Once Upon a Time in Mexico

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Template:Infobox Film

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) is an action film by Robert Rodriguez and the final film in the "Mariachi Trilogy", which 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.

Tagline: The time has come.

Although the film received mostly positive reviews, it was criticized for reducing El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy, and also for having an unnecessarily convoluted and confusing plot.

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Trilogy 'problems'

This film is presented as the concluding chapter of Rodriguez's "Mariachi Trilogy", however at face value there are two problems with viewing the films as a linear trilogy, as one would do with The Godfather or Back to the Future films:

1. Desperado is often considered a re-make of El Mariachi, not a direct sequel, this arises from the facts that if Desperado were taken as the 2nd part of a linear trilogy, some inconsistancies arise, and that in his commentary on the Desperado DVD, Rodriguez discusses the fact that he originally wanted to make the film as a remake of El Mariachi for an American audience, as opposed to a sequel. Rodriguez, in the same commentary, claims that he decided to make the film as a sequel, using flashbacks to explain necessary plot information from prior to the events in the film. Nonetheless, there is some amount of confusion in regard to specific plot points, such as how the character of Bucho actually links back to the drug-peddling consortium that killed El Mariachi's girlfriend in the first film.

2. At least two actors whose characters died in Desperado re-appear in "Once". Why this occurs is never explained during the movie, and it makes this film difficult to view as a sequel to Desperado rather than an entirely separate fable that happens to involve the "El Mariachi" character. Rodriguez has stated that he wanted to use those actors again, and choose to do so despite their "other" characters having been killed in Desperado. Similarly, the actor who played the El Mariachi character in the first film returns as a different character in Desperado. However, many attribute this problem to the accused inability, within critics of such a perceived problem, to accept actors as different characters within a trilogy. Opinion is divided on this subject; the problem is, truthfully, not a plot-based one.

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Cast

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Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The plot centers once again on El Mariachi, who is recruited by CIA Officer Sheldon Sands, to kill a military general (Marquez) who is being hired by a Mexican drug lord (Armando Barillo) to assassinate the President.

Sands recruits a retired FBI Agent (Jorge Ramirez) to kill Barillo and simultaneouly avenge FBI agent Archuleta who died at the hands of Barillo and a sadistic doctor, Guevara. He also hires AFN Agent Ajedrez to tail Barillo.

Sands' informants begin, however, to turn on him (and, in one case, on El). On the day of the Coup, Sands finds himself captured and rather incapacitated. He is forced to fight the cartel with a distinct disadvantage.

El Mariachi recruits two of his friends to assist him. Together they rescue the President who escapes with the two aforementioned friends. El kills Marquez, avenging his wife and daughter who died at Marquez's hands as well as preventing Marquez from taking power, while Ramirez kills Barillo.

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Box office

US Gross Domestic Takings: US$ 56,359,780

+ Other International Takings: $41,825,802

= Gross Worldwide Takings: $98,185,582

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Trivia

Agent Sands (Johnny Depp) tells El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to meet an associate of his named Salome in the church. When El meets him, Salome is very obviously played by Johnny Depp, but Salome is a separate character, not Sands incognito as many people assume. Johnny Depp reportedly didn't want to leave after his filming was finished and suggested to Robert Rodriguez that he play the small part and use his Marlon Brando impression.

The movie was filmed in the Mexican city of Guanajuato. The "Presidential Palace," is really the main building of the University of Guanajuato

A special feature of the DVD release is director Robert Rodriguez explaining and demonstrating the recipe for puerco pibil, the dish that Agent Sands eats during all of his meetings with El Mariachi.

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External link

fr:Il était une fois au Mexique ja:レジェンド・オブ・メキシコ/デスペラード sv:Once Upon a Time in Mexico

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