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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that THREE AMIGOS is a comedy that deals with a poor farming village being attacked by rowdy bandits. Patterned after early Western films, there is a lot of shooting and killing that goes on, although without graphic consequences (no prolonged suffering or blood). There are budding relationships between the heroes and some of the women in the town, which do not go beyond kissing. The bandit leader kidnaps one of the women in the village. There are multiple scenes that negatively depict a dirty barroom filled with violent men drinking tequila.

By putting Western film heroes into a real world gun-fighting situation, this film, while very silly, can be a great way to discuss the difference between the violence that we see in movies and violence in real life. Why do the villagers believe the Three Amigos to be real gunfighters? How do the Amigos' attitudes change when they realize that the bandits are shooting real bullets at them? Is it believable that they are able to pull the villagers together to stand up against the bandits in the final showdown? Is believability even necessary for a comedy?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: David Gurney

A truly inspired, and still somewhat light, comedy THREE AMIGOS features the talents of Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. Set in the 1920s, the Three Amigos – Dusty (Chase), Lucky (Martin), and Ned (Short) – are silent film stars who have been successful in a series of films casting them as crusaders for justice in the Wild West of the U.S. and Mexico. When a villager of Santa Poco, Mexico, desperate to find protection for her village stumbles into a movie showing in a small town, she confuses the men on the screen with the characters that they are playing. After summoning them to Santa Poco, the boys are met by El Guapo and his gang of bandits. The Amigos quickly become aware that the violent display the bandits put on is the real thing.

This film is chock full of laughs at every turn, with the Hollywood-raised Amigos constantly proving how much difference there is between film stars playing roles and men playing out those roles in real life. Although they are stars in the silent era of film, there are a few memorable musical sequences, including the opening theme song, a precious rendition of "My Little Buttercup" in front of an angry barroom crowd, and a campfire sing-a-long where the horses and other desert animals join in as the chorus. In keeping with Westerns, men are shot and killed, but these deaths are quick and cartoonish with none of the major characters being affected. For those families with some interest in action films, particularly older Westerns, this film will be pure pleasure as it makes light of the tricks always employed by those movies.

For families who enjoy the spoofing of Westerns done in the THREE AMIGOS, other good spoofs of older films and television shows include Blazing Saddles (1974), Spaceballs (1987), and Galaxy Quest (1999).

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