You Want to Die With a Man's Gun, Not a Little Sissy Gun Like This, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Embroidery.

¡Three Amigos! is one of my all time favorite comedies. The script is packed full of hilariously absurd situations and memorable one-liners. And even if you don't really like Martin Short (which I don't) and have been disappointed with Chevy Chase since his SNL days (which I am) and wonder why Steve Martin can't always be The Jerk (which I do), their performances and timing here is priceless. Also, there's an actor named Fred Asparagus and it makes me laugh every time I see his name in the credits.

The movie is about a trio of silent film era actors that, being fired from their jobs, go to Mexico to put on a show with the infamous El Guapo, not realizing that it isn't a show and these real bandits are trying to kill them.

This scene involves the Amigos breaking into the studio that they have just been banned from to steal their costumes, and oh, what costumes. Outlandish black velour with ornate silver embroidery, they are the epitome of ridiculousness that Hollywood was, especially in the Golden Era. These three greedy, shallow, and, let's say, "not so bright", actors dress up and pretend to be the Three Amigos, a trio of cowboy-robin hoods, who scour the Mexican plains defending helpless villages from roving bandits. And their big flashy costumes only go to emphasize just how fake they really are.

It's interesting to note that their costumes never get dirty or tarnished in the entire movie - one of them even magically repairs itself after Lucky Day gets shot in the arm - and while it's easy to play it off as a fanciful Hollywood oversight that this movie is coincidentally also making fun of, it seems that a lot of work would have to go into making that happen in scene after scene. Especially having them trek through the Arizona desert through the entire second act. So it was purposeful that the ideals represented by the Amigos and their costumes were pure and undefeatable.

Another item of interest in this scene is that most suit-up scenes show the protagonist showing their ingenuity and the resources they will use to overcome, and all of the most successful movies with the scenes of this type, always show that the objects that the protagonist carries into conflict are never enough to defeat adversity, and one by one as the guns, knives, and grenades are spent or lost - with dazzling explosions and special effects - it comes down to the protagonist's own intelligence and strength of character to carry him through the conflict. Those items that would normally be featured in those scenes, here in the ¡Three Amigos!, are conspicuously absent. Though they carry guns and a lasso, these items are not featured as part of the suit-up scene, only the costumes. It is in fact the costumes themselves, through the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Amigos, that at the end are the key to defeating adversity, and ultimately the code they represent.

Then again it is as absurd and ridiculously funny movie, so who cares if their costumes get dirty or not?