¡Three Amigos!

Dir: John Landis

1986

*****

Three Amigos has got to be in my top 10 favorite comedies of all time. It’s an 80s classic. Released in 1986 it had the three biggest and funniest comedy actors who were at their height of popularity; the great Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase. Set in 1916, the three men play stars of the silver screen – silent actors best known for playing ‘The Three Amigos’, heroes of Mexico, dressed head to foot in sequenced black suits and huge sombreros, ready to help the townsfolk of any Mexican village in trouble. Think Douglas Fairbanks x3. However, after the little village of Santo Poco is set upon by the infamous bandit El Guapo, the village send a telegram to the actors, asking them to come to them. Not realising that they’re actors – and not having a great deal of money for the telegram – the villagers send a somewhat cryptic message to the actors, giving them an impression that they’re being asked to put on a show for money. A timely offer after Hollywood studio boss Harry Flugleman had recently sacked them for daring to ask for a larger salary. Out of work and evicted from their studio-owned housing, Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander head for boarder and onward to Mexico. The trio arrive in a cantina near Santo Poco and wait for their escorts. While there they are mistaken for a fast-shooting German pilot who is in town looking for El Guapo. The three are nearly set upon until they start singing ‘My Little Buttercup’ to the bemusement of the locals. They leave just before the feared German shows up, thinking the danger is gone they make fun of them and are all promptly shot. The performance of ‘My Little Buttercup’ is probably my favorite musical scene in the history of cinema. The Amigos arrive at the village and still don’t get that they are there for real and not just as an act. This leads to much hilarity when El Guapo does finally show up. The film is a spoof of silent films and of the western genre. It’s often surreal and the physical comedy is near perfect in my opinion. Steve Martin’s Lucky Day is the perhaps most in-tune of the amigos, the leader and the most show-biz. Chevy Chase’s Dusty Bottoms is the lady’s man, utterly clueless but full of charm, and Martin Short’s Ned Nederlander is the younger of the three, a former child actor with distinct naivety. The film directly parodies The Seven Samurai but the humor is straight out of Saturday Night Live and W.C. Fields. The story was written by Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels and songwriter Randy Newman. Newman wrote three songs for the film: "The Ballad of the Three Amigos", "My Little Buttercup", and "Blue Shadows" while Elmer Bernstein composed the epic score. John Landis directed when Steven Spielberg became unavailable. The film had been written a good six years before it was made, with the three main characters written for Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. However, when Spielberg came on-board he asked for Martin, Bill Murray, and Robin Williams to portray Lucky, Dusty, and Ned respectively. However, when Landis took over Martin Short and Chevy Chase took the roles with Rick Moranis as stand in if Short had been unavailable. As much as I love all of those actors, I can’t see anyone but Martin, Chase and Short playing the main players. Alfonso Arau was also perfect as the outlaw El Guapo, playing it straight and funny at the same time, while Tony Plana was brilliant as Jefe, his second in command. Plana actually turned down working with Oliver Stone again on Platoon to work on Amigos. He knew that Platoon would no doubt be more prestigious but it was the five star hotel and easy work that made him choose the comedy. Stone didn’t speak to him for years later. The film also features Joe Mantegna, Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz in three of the funniest cameos of the 1980s. Much of the film was cut by the studio while John Landis stood trial over the deaths that had taken place on Twilight Zone: The Movie. He had little control over the finished piece. Quite a few scenes were also lost in transit from location to studio. It was seen as a flop at the time with Chase being openly disappointed by it but it has developed something of a cult following since – generally by people my age who loved it as children. I think the lack of success – and the fact that Steve Martin developed tinnitus after filming a pistol-shooting scene for the film – meant that no one really spoke fondly of it for many years. It’s still not regarded as anything special, which I find puzzling, as the lines, action, timing and skits are all brilliantly performed. It’s one of the most quotable films of all time too, with greats such as: ‘Goodnight Ned’, ‘Are Amigos falling from the sky?’, ‘I’m going to fill you up with so much lea, you’ll be using your dick as a pencil’ and ‘You can tell it’s a mail plane because of its two little balls’. I adore it and won’t have anything bad said against it.