Starring: Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, Enrique Iglesias, Willem Dafoe
Director: and written and produced by Robert Rodriguez
Rated: MA15+
ALTHOUGH the director is meant to be the primary artist on a film set, it takes many hands to make even the smallest feature film.
That’s why it’s usually pretentious for a film to open with a credit like, ‘A film by Clint Eastwood’.
This cannot be said of Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Robert Rodriguez has written, directed, produced, shot, scored and edited this western saga set south of the US border. So he is wholly responsible for the amoral bloodbath we are subjected to in this final chapter.
The first two instalments in this trilogy, El Mariachi and Desperado, were bad enough, but Once Upon a Time in Mexico is appalling in almost every way.
This so-called adventure is set against a background of revolution and greed.
Haunted and scarred by loss, the mythic and guitar-slinging hero, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), has retreated into a life of isolation. He is forced out of hiding by Sands (Johnny Depp), a corrupt CIA agent.
Sands recruits the reclusive hero to sabotage a plot by the evil cartel kingpin Barillo (Willem Dafoe), who is planning to assassinate the President of Mexico.
El Mariachi has his own reasons for returning – retribution and revenge at the death of his wife. With his cohorts and sidekicks Lorenzo (Enrique Iglesias) and Fideo (Marco Leonardi), they arrive in every town, meet the bad guys and shoot the place up.
Fans of the first two films will probably want to see the final chapter, but it beats me what the appeal of any of these films has been. Good actors throw away their talent on lousy scripts.
What passes for the plot is a just a filler until the next stick-em-up-and-shoot-em-down scene arrives. And the morality of the film is a mess.
The only things going for Once Upon a Time in Mexico is the editing and some of the cinematography, but, given the body count and the blood letting, this praise is grudgingly given.
