Comedian and comic filmmaker Steve Martin was in an apologetic mood as he opened the door of his stark-white Beverly Hills home. 'Are you hungry?' he asked, probably hoping the answer would be 'no.' It wasn`t, so he produced two trays of frigid bite-size tuna sandwiches and crackers topped with cheese. 'But I have some really good iced tea,' he said. 'My girlfriend (English actress Victoria Tennant) is out of town, and I`m sorry I don`t have much.'

Meh, I didn’t really care much for this one. This most be something I would had to grow up watching to really appreciate. It was kind of funny when Three Amigos are under the impression they preforming a show but really to kick the bandits out of town. Then when Steve Martin realizes he’s been shot at with a real bullet is kind of priceless. A Power Trio of best friends, usually high school or middle school age, consisting of:. The Hero, very often a Cool Loser and/or Everyman protagonist.; A best friend of the same gender, frequently of another race and/or nationality.Can be a Token Black Friend and/or Fat Best Friend.; A best friend of another gender, and potential Love Interest, 50% of the time an Unlucky Childhood Friend. Steve Martin and Martin Short, two 'amigos' of stand-up comedy, bring their show 'Now You See Them, Soon You Won't' to Chrysler Hall in Norfolk this weekend.

Martin`s California house (he also has a New York apartment) is filled with modern art, superb, major examples of the work of Franz Kline, Richard Diebenkorn, Georgia O`Keeffe, Arthur Dove and Cy Twombly, among many others, including a 'little' Picasso and an Edward Hopper watercolor.

'After you`ve taken all the vacations,' he said, 'art is the last remaining thing of value to spend money on.' He then went on to bemoan, like so many collectors, the skyrocketing prices of modern art. 'I would love to own Jasper Johns` `Out of the Window,` but I can`t afford it.' (The painting was sold at auction the other day for $3.63 million.)

Directed by John Landis. With Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Alfonso Arau. Three actors accept an invitation to a Mexican village to perform their onscreen bandit fighter roles, unaware that it is the real thing. Early on, Steve Martin was considering pitching this to Disney as a live action remake of sorts of The Three Caballeros. It was originally a Working Title, after all. He eventually decided against it due to the possibility of creative conflicts.

While a young computer whiz worked in an adjoining room, setting up an elaborate personal computer and telecommunications system, Martin talked about his movie career, including his latest comedy, 'The Three Amigos,' a satirical romp through the Old West and Mexico.

Although his film career has been marked by big laughs, big risks and commercial failure, it didn`t start out that way, he said. 'I had been doing my standup act for years,' he said, settling into a chair in front of a massive Helen Frankenthaler canvas, 'and I was always writing down jokes I thought I might use in a movie. In fact, the premise for my first film came right from one of my routines. It was the line: `I was born a poor black child.` '

The joke begat the smash hit movie 'The Jerk,' and it remains Martin`s biggest hit to date, having grossed more than $100 million in 1979. It would be six years and four films later before he had a comparable success in his double-gender farce, 'All of Me,' costarring Lily Tomlin. In-between came risk-taking and failure.

'Actually I didn`t think of my second film (the Depression-era musical

'Pennies From Heaven') as much of a risk. Everything I had done until that time had been wildly successful--the concerts, the records, the TV shows, `The Jerk`--so that the commercial failure of the film actually caught me by surprise. I still think artistically it`s a very good film.'

Martin plays an achingly lonely man who lives a secret life of passion only while performing musical numbers of the `30s. 'I`ve rarely seen a role that showed that kind of vulnerability in a man. It`s a special film to me, and if I had to find fault, it would be that I think some of the music could have included more popular songs of the period.'

The failure of 'Pennies,' which cost millions, did not stop Martin`s film career. 'The Jerk' had been too big of a hit for that. That`s why his next project could be almost as daring, a black-and-white spoof of old crime movies called 'Dead Men Don`t Wear Plaid.'

Through a painstakingly created series of intercut, matching shots, Martin played a bumbling detective who 'talked' with the likes of Alan Ladd and John Garfield. It was a film that preceded Woody Allen`s similar and highly praised 'Zelig' by three years.

'I guess my favorite scene in `Dead Men` is when I`m leaving this guy`s office and I have a dog with me, and the dog has gone on the floor. This guy yells at me, `Pick that up!` Well, I finally put it in a bag, and as I`m leaving his office, I give one of his secretaries a little dog, and I give the other one the bag. After I leave the office you hear this scream on the soundtrack.'

Martin retells this funny story in quiet, modulated tones, a speech pattern that barely wavers for two hours. A philosophy major in college, he measures his words carefully, regularly going back over a sentence to express himself more precisely. 'Normally I am this soft-spoken,' he said. 'I`m not a closet tyrant. I always try to find the easiest way to accomplish what I want. The only thing you`re not seeing from me now, I suppose, is the playfulness when I`m with friends.'

After 'Dead Men,' which was another box-office loser, Martin made one riotous film ('The Man with Two Brains') and one poignantly funny movie

('The Lonely Guy'), both of which failed to draw a significant audience.

'I really can`t explain the lack of response to `The Man with Two Brains,` he said. 'I really liked the scene where I`m embracing Kathleen Turner, and I say, `I wish this moment would last forever,` and the next shot is of the two of us the following morning still locked in the same embrace.

'As for `Lonely Guy,` maybe the title had something to do with it; I didn`t write the script. I thought Charles Grodin was very funny in it. And the (film`s best known) scene, where I enter the restaurant to eat alone, a spotlight hits me, and everyone stares, actually is missing one of the best bits that was written. A waiter was supposed to come by with a chainsaw and cut the table in half, but someone forgot to bring the chainsaw that day.'

Of this point in his movie career, with four commercial flops in a row, Martin said that, yes, he was getting a little nervous. 'I was rattled. But then I found this script of `All of Me,` which I thought was hilarious, especially the courtroom scenes with me (transposed into Lily Tomlin`s body)

trying to play Lily trying to play me. I thought that was funnier than my walk in the movie, which got a lot of attention.'

The film was a commercial hit, and Martin received rare honors for a comedic performance--best actor awards from the New York Film Critics association and the National Board of Review.

Flushed with success and leaving his standup act far behind ('the crowds began getting more hostile as they got more doped up'), Martin moved his film career into high gear.

'It happened just like they say it happens. The weekend after the reviews and the grosses came out on `All of Me,` my phone started ringing:

`Where have you been?` `Let`s have lunch.` '

The result is that Martin will be seen in two major holiday comedies next month, as well as a romantic comedy early next year.

First up is Martin, costarring with Chevy Chase and Martin Short (from

'Saturday Night Live') in 'The Three Amigos,' a put-on of the old West and old Westerns, opening Dec. 12. 'Three Amigos' is Martin`s fifth feature credit as a writer and first as an executive producer.

'I sort of coasted for a lot of years with my films,' he said. 'This time I realized that even though it`s a collaborative art, you still have to look after every detail yourself if you want to succeed.'

Dressed along with his partners in black and silver Mexican outfits with frilly white shirts and red sashes, Martin cuts a ridiculous figure as Lucky Day, one of three silent film actors who are the Three Amigos. After having a falling out with their studio boss (Chicago actor Joe Mantegna), the three caballeros wind up in a Mexican town trying to save the local peons from a brutal tyrant, while believing at first they`re merely performing in a sideshow.

For me the film is never as funny as in the title sequence, when the Three Amigos are on horseback singing their wildly heroic theme song. Martin disagrees.

'I do think there are many more funny scenes, and I also think it`s one of the few clean entertainments--except for one line--that the whole family can attend this year.

San Martin Caballero In English

'And that`s important to me,' Martin said, 'because I think when we look back at all the foul humor of the last few years, I don`t think it`s going to last; it`s going to look dated and tacky. I intend to work clean.'

He`s clean and raunchy in 'Little Shop of Horrors,' opening Dec. 19, a funny comic-horror-musical based on a long-running Off-Broadway play, about a man-eating plant, that is based on a cheap cult horror film from the `60s.

Martin appears in a show-stopping cameo role as a sadistic dentist who rides a motorcycle and looks and talks suspiciously like Elvis Presley. 'That was the appeal of the character for me--a sadistic Elvis. I like the contrast. I told the director I didn`t want to do anything like a mad scientist.'

So once again Martin gets to sing and dance and act the fool, a role that he is comfortable performing on film for many more years, he said. 'My next film is `Roxanne` (costarring Darryl Hannah), and it`s a modern version of Cyrano De Bergerac. He pulls out a Polaroid shot of him in makeup with a nose that looks like a large cocktail frank.

Just then the phone rings. His host for dinner, 'Amigos' director John Landis, is calling, inquiring when Martin will be arriving. He already is a few minutes late. Martin pleads with Landis and the other guests to start their meal. 'You know how guilty I`ll feel. I`ll come in with this hang-dog look on my face and I won`t have a good time. Please start. It`s going to be 20 minutes. No, no, don`t say you`ll wait; you know what it`ll do to me. Oh, okay, I`ll try to hurry. No, okay, I won`t hurry.'

Now how can you not like and laugh at a guy like that?

Two last questions, though. Martin was asked what he thinks his contribution to comedy has been; he is widely acknowledged as a ground-breaker. 'I think I set comedy free in the early `70s,' he says without bravado. 'When I started in 1973 there were no young comedians, except for Richard Pryor.

'When I`d appear on a talk show like Steve Allen`s and say I was a comedian, the bookers would say, `What`s that?` Now comics are everywhere. So I think my success did open the door for some people.

'I went back to being dumb on stage at a time when everybody else was so hip and so smart and so political. That`s what I rebelled against.'

Martin agreed that his film 'Three Amigos' also carries the seeds of rebellion. 'I think it`s very easy to be avant garde in films. But it`s harder to get to the meat and do a nice clean movie with a beginning, middle and end.'

And what, he was asked, did he think, at age 41, he knew for sure? 'The limits of my own talent,' he said. 'You have some success. And then you see a film by Woody Allen and you feel like a hod-carrier with a long way to go.'

Three Amigos (stylized as ¡Three Amigos!) is a 1986 American Westerncomedy film directed by John Landis and written by Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin, and Randy Newman, who wrote the songs for the film. Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short star as the title characters, three silent film stars who are mistaken for real heroes by the suffering people of a small Mexican village. They must find a way to live up to their reputation and stop a malevolent bandit.

Plot[edit]

In 1916, the bandit 'El Guapo' and his gang are collecting protection money from the Mexican village of Santo Poco. Carmen, daughter of the village leader, searches for someone who can come to the rescue of her townspeople. While visiting a village church, she sees a silent film featuring 'The Three Amigos', a trio of gunfighters who protect the vulnerable from villains. Believing them to be real heroes, Carmen sends a telegram asking them to come and stop El Guapo.

Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander are silent film actors from Los Angeles, California, who portray the Amigos on screen. When they demand a salary increase, studio executive Harry Flugleman fires them. Shortly afterward, they receive Carmen's telegram but misinterpret it as an invitation to appear in character and perform a show for the people of Santo Poco.

After breaking into the studio to retrieve their costumes, the Amigos head for Mexico. Stopping at a cantina near Santo Poco, they are mistaken for associates of a fast-shooting German pilot, who arrived just before they did and who is also in search of El Guapo. The Amigos perform a musical at the Cantina, singing 'My Little Buttercup', and leave the locals confused. The German's real associates then arrive at the cantina, proving themselves lethal with their pistols when everyone else laughs at them. A relieved Carmen picks up the Amigos and takes them to the village, where they are put up in the best house in town and pampered.

The next morning, when three of El Guapo's men come to raid the village, the Amigos do a Hollywood-style stunt show that leaves the men bemused. The bandits ride off, making everyone think that the Amigos have defeated the enemy. In reality, the men inform El Guapo of what has happened, and he decides to return the next day and kill the Amigos.

San Martin Caballero Story

The village throws a victorious party for the Amigos. The next morning, El Guapo and his gang come to Santo Poco and call out the Amigos, but the Amigos think this is another show. After Lucky gets shot in the arm, the Amigos realize that these are real bandits and beg for mercy. El Guapo allows the Amigos to live, then has his men loot the village and kidnap Carmen. The Amigos leave Santo Poco in humiliation.

Ned persuades Lucky and Dusty to go after El Guapo, saying that they have nothing worth going back to in America and this is their chance to be real heroes. They spot a cargo plane and follow it; the plane is flown by the German, who has brought a shipment of rifles for the gang. Preparations are underway for El Guapo's 40th birthday party, and he plans to make Carmen his bride. The Amigos try to sneak into the hideout, with mixed results: Lucky is captured and chained up in a dungeon, Dusty crashes through a window into Carmen's room, and Ned ends up stuck, suspended from a piñata.

Lucky frees himself, but Dusty and Ned are held hostage. The German, having idolized Ned's quick-draw and gun spinning pistol skills since childhood, challenges him to a shootout. Ned kills the German, and Lucky holds El Guapo at gunpoint long enough for Carmen and the Amigos to escape in the German's plane.

Returning to Santo Poco with El Guapo's army in pursuit, the Amigos rally the villagers to stand up for themselves. Drawing inspiration from one of their old films, they have the villagers create improvised Amigos costumes. The bandits arrive, only to find themselves suddenly being shot at by Amigos from all sides and falling into hidden trenches dug by the villagers. El Guapo's men either ride off or are shot, and he takes a fatal wound as well. As he lies dying, the villagers, all dressed as Amigos, step out to confront him. El Guapo congratulates them, then shoots Lucky in the foot and dies.

The villagers offer to give the Amigos all the money they have, but the Amigos refuse it with a quote from their own movies: 'Our reward is that justice has been done.' They then ride off into the sunset.

Cast[edit]

• Steve Martin as Lucky Day
• Chevy Chase as Dusty Bottoms
• Martin Short as Ned Nederlander
• Alfonso Arau as El Guapo
• Tony Plana as Jefe
• Patrice Martinez as Carmen
• Joe Mantegna as Harry Flugleman
• Phil Hartman as Sam, one of Flugleman's assistants
• Jon Lovitz as Morty, one of Flugleman's assistants
• Tino Insana as The Studio Guard
• Loyda Ramos as Conchita
• Phillip Gordon as Rodrigo
• Kai Wulff as the German
• Norbert Weisser and Brian Thompson as the German's friends
• Randy Newman as the Singing Bush
• Rebecca Underwood as Hot Senorita (kisses Ned at the close of the film)

Production[edit]

The film was written by Martin, Michaels, and Randy Newman. According to Michaels, Martin approached him with the idea of the film and asked him to co-write it with him.^[3] Martin originally had the working title of Three Cabelleros, the same as the Disney cartoon.

Newman contributed three original songs: 'The Ballad of the Three Amigos,' 'My Little Buttercup,' and 'Blue Shadows,' while the musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. It was shot in Simi Valley, California; Coronado National Forest; Old Tucson Studios; and Hollywood.^{[citation needed]}

John Landis was on trial over the Twilight Zone tragedy during the editing of Three Amigos, and the studio heavily edited the film down after he submitted his final cut.^[4]

The production went through many cast changes before filming. Since he is a co-screenwriter, Martin had been attached to the project since 1980 and he, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi were originally going to play the Three Amigos. At one point, Steven Spielberg was slated to direct; he wanted Martin, Bill Murray, and Robin Williams to portray Lucky, Dusty and Ned, respectively.^[5] Landis has said that Rick Moranis would have been cast as Ned, had Short been unavailable.^[6] When Aykroyd became unavailable, Chase replaced him. John Candy was set for the role originally intended for Belushi, as he did in the movie Armed and Dangerous, but he was too large to ride the horse. It was Candy who recommended Martin Short to Steve Martin, as they had worked together at SCTV. It was the first movie for Short, and he and Martin became close friends, and continue to perform together.^[7] Candy would prominently be seen later riding a horse in the 1991 film Delirious.

Martin developed tinnitus after filming a pistol-shooting scene for the film.^[8]

There were difficulties between the main actors and Landis. Most famously, it included a scene where Chase refused to tell a joke because he thought it would make his character look like a 'moron.' Chase agreed to do the line after he threatened to give it to Short instead.^[9]

Deleted scenes[edit]

Several deleted scenes were included in the Blu-ray release.^[10] An alternate opening featured the peaceful village of Santo Poco being rampaged upon by El Guapo and his men, prompting Carmen's search for help. Extended sequences of the Three Amigos at the studio mansion and backlot lead into another deleted subplot involving an up-and-coming rival actress at the studio, Miss Rene (Fran Drescher).^[6]

A deleted scene featuring Sam Kinison as a mountain man was lost,^[6] as were most of Drescher's other scenes.^[10]

Music[edit]

Elmer Bernstein wrote the score for Three Amigos and Randy Newman wrote the songs.

1. 'The Ballad of the Three Amigos'
2. 'Main Title'
3. 'The Big Sneak'
4. 'My Little Buttercup'
5. 'Santo Poco'
6. 'Fiesta and Flamenco'
7. 'El Guapo'
8. 'The Return of the Amigos'
9. 'Blue Shadows on the Trail'
10. 'The Singing Bush'
11. 'Amigos at the Mission'
12. 'Capture'
13. 'El Guapo's Birthday'
14. 'The Chase”
15. 'Amigos, Amigos, Amigos'
16. 'Farewell'
17. 'End Credits'

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Three Amigos had a U.S. gross of $39.2 million.^[2]

Critical response[edit]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 45% of 40 film critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.16/10. The site's critical consensus reads, 'Three Amigos! stars a trio of gifted comedians and has an agreeably silly sense of humor, but they're often adrift in a dawdling story with too few laugh-out-loud moments.'^[11] Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film one out of four stars and said, 'The ideas to make Three Amigos into a good comedy are here, but the madness is missing.'^[12] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that it was 'likable' but lacked a 'distinctive style', though certain jokes are crafted with 'enjoyable sophistication'.^[13] Caroline Wetsbrook of Empire awarded the film three out of five stars and wrote that it was 'good-natured enough to sustain its ultimately thin premise'.^[14]

Despite this, the film has since been reviewed more favorably and has become a cult classic. Neil McNally of the website Den of Geek noted that the film was 'unfairly overlooked' when first released, and praised the performances of Martin, Chase, and Short; the comedic scriptwriting of Landis; and the 'sweeping, majestic' score by Bernstein.^[15] The film was ranked #79 on Bravo's list of the '100 Funniest Movies'.^[16]

Steve Caballero Vans

Chevy Chase has described the making of this movie as 'the most fun I’ve ever had.'^[17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'THREE AMIGOS (PG)'. British Board of Film Classification. December 19, 1986. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
2. ^ ^ab'Three Amigos (1986) - Box Office Mojo'. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
3. ^'Norm Macdonald Has a Show: Season 1, Episode 10: Lorne Michaels'. www.netflix.com. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
4. ^Michael Reuben. 'Three Amigos! Blu-ray'. Blu-ray.com. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
5. ^Evans, Bradford (February 17, 2011). 'The Lost Roles of Bill Murray'. Archived from the original on May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
6. ^ ^abcEvans, Bradford (December 15, 2011). 'The Lost Roles of Three Amigos'. Split Insider. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
7. ^'15 Infamous Facts About ¡Three Amigos!'. www.mentalfloss.com. May 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
8. ^'Tinnitus Sufferers and You: Do you hear that?!'. Dallas Ear Institute. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
9. ^'15 Infamous Facts About ¡Three Amigos!'. www.mentalfloss.com. May 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
10. ^ ^abThree Amigos 25th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray). 2011.
11. ^'Three Amigos!'. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
12. ^Roger Ebert's review of Three Amigos on Chicago Sun-Times' website
13. ^Maslin, Janet (December 12, 1986). 'Movie Review - - FILM: 'THREE AMIGOS''. The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
14. ^'Three Amigos! Review'. Empire Online. March 3, 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
15. ^McNally, Neil (November 20, 2012). 'Looking Back at Three Amigos'. Den of Geek. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
16. ^Fraley, Jason. 'BRAVO 100 Funniest Movies'. Bravo. The Film Spectrum. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
17. ^https://ew.com/article/2004/08/13/chevy-chase-reflects-his-best-work/

External links[edit]

• Three Amigos on IMDb
• Three Amigos at Box Office Mojo
• Three Amigos at Rotten Tomatoes
• Three Amigos at the American Film Institute Catalog