Ah, Once Upon a Time in Mexico – while I was in the world of the non-internet, I had the opportunity to watch this Rodriguez piece. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – could this be worse than the glorified, bland and rather horrid remake of his original El Mariachi, Desperado.
For those unware of the linkage between the three films. El Mariachi was the original “Desperado” if you will – indeed the character of El Mariachi is key to all three films.
After some reasonable success in Hollywood, Rodriguez was able to cash in on his own success by comissioning a Hollywood remake of his original piece, El Mariachi, as Desperado – starring Bandares and Hayek. It was a reasonable success, and allowed Rodriguez to call upon the assitance of Banderas in Spy Kid movies.
And so we have what is the final part of a so-called trilogy. Not so much a trilogy as a sequel to El Mariachi/Desperado – and therefore not a trilogy – but perhaps a trilogy in the spirtiual sense; semantics – let’s put them aside.
El/Desperado had no reason for a sequel, as we assume the final scene on the road is the end of the movie. Not so it seems for our Mr Rodriguez, who seems to have chosen to end a story which he started around a decade or so ago.
Desperado failed in many respects of capturing the essence and the grittiness of El Mariach on many levels – it was indeed an inferior remake – a case of money & style over substance. This is as far from the truth as can be with OUATIM.
OUATIM marries some decent “revenge” story telling of the spectacular kind, but it carries it of with the sort of panache you don’t really get from movies these days
El has returned to his village, in sombre mood. He has no guitar, he has a new hair cut, and no female lover in tow. It’s rather ironic that Salma Hayek’s name appears second in the list of credits as she has some of the least screen time than most! Still she is rather stunning, so we’ll let that by.
And so it is, we learn during the beginning of the movie between a conversation with Cheech Martin and Johnny Depp that El was considered dead, but was in fact alive, having had his family slaughtered by an army general named Marquez – both of whom bare a grudge against one another. El is out for revenge, as and when he can, and thus bides his time for the right moment. Depp wants to hire El in a political war of the highest stakes.
Johnny Depp as I mentioned already, is also in the movie – it is a rather odd addition to the cast, at least for me – I rarely remember seeing Depp in any action movie per sae. Depp plays a CIA agent doing deals here and there, and everywhere trying to bring about the downfall of a presidency while introducing a new control structure.
The character he plays, is both good and evil – good in the sense, he is duty bound and does not betray those he protects, and yet he is rather brutal in his execution of those that cross him. It’s a wonderful character to watch, and for me Depp steals the show, as his charismatic charm and unique ability to be both good and bad shines through – possibly the only actor through a couple of generations loved by men and women alike as a great entertainer. Depp doesnt need Oscars – Depp just is.
This is possibly Rodriguez’s most serious movie thus far. The pace, the build up and the the sheer drama of the underhandedness of every character is so thoughtfully, and strategically done. There are double crosses, triple crosses, and quadruple crosses from the left, right and centre. Add to which, his camera work has improved a hundred fold – with manual camera running shots, long panning shots and several cameras in use for any of the set pieces flicking between each – it all helps to increase the pace of the action, which is sporadic, but when it does occur, it is nothing short of spectacular in execution.
Rodriguez has excelled himself and has, for me, outshone many of the pyrotecnic or CGI infested battles
The cast of the movie is rather stellar and cult if you’re a movie fan, you should be able to recognise the obvious and not so obvious names: Antonio Bandares, Salma Hayek, Mickey Rourke (hooray for Mickey!), Johnny Depp, Cheech Martin, Willem DeFoe, Eva Mendez (nice chest – shame about her acting ability), among others. Not short of talent then (nor of nice looking ladies).
The bigger suprise (yes even more so than Depp) was the introduction of Enrique Iglesias – perhaps eye candy for the ladies, as Eva is for the men? Suffice to say, he won’t be winning critics over with a rather small and moderately performed role. He sure as hell can’t play the fucking guitar (note how the scene where the three play guitars to the guards, he is the only one not actually strumming, and when playing to the President, his back is turned away hiding the fact he can’t play) – it’s amusing, but well he fits in.
What OUATIM has that Desperado lacked was drama, a plot and subtly – in particular with humour. Whereas Desperado relied on almost accidental situations to create gags (Buscemi telling the story, shitting people up – or the repeated number of empty guns exchanged), the humour in OUATIM is very very dark and very much intwined with the movie – no need for a seperate scene just to create a comic moment. Take for example the scene where El rides off on the bike, the two men hanging on to the speeding rack come across a road and slammed into by a large truck. It’s wonderful to watch and a pleasure to see Rodriguez trying something a little more subtle – and it works brilliantly.
Rodriguez has excelled himself and has, for me, outshone many of the pyrotecnic or CGI infested battles. Here we have good old wires, stunt doubles and REAL PEOPLE. The Matrix and LOTR relied on CGI to bring a certain type of fight, for me the fights and shoot outs int his film excelled way beyond those films did in creating something absolutely stunning and leaving you in awe. Balletic precision, fast camera work and over the top shot gun blasts (watch as fools fly across a hallway – think of a shotgun firing with the impact of a cannon and you have an idea as to the ferocity of the blast), it just leaves you wanting for more.
This is possibly Rodriguez’s most serious movie thus far. The pace, the build up and the the sheer drama of the underhandedness of every character is so thoughtfully, and strategically done
OUATIM marries some decent “revenge” story telling of the spectacular kind, but it carries it of with the sort of panache you don’t really get from movies these days. It’s a case of “we have CGI so we SHOULD use CGI”, and in this case it’s a case of “we have CGI, but we don’t NEED to use it” and thus you get a much more raw, a more brutal experience than watching something computer generated bouncing off walls badly.
Not only is this the best of the three El films (second being El, followed by Desperado), it has a brillaint cast who all perform their roles excellently – as mentioned, I felt Depp stole the show as his humour, and character just stand out from the crowd – I expected him to be downright evil, but we see many dimensions to quite a siginficant character and probably one his most amusing performances to date – but it is without question Rodriguez’s finest work to date.
The sparsity of the action scenes may disappoint those who enjoyed Desperado (phillistines!), but that’s missing the point of this film – it’s filled with political angst, great performances, it’s tough and gritty and capture the El Mariachi spirit while bringing a freshness to a genre of Western films – and let’s face it, when was the last new Western you watched that you enjoyed?
Verdict: Rodriguez’s best work thus far. Enjoyable, fun, capturing entertainment.