One of the more glaring oversights in my film viewing history has been ¡Three Amigos! (1986).  I could offer any number of reasons for why I have not seen it, but they would be mostly conjecture.  I was six when it came out, and my parents were likely not going to take me or my sister to watch something with Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short as the titular trio.  Actually, my earliest memory of going to the cinema was when I was four.  My dad took me and my sister to our local theater in Wheaton, Illinois, (which is now on the National Register of Historic Places) to view Pinocchio (1940).  As I recall, the outing had to be cut short when I vomited.  That made my parents leery of such adventures for some time, I think.  Of course, I have a different motive for consuming films these days.  Thus, while ¡Three Amigos! unfolded, I was not prepared for the amount of Catholic imagery in it.  I will have to talk a little more about the historical context as we go along, but that, too, is of interest to a Catholic reviewer.

Before the arrival of the ¡Three Amigos!, Carmen (Patrice Martinez) travels to the closest large town to enlist the help of gunfighters to defeat the menace of “El Guapo” (Alfonso Arau) and his banditos.  She spots a likely looking fellow outside a cantina idly holding a pistol, and decides to go inside.  She has to retreat just as quickly in the wake of a rude reception.  Praying for Divine Intervention, which is always the best course of action, she hears bells from the nearby church.  Instead of Mass, unfortunately, they are playing the latest silent movie featuring Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), Lucky Day (Steve Martin), and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short).  They are the eponymous group.  Witnessing their on-screen exploits, Carmen confuses them for genuine heroes and decides to send a telegram to them asking for their assistance.  Because of her limited funds, she is only able to send a short but ambiguous message to the actors, though the part about a reward of 100,000 pesos makes it to them.  It reaches them just as the head of the studio for which they work, Harry Flugleman (Joe Mantegna), fires his stars.  Their last picture bombed and Lucky’s outrageous demands are enough for Harry to give them the sack.  Without a source of income, they readily accept the potential large payday, essentially glossing over the part about needing to stop the “infamous” El Guapo.  They do not know what the word “infamous” means.  Their first stop is the same cantina in which Carmen first entered, and they promptly mistake its rough patrons as fans, putting on a song and dance number for them.  Following what they deem to be a successful show, they emerge from the bar and are soon spotted by Carmen, who brings them to their village.  The next morning, three of El Guapo’s desperados decide to rile up the citizens of the small village of Santa Poco.  Our three performers don their trademark bejeweled, black charros, and ride out to meet the intruders.  Upon saying some of their rehearsed lines and riding around firing their blank ammunition into the air, El Guapo’s men beat a confused retreat.  As they report the strange occurrence to El Guapo, who vows to gather his entire force to go kill the Americans, the erstwhile defenders of Santa Poco have an impromptu fiesta with the villagers.  The party fills them with confidence, though they are surprised to find even more attackers in the plaza when they awake the next day.  Nonetheless, they launch into the same routine, saying their prepared lines and wildly shooting towards the sky until El Guapo’s chief henchman, “Jefe” (Tony Plana), fires his gun at the three, hitting Lucky in the arm and wounding him.  An indignant Lucky gets up and demands answers for why real bullets had been used.  The response he gets makes him finally realize that he, Dusty, and Ned have made a terrible mistake.  Barely concealing their tears, they beg for mercy and are allowed to ride away.  El Guapo then proceeds to destroy much of Santa Poco for their defiance, taking Carmen with him to force her to be his bride.  Once the smoke clears, the three failed heroes slink back to Santa Poco.  The indignation of the villagers drives home the enormity of their error.  It is Dusty who first vows to do something about it, citing the fact that there is nothing for them to return to in Hollywood.  I will add that making amends is a Godly act.  They get a bizarre set of instructions on how to find El Guapo, which involves a singing bush (voiced by Randy Newman) and an invisible swordsman . . . who Dusty accidentally murders.  Instead, they end up spotting a German bi-plane on its way to El Guapo, its pilot (Kai Wulff) bringing weapons to El Guapo’s outlaws.  Predictably, Dusy, Lucky, and Ned’s plan for rescuing Carmen goes spectacularly wrong, leading to them all being captured.  This is when the pilot recognizes Ned as a Hollywood star, admitting that he had modeled his gun handling on Ned’s movies.  The pilot is embittered, though, because he found out that Ned’s gun play had been done mainly by a double.  To exact revenge, the pilot challenges Ned to a draw, which the actor miraculously wins.  It also gives Lucky time to free himself from the dungeon, and, with Dusty’s help, force El Guapo’s men to lay down their guns.  With Carmen in tow, they somehow are able to escape on the German plane and make it back to Santa Poco.  With El Guapo coming once more, they have the time to prepare an elaborate ruse, making every villager look like the Americans.  This allows the defenders to overwhelm their attackers, with El Guapo being the last to die.  While they try to reward Dusty, Lucky, and Ned monetarily, with only a moment’s hesitation, they do the chariable thing and throw back the coins before riding into the sunset.

Talking about the history behind ¡Three Amigos! might seem silly since it is a comedy, and I did not make a point of it in the previous paragraph.  Yet, one of the first things you see is that this is Mexico in 1916.  The historian in me wondered whether they would mention the punitive expedition undertaken by the United States Army in the same year in order to find the infamous bandit Pancho Villa.  It is not something talked about much, nor did it accomplish its stated goal of capturing the Mexican outlaw.  Another aspect of Mexico’s past that is not often covered is the suppression of Catholicism that began at this time.  While 1916 is a little early for the true crackdown period, particularly since much of it was codified by the 1917 Mexican constitution, it is nonetheless of interest to discuss in relation to this movie . . . for me, anyway.  For example, the first time they show an interior of a church, they are playing a movie inside.  Later on, you see Jefe throw dynamite into Santa Poco’s chapel, blowing it up.  Finally, El Guapo’s base of operations is on the grounds of a Catholic mission.  This last revelation is mentioned alongside the fact that El Guapo’s men had to chase away (to put it mildly) the religious operating the spiritual outpost.  To be fair, these are all actions of antagonists.  There are other scenes, with Carmen in particular, when you see her praying in earnest or sitting in the shadow of a statue of Mary.  I appreciate such moments.  At the same time, with the former material, I am also reminded of the kind of barbaric acts that are about to be perpetrated against Catholics in Mexico over the next ten plus years.  The slogan “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” or “Long live Christ the King!” became a rallying cry for Catholics in the country during a bloody civil war to once more gain their freedom of worship.  It may seem like a non sequitur to mention this in the context of this film.  Then again, the eponymous trio do talk about being wherever there is injustice and suffering.  God is with such causes, as film and history can show us.

I did not watch ¡Three Amigos! with the expectation of seeing reminders of the Cristero War, but such is how my Catholic brain works.  Overall, I am happy to have finally caught up with this classic from the 1980s.  There is some mild innuendo in it, but some genuinely funny jokes, too.  If you are like me and have yet to see this one, check it out.