Norbert Weisser, Brian Thompson, Loyda Ramos, Fred Asparagus, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz. Box Office: $39.2M (US)
Rating: ** ½
Where did Three Amigos go wrong? It takes some explaining, but the short answer is in the title. Sort of.
The movie centers on three silent film actors, played by Steve Martin (All of Me), Chevy Chase (Fletch) and Martin Short (SNL), who play the heroic trio “The Three Amigos” in a series of westerns. As we all know, “amigos” is Spanish for friends. It would appear that they’re friends in both reel life AND real life. Wouldn’t it have been funnier if the three actors couldn’t stand each other off-screen? It would have opened up a world of possibilities. One obvious example is a clashing of egos. The writers could have had Martin and Chase constantly fighting over who should receive top billing while Short secretly tries to start a solo career because he thinks he’s the real star of the show. This way, they have issues to resolve or set aside so they can work together as a team when faced with a dire situation in real life (as opposed to reel life). It’s a serious misstep on the part of the writers, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy Three Amigos. I did. It’s an amusing little comedy, but therein lies another problem. One expects a movie directed by John Landis to be more than “amusing”. Remember the anarchic spirit of Animal House and Trading Places? Three Amigos feels too relaxed, like a siesta.
The people in the small Mexican village of Santo Poco live in fear of the bandit El Guapo (Arau, The Wild Bunch) and his gang. While searching for somebody to come to the rescue, Carmen (Martinez, the TV series Zorro) visits a church in town and watches a silent film starring “The Three Amigos”- Lucky Day (Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chase) and Ned Nederlander (Short). Believing them to be real heroes, she sends a telegram asking for their help.
Meanwhile in Hollywood, the three actors get fired by studio boss Harry Flugleman (Mantegna, House of Games) after demanding a salary increase. The telegram arrives just seconds after they’re ejected from the studio lot. Naturally, they misinterpret it as an invite to come put on a show for the villagers. Little do they know that they’re about to face off against a very real and very dangerous foe. When they FINALLY realize what they’ve gotten themselves into, their first instinct is to run. Eventually, and with nothing to return home to, they decide to stand up and defend the village.
Three Amigos starts off pretty good, especially with the movie-related stuff. It’s set in 1916, the height of the silent film era. Landis recreates the style very well; it looks completely authentic. I’m talking, of course, about the movie Carmen watches in the church. It was a regular practice for men to travel from one town to another showing movies. Not every town had a theater back then; film distribution was a completely different game. As a movie buff, I find stuff like that interesting. The scenes at the studio are actually pretty funny. Mantegna is a riot as the gruff, stingy studio boss. That’s the thing, Three Amigos has a few decent bits, but they’re scattered throughout the movie.
Not long after the guys arrive in Mexico, they stop at a cantina where they perform a number (“My Little Buttercup”) for the patrons who think they’re associates of a German WWI pilot (Wulff, Firefox) who came in earlier looking for El Guapo. At least this scene has some energy; there appears to be a lack of it throughout most of Three Amigos. While the three leads have nice chemistry, Chase and Martin dial it way back. Short shows some enthusiasm, but not enough to sustain a whole movie. While I like the easy rapport among the three leads, I still think having them hate each other would have served the movie better.
The songs by Randy Newman, who also co-wrote the screenplay, are good. I like the scene where the Amigos sing “Blue Shadows” around a campfire. At times, Three Amigos is just plain silly- e.g. the Singing Bush, the Invisible Swordsman. Some of it is simply not funny like the “lip balm” scene. Like Chase on SNL, Three Amigos stumbles and trips a lot. It has its moments, but as a whole it’s something of a letdown. It’s silly and good-natured, but considering the talent of both sides of the camera, it should have been much better.
