Once Upon a Time in Mexico – Columbia Pictures, Dimension Films, 2003, Directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Click to view trailer
When I started this blog I didn’t want to review any trailers done by editors I know in person, but eventually I think I’m going to have to break that rule, because a lot of the trailers I love are by people I know. Once Upon a Time in Mexico is one of those trailers, though I first saw it during the beginning of my internship at the trailer house I eventually worked at. Thing I like about this trailer mostly is its sheer energy. I liked El Mariachi and Desperado a lot so I was pretty hyped up for this movie especially because it took so freakin’ long to come out. I think the story is that Robert Rodriguez, control freak that he is, was learning to score so that he could score this film himself because he likes to do everything himself.
Story – There’s a legendary guitar player that Cheech Marin is recommending to Johnny Depp who apparently is some sort of killer because in the first bit he shoots him under the table (unfortunately because of the speed this bit is told at, Johnny Depp’s extra arm gag is kind of lost). Johnny Depp is apparently a renegade agent for the CIA working in Mexico. He wants to hire Antonio Banderas to kills a man who is going to kill the president of Mexico. Some reason Antonio Banderas has nothing to live for, then he and Salma Hayek flee men with guns.
But surprise surprise, Antonio Banderas plays by his own rules or something? He goes to get his guitar case filled with guns. He also has no choice but to kill a lot of people. We don’t know who really. There’s lots of explosions and shooting.
Okay so beyond Antonio Banderas being hired to kill a killer we don’t know too much about the story. Lots of other characters show up in the trailer but we have no idea what their role is.
Music & Editing – The editor on this one really lucked out on music (and he knows it) because the Juno Reactor Pistolero song(s) practically edit the back end of this trailer for him. Or rather, gives him a lot of stuff to work with to make a flashy exciting trailer. From the get go this trailer has tons and tons of sound effects. Practically everything on screen has a sound effect from the logo zooming to the fades even the little tape recorder has a little mixed up recorder sound. I especially like the finger drumming over the guitar as the punctuation before Cheech finishes talking.
One thing about this trailer (no fault of the editor) is that the dialogue bits for the trailer usually don’t sound final because they’re parts of much bigger bits of dialogue. As such the intonation sounds awkward “he’s being paid to kill the president…” This is why sometimes making a trailer from dailies is good because you can get a dialogue take that works for the trailer but not the movie.
After Johnny Depp’s initial assignment the trailer starts picking up during the Salma Hayek scene, a character montage and then slows briefly with the guitar riff from Pistolero and Antonio getting his guitar (with editing and sound effects to the beat of the guitar). Antonio cocking his guitar (funny sight gag and good punctuation) lead into the big explosion and musical finale. Lots of fast editing culminates with Antonio reloading his gun shooting and then the big explosion after “PISTOLEEERO!” and more fast guitar playing that slows to Antonio Banderas making a cross over his heart.
Then it’s the final actors’ credit montage which I’m always a sucker for with some cool looking flashy graphics. Then my favorite bit in the whole trailer is Antonio spinning the gun on his finger and then shooting it in the final shot just as the song ends. The culmination of everything before that leading to that final shot was pretty joygasmic the first time I saw it. After the fiery logo is Johnny Deep asking Antonio if he’s still standing, some thugs beat up (edited to the beat) and then we get the credits. Not really the most interesting bit of dialogue, but Antonio kicking more ass is fun.
Selling Points- Johnny Depp is cool, Antonio Banderas kicks butt, shoots guys, blows things up. Salma Hayek being sexy. Like I said, the story doesn’t come across entirely well so I think they really want to emphasize Johnny Depp and of course the action. The other actors like Eva Mendes don’t even get a mention aside from their appearance so I guess they don’t care about them much.
Final Thoughts – A very fun trailer with great music and a great climax. I was really disappointed when I saw the movie because it kind of uh, sucked. The story was way too convoluted for its own good and all the action wasn’t as fun or exciting as anything in Desperado. I like Johnny Depp and all but this movie really isn’t much to write home about. I own it mostly for completion’s sake but I don’t think I’ll be dying to watch it any time soon. At least I enjoy the trailer would be what I have to say about the movie.
