Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a 2003 action film written, edited and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the final film in the "Mariachi Trilogy", which also includes El Mariachi and Desperado. Antonio Banderas reprises his role as El Mariachi. The film also stars Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes and Rubén Blades.

The film received positive reviews but was criticized for reducing El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy, and also for having a convoluted plot. In the special features of the film's DVD, Robert Rodriguez has explained that this was intended, as he wanted this to be the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the trilogy.

The film holds the box office record for being the most improved second sequel of all-time grossing 122% more than Desperado. This film was shot before Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in order to avoid a potential Screen Actors Guild strike. It was the first film Rodriguez ever shot in HD.

Plot

The plot centers on El Mariachi (Banderas), who is recruited by CIA Agent Sands (Depp) to kill General Marquez. Marquez had murdered El Mariachi's wife Carolina (Hayek) and child and has been hired by Mexican drug lord Armando Barillo to assassinate the Mexican President. Sands wants El Mariachi to kill Marquez after Marquez has killed the President. Sands recruits retired FBI Agent Jorge Ramirez to kill Barillo, as Barillo had been responsible for the death of Ramirez's partner, Agent Archuleta. Sands also hires AFN Agent Ajedrez to tail Barillo.

As the plot unfolds, Cucuy and informants begin to turn on El Mariachi and Sands. On the day of the coup against the President, Sands is captured, tortured, and blinded; his eyes having been drilled out by his captors after Ajedrez reveals herself to be Barillo's daughter. With the help of a young gum-selling boy, however, he manages to exact his revenge. Meanwhile, El Mariachi recruits his two friends, Lorenzo and Fideo, to assist him in rescuing the President. Much like Quino and Campa from Desperado, Lorenzo and Fideo also wield weapon guitar cases; in this case, Lorenzo wields a flame thrower, while Fideo has an RC Remote Bomb, which are able to destroy heavy armored vehicles. El Mariachi kills Marquez by shooting both his kneecaps and then shooting him in the head, avenging his lost wife and daughter, and goes on to assist Ramirez in killing Barillo - who falls off a balcony when El Mariachi shoots him with a lupara.

As the coup begins, the people begin rising up to protect the President, permitting the three Mariachis to gain access to the President.

Ultimately, Lorenzo and Fideo walk away with the loot that Barillo was using to pay Marquez, and escort the President to safety. Sands begins his new life as a blind man in Mexico. Agent Ramirez, his job accomplished, walks away.

The movie ends with El Mariachi walking on a desert road into the sunset.

Cast

Actor	Role
Johnny Depp	Sheldon Jeffrey Sands
Antonio Banderas	El Mariachi
Salma Hayek	Carolina
Willem Dafoe	Armando Barillo
Eva Mendes	Ajedrez
Danny Trejo	Cucuy
Mickey Rourke	Billy Chambers
Rubén Blades	Retired FBI Special Agent Jorge Ramirez
Enrique Iglesias	Lorenzo
Marco Leonardi	Fideo
Gerardo Vigil	General Emiliano Marquez
Miguel Couturier	Dr. Guevera
Cheech Marin	Belini
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	Mexican President
Julio Oscar Mechoso	Nicholas
Tony Valdes	Chiclet boy
Hróðmar Sigurðsson	Chicken boy

In a 2003 issue of Rolling Stone, Depp was named as one of its "People of the Year," and gave an interview in which he briefly discussed his role as Sands: "The idea behind him is there was this guy I used to know in Hollywood, in the business, who on the outside was very charming – soft-spoken and almost hypnotic in the rhythm he used to speak. He refused to call me Johnny – always called me John. You knew this guy was aiming to fuck you over, but somehow you stuck around because he was just so fascinating to watch." Depp also said in an Entertainment Weekly article that he "imagine[d] this guy wore really cheesy tourist shirts," that he had a "sideline obsession with Broadway," and that he favored strange, obvious disguises – all three qualities can be observed in the film. It was also revealed in the director's commentary on the DVD that Depp himself came up with the character's first and middle names.

Soundtrack

The score of Once Upon a Time in Mexico includes songs composed by director Robert Rodriguez and performed by a group of musicians gathered specifically for the soundtrack recording. Tracks performed by the group includes "Malagueña" with vocal by Brian Setzer and "Siente Mi Amor", with singing by Salma Hayek. Track 9, "Sands' Theme," is credited to "Tonto's Giant Nuts" but was in fact written by Johnny Depp (who invented the name 'Tonto's Giant Nuts' as a joke. It is not the name of his band, as commonly thought). On the DVD director commentary, Robert Rodriguez states that he requested that each of the main actors give him four or eight notes of a melody for their character, but Depp presented him with the entire track.

Additional music includes Juno Reactor's "Pistolero," "Me Gustas Tú" by Manu Chao and "Cuka Rocka" by Rodriguez' own rock band, Chingon.

Track listing

1. "Malagueña" (Brian Setzer) – 4:22
2. "Traeme Paz" (Patricia Vonne) – 2:56
3. "Eye Patch" (Alex Ruiz) – 1:51
4. "Yo Te Quiero" (Marcos Loya) – 3:48
5. "Guitar Town" (Robert Rodriguez) – 2:04
6. "Church Shootout" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:38
7. "Pistolero" (Juno Reactor) – 3:38
8. "Me Gustas Tú" (Manu Chao) – 3:49
9. "Sands (Theme)" (Tonto's Giant Nuts) – 3:24
10. "Dias de Los Angeles" (Rick Del Castillo) – 5:08
11. "The Man With No Eyes" (Robert Rodriguez) – 2:09
12. "Mariachi vs. Marquez" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:33
13. "Flor del Mal" (Tito Larriva) – 3:13
14. "Chicle Boy" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:30
15. "Coup de Etat" (Robert Rodriguez) – 3:02
16. "El Mariachi" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:22
17. "Siente Mi Amor" (Salma Hayek) – 4:24
18. "Cuka Rocka" (Chingon) – 1:44

Reception

Once Upon A Time in Mexico was released on September 12, 2003 in 3,282 theaters with an opening weekend gross of USD $23.4 million. It went on to make $56.4 million in North America and $41.8 in the rest of the world for a combined total of $98.2 million, well above its $29 million budget.

The film received a generally positive reception with a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 56 metascore on Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Like Leone's movie, the Rodriguez epic is more interested in the moment, in great shots, in surprises and ironic reversals and closeups of sweaty faces, than in a coherent story". A.O. Scott, in his review for the New York Times, wrote, "But in the end, the punched-up editing and vibrant color schemes start to grow tiresome, and Mr. Rodriguez, bored with his own gimmickry and completely out of ideas, responds by pushing the violence to needlessly grotesque extremes". In her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig wrote, "In Mexico, Rodriguez has fashioned a swaggering fantasy that pays homage to spaghetti Westerns such as Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Plenty of blood is shed, lots of powerful artillery is fired, and action sequences provide astounding car crashes and fiery explosions". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and praised Johnny Depp's performance with its "winking grace notes of Brandoesque flakery ... is as minimal and laid-back as his Pirates of the Caribbean turn was deep-dish theatrical".

References

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External links