This is one of those films that was always going to appeal to a wide range of people and it was marketed towards children even though aside from a few appearances on The Muppet Show where Steve Martin played banjo, I wasn't, as a child, very familiar with the other main characters since they did stuff that was mostly meant for adults.
This show was absolutely perfect for children in the mid-80's and I think it would probably appeal to them today as well.
I am talking about this now because it popped up on my Plex server the other day by someone else's request and I just happened to kind of be at a loss as to what I wanted to watch next. Seeing as how I have seen this movie dozens of times, I knew I wouldn't need to pay close attention to it. I am intimately familiar with what happens in the story and even a lot of the lines. However, I found myself paying closer attention to this than I do most new films and it is probably because of the fantastic history I have of seeing this film in theaters with my pals when I was in 4th or 5th grade.
The story here is pretty silly but that is ok and expected. Three kind of washed up movie stars who had a good run as a popular show 3 Amigos are struggling for work when a telegram comes in from Mexico that is a genuine plea for help against a violent gang that is terrorizing villages in Mexico. The trio of washed up actors mistakenly think that this is an offer for an acting gig and head down there for what they believe is filming.
The show up to rescue the villagers believing that this is a film shoot and do their theatrics just like they did when they were filming the series only to have one of them, "Dusty Bottoms" (played brilliantly by Chevy Chase) gets shot. Rather than immediately realize that they are in genuine danger, "Lucky Day" (Steve Martin) starts to cuss the gangsters out telling them that they are going to be in a load of trouble with the studio for mistakenly using "real bullets."
Once they realize that this is real they immediately turn into the cowards that they actually are and beg for mercy and the gang, El Guapo, has mercy on them but takes villagers hostage for resisting them and foolishly hiring mercenaries to fight back. They are about to leave in complete shame when some things happen that inspire them to become actual heroes.
A lot of really silly stuff happens during all of this including a sing song under the stars with a bunch of animals present.
While a lot of scenes, and the stated sing-song scene in particular, look really fake but that is kind of the point. Although not specifically stated, they are kind of making fun of the sound-stage sets that were oh so common in the early days of film.
The rest of the movie is on location though and looks really good and real even by today's standards.
There are a ton of jokes and impossible situations and obviously, the good guys come out on top.
This is all fine and dandy but the reason why this film was so instrumental in my childhood is because we took the rating systems quite seriously back then and if you had good parents there was no way they were going to let you watch anything above PG, forget about R-Rated films. The PG rating on Three Amigos was almost certainly done intentionally and this paid off big time for them as most of the audience ended up being kids.
It was still a pretty big risk with a budget of $25 million because not many films got that much money put towards them back in 1986.
The silly stance and coordinated callsign that the 3 of them would do when introducing themselves became something that every boy on the playground would do on a regular basis. It was innocent enough that parents didn't mind I guess.
To me, this movie is a piece of my own history in films. I had such a great time with my friends singing the songs, emulating the moves, and remembering the quotes to say in the schoolyard at recess. So I will admit that my opinion is VERY biased. But for people that are younger than me this is still a pretty important piece of cinematic history because we didn't get what was considered at the time a "big budge" comedy very often. The studio really risked a lot with this especially given the extremely silly notions in this film and the fact that only one of the main cast were really a big draw. In the end it paid off for them and over time it has grossed hundreds of millions in VHS, then DVD, then streaming sales. They probably had a bit of merchandising in there as well.
I think that people today who enjoy stupidly silly things will enjoy this one, even if you don't really know much about Martin, Chase, or Short at all.
