You and you made for a weird juxtaposition in terms of viewing over the weekend. Let’s see how you’re similar. Both involve tiny villages in semi-arid locations being terrorised by bandits with curly hair and non-committal facial hair. The bandits have a #2 whom they treat as a sort of comic foil. Both villages turn to outsiders in order to find salvation from the bandits. The people of Santo Poco turn to the Three Amigos, a trio of city slicker Hollywood showmen. The people of Ramgarh turn to Jai and Veeru, two small-time crooks, but also marked as from the city. All of the outsiders find love within the village (from both the family of the petitioner and other local women) and decide to stay. The outsiders realise that they cannot defeat the bandits themselves, after a series of captivities including being chained in a crucifix form, so they enlist the entire village to help. Finally, both movies feature songs, one has songs by Randy Newman and one by R.D. Burman. Only ¡Three Amigos!, however, has a cameo by the songwriter as a bush in the desert. And only Sholay has a Holi festival.
Still, there are some little points worth noting. The impetus for hiring the Three Amigos comes from Carmen’s hoping that the Virgin Mary will guide her to salvation. She hears the churchbells ring and walks inside, where a travelling projectionist is screening the latest Amigos movie. Seeing Carmen dip her fingers in Holy Water and cross herself before the movie, to me, seems to be one of the best examples of the spectacular in cinema reception in the early twentieth century. A very great little shot. Throughout, you use a lot of early cinema tropes to periodise yourself, which is interesting. Usually we’re told something happened at a time, and that’s that—the very form of the movie doesn’t help move us back in time (a very notable exception here is Down with Love). Sholay, on the other hand, you feel like you could not have occurred at a time other than the mid-70s, and I what little I’ve read about you (like here) suggests that you are infused with the politics of the time period. I don’t know.
But I can say that the presentation of the village as a unified whole—without important rift based on religion or class standing—reminds me of the similar situation that befalls Champaner in Lagaan, but there the unification is an allegory for the struggle against colonisation. Here, it’s unclear, but I suppose it can be read as a call for unity in the absence of trust in the government. I’m not a historian of India, though, so I can’t say how it ties into the Emergency, etc.
January 17th, 2011 at 13:36
In sholay, the three bandits arrive in the village and jai and veeru do a show of strength to scare them away.
Similar thing happens in the three amigos. The three bandits are left confused by the antics of the amigos.
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In sholay, the villagers celebrates holi and quickly after, gabbar and all his men arrive to vandalize and loot the village
Similarly, in the three amigos, the mexicans celebrate some local fest and the next day, El Guapo and his men arrive to vandalize the village
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I always knew “three amigos” was a parody of “sholay”. I remember watching three amigos on star movies several dozen times in the mid nineties.