"Bandits": actors and roles

Actors of the film "Bandits" - famous Hollywood celebrities, and produced this picture himself Luc Besson. And this is not the only reason to watch the western, released by the film company Twentieth Century Fox in 2006. Does this picture have any more merits and what is the plot of The Bandit?

The creators of the film. Short story

Scenario for the film "Bandits" was written by Luke Besson - the man who shot "Nikita", "Leon" and "The Fifth Element." Besson also produced the western of Banditki.

Actors in the film were selected according to the rank of its creator: the main roles were the first beauties of Hollywood - the Spanish Penelope Cruz and the Mexican Salma Hayek.

The project was overseen by the film company Twentieth Century Fox, which invited Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg to the director's chair.

Within a half hour on the screen in front of the audience the story of two girls unfolds: at the behest of rock, the peasant Maria and aristocrat Sara are forced to fight together against the powerful American landowner who is involved in the numerous murders and ruin of peasants in Mexico. Maria and Sarah are complete opposites, but they share a common grief, a thirst for justice and ... an incredible beauty! And they will make Tyler Jackson regret that he sank to Mexico!

"Bandits": actors and roles. Penelope Cruz in the role of Maria

According to the story, Maria Alvarez, performed by Penelope Cruz is the daughter of a peasant, whom the villain Tyler Jackson is cruelly killing. Moreover, Jackson takes away from Alvarez their land, conditionally bought it for one dollar. Slightly angry, Maria goes to rob the bank to get money for existence. There she meets another gangster, who turns out to be Sarah Sandoval. And although Sarah does not like Maria, she seems arrogant to her, the peasant woman is ready to combine her efforts with her to restore, finally, justice.

The film "Bandits", whose actors and roles after the first viewing for a long time to remember the audience, did not play any special role in the career of Penelope Cruz: she started shooting, already being a star of the first magnitude. The actress has coped with her tasks in the films "Vanilla Sky", "Cocaine", "Gothic", "Fanfan-Tulip". And after "Bandit" Penelope starred in Woody Allen's film "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona", for the work in which she received the long-awaited Oscar.

"Bandits": actors, photo. Salma Hayek as Sarah

The role of educated aristocrat Sarah Sandoval was considered a lot of candidates. However, the producers preferred the sultry Hayek. And they were not mistaken: if the audience is shown the actors of the film "Bandits", they will recognize Salma in two counts. The thing is that the actress can choose the memorable roles: she plays the vampire Santanico Pandemonium in the cult film "From Dusk Till Dawn", then the passionate Esmeralda in the drama "Hunchback of Notre Dame", and in 2002 appears in front of the audience in the image The most ambiguous artist of the 20th century - Frida Kahlo.

In the bandit "Bandit", the heroine of Salma Hayek lives a carefree, prosperous life in Europe, until Tyler Jackson kills her banker father in Mexico. By chance, Sarah at this time just arrived home for the holidays and witnessed the tragedy. Moreover, Tyler wanted to make Sarah his mistress, but the girl manages to escape from the city.

The next day, Sarah makes an attempt to rob his father's bank to return to Europe for the money. However, the meeting with Maria changes her whole life.

Steve Zahn as the detective Quentin

In the film "Bandits" actors Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek play accomplices. But the hero of Steve Zahn does not immediately join the bandits.

At the beginning of the film, Quentin Cook, performed by Steve Zahn, appears before us in the form of a successful detective, which strictly follows the letter of the law. When bandits begin to rob one bank after another, Tyler Jackson sees this as a threat to his plans and calls a promising detective to Mexico, so that he catches the scoundrels. However, when Quentin Cook meets young women closer, when they open his eyes to the atrocities of Tyler Jackson, he unexpectedly takes sides with Sara and Maria, although for his career this will have irreversible consequences.

Steve Zahn with Penelope Cruz met on the set for the first time: a year earlier, together with the Spanish actress, he was shot in the action movie "Sahara". In 2003, the actor played a major role in the militant "National Security", and in 2001, along with Paul Walker appeared in the thriller "Wow travel".

Dwight Yokem as Tyler Jackson

In the film "Bandits" the actors Penelope Cruz, Steve Zahn and Salma Hayek are a team of heroes, against which the character Tyler Jackson, performed by Dwight Jokem, looks like an absolute evil.

Tyler Jackson is an American landowner who actively turns his "dark" deeds on the territory of Mexico. When the father of Sarah Sandoval begins to suspect something is wrong, Tyler kills him cruelly. Similarly, he deals with Mexican peasants, whose land he needs: Jackson draws up fictitious papers on the sale of land to him at a price of one dollar, and then kills the landowner, so that he does not raise unnecessary noise. Tyler is so self-confident that it becomes a surprise to him that two girls can interfere with his plans.

Dwight Yokem is actually an American country performer, with over 20 recorded albums on his account. From time to time, the musician is removed from the movie: he can be seen in the films "Adrenaline" with Jason Statham, "Three Graves" with Tommy Lee Jones and "Hollywood Cops" with Harrison Ford.

Sam Shepard as Bill Buck

The film "Bandits" (2006) attracts additional attention to the film with their big names. The same can be said of Sam Shepard, who is not only an actor, but also a famous American playwright.

In 1983, Shepard played Chuck in the movie Philip Kaufman "Guys what you need." For this role, Sam was nominated for an Oscar. Then the actor appeared in the films "Criminal Intent", "Steel Magnolia", "Hamlet", "Password" Swordfish "and" Diary of Memory ".

In "Bandits" Sam Shepard got the role of the cynical robber Bill Buck, to which Sarah and Maria apply for help: from Bill they want him to teach them to rob banks professionally. Buck does not immediately agree to this adventure, but later his lessons taught a lot to the main characters.

Premiere, box office

The film "Bandits" was first presented in Belgium, Russia and France: the inhabitants of these countries saw a western on January 18, 2006. On January 20, the picture was shown in Armenia, and on January 17 in Mexico. In the US, the film was seen only in September, and then in a limited box office.

The budget of the picture was 32 million euros. At the box office it was possible to raise $ 20 million. Another 4 million was earned on the release of the DVD version of the film.

Reviews of the movie

What else, except world celebrities, can be interesting Western "Bandits"? Actors with famous names - this, of course, is good, but that the movie was watched, sometimes this is not enough. Meanwhile, the audience notes that they are ready to revise the picture several times in a row.

Why not? The actors play quite convincingly, the plot is light and fascinating, impressive in-situ footage, Mexican landscapes and historical costumes. Of course, there are reviews according to which "Bandits" - a picture primitive, can be viewed only once. But such responses can be heard rarely.

Basically people like the Lucas Besson movie's originality: after all, fighters for justice in Westerns and militants often become men, but here are women, and even such attractive ones. In addition, the fascinating plot is flavored with a fair amount of humor, does not bother with repeated viewing, allows the viewer to relax and relax. So lovers of female beauty, famously twisted plots and Mexican entourage should definitely include the Western "Bandits" in their film library.