Taglines: The time has come.
El Mariachi is recruited by CIA agent Sheldon Sands to kill General Emiliano Marquez, a corrupt Mexican Army officer who has been hired by Mexican drug lord Armando Barillo to assassinate the President of Mexico and overthrow the government. Many years before, El Mariachi and his wife Carolina confronted Marquez in a shootout and wounded the general; in retaliation, Marquez took the lives of Carolina and their daughter in an ambush.
In addition to El Mariachi, Sands persuades former FBI agent Jorge Ramírez to come out of retirement and kill Barillo, who had murdered his partner Archuleta in the past. Furthermore, AFN operative Ajedrez is assigned by Sands to tail Barillo.
While monitoring Barillo’s activities, Ramírez meets Billy Chambers, an American fugitive who has been living under the protection of Barillo, but can no longer stomach the horrible tasks he’s been forced to carry out for him. Ramírez convinces Chambers he will provide him protection in exchange for getting closer to Barillo by tagging Chambers’ pet chihuahua with a hidden microphone, and Chambers agrees to complete the deal by surrendering to U.S. authorities once Barillo has been taken down.
Cucuy, who was originally hired by Sands to keep an eye on El Mariachi, tranquilizes El Mariachi and brings him to Barillo’s mansion. Cucuy, however, is promptly killed by Chambers while El Mariachi escapes from captivity and calls his friends Lorenzo and Fideo to assist him in his mission.
While monitoring Barillo’s activity outside a hospital, Ramírez notices armed men storming the building and follows suit. He discovers that a group of doctors have been gunned down and Barillo has bled to death as a result of a botched facial reconstruction, but realizes that the corpse on the operating table is a body double before he is knocked out and kidnapped by the real Barillo and Ajedrez, who reveals herself to be Barillo’s daughter. Sands realizes his mission has been compromised, but is too late, as he is captured by Barillo and Ajedrez—who drill out his eyes before sending him out. Despite his blindness, he manages to gun down a hitman tailing him with the aid of a chiclet boy.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (also known as Desperado 2) is a 2003 American contemporary western action film written, co-produced, edited, scored, and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the third and final film in Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy, and is a sequel to El Mariachi and Desperado.
The film features Antonio Banderas in his second and final performance as El Mariachi. In the film, El Mariachi is recruited by CIA agent Sheldon Sands (Johnny Depp) to kill Armando Barillo (Willem Dafoe), a Mexican drug lord who is planning a coup d’état against the President of Mexico. At the same time, El Mariachi seeks revenge against a corrupt general responsible for the death of his wife, Carolina (Salma Hayek).
Made on a US$29 million budget, the film was shot in May 2001 before Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002) and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) in order to avoid a potential Screen Actors Guild strike. Shooting took place over seven weeks in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, Mexico. It was the first big budget film to be shot in high definition digital video. Rodriguez chose to shoot on digital after George Lucas, who was shooting Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, showed him early footage shot digitally.
Impressed, Rodriguez chose to shoot digitally, but he knew he did not have enough time to shoot Spy Kids 2. Instead, he pitched a sequel to Desperado to Miramax and wrote a script in six days. The initial draft was 65 pages long, which he padded with a subplot borrowed from an unproduced short film. When Miramax expressed hesitation over the added subplot, he readily removed it. His primary influence was Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, specifically The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Rodriguez said shooting digitally saved time and money, simplified the filming process, and rendered 35 mm film obsolete for him.
The film’s score 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 guitar by Brian Setzer and “Siente Mi Amor”, with singing by Salma Hayek. Track 9, “Sands’ Theme”, credited to “Tonto’s Giant Nuts”, was written by Johnny Depp.
Additional music includes Juno Reactor’s “Pistolero”, “Me Gustas Tú” by Manu Chao, and “Cuka Rocka” by Rodriguez’ own rock band, Chingon. 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.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp, Rubén Blades, Mickey Rourke, Enrique Iglesias, Marco Leonardi, Eva Mendes, Tony Valdes, Willem Dafoe, Danny Trejo
Screenplay by: Robert Rodriguez
Production Design by: Robert Rodriguez
Cinematography by: Robert Rodriguez
Film Editing by: Robert Rodriguez
Costume Design by: Graciela Mazón
Set Decoration by: Eva Castro, Patrice Laure
Music by: Robert Rodriguez
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, and for language.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: September 12, 2003
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