One actor, two characters, and the Assasin versus the Desperado

I’ve been meaning to type up a few thoughts I have had since Christmas Eve but I hadn’t gotten around to it because I have been feeling… well, you know… Ugh.

Starz was recently airing over and over again one of the Wachowski brothers writing works – one that I happen to like even though Sly Stallone sorta dragged the movie down. The film? Assasins. With the repeated airing of the film, I got to view over and over again the character in the movie that I loved the most — Miguel Bain, played by Antonio Bandaras.

Seeing this film repeatedly got me thinking about Antonio’s other role that I happen to like — El Mariachi, the guitar-case weilding, gunslinging hero of Desperado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico. With the gunslinging, the two characters of Bain and El Mariachi are similiar, but that is about where it ends.

I love Miguel Bain as the cunning, ruthless, cold hearted, quipping assassin that is driven by his desire to be the #1 assassin on the market. What woudl Bain do if he was pitted against El Mariachi?

Personally, I think he would kick El Mariachi’s ass. Bain (come on, Antonio looked cooler with the perm as to the long black straight hair) might not have a full weapons arsenal in a carrying case with him, but he’s calculating enough and — well? Aware of history? Even if he is only using a sniper rifle or a silenced .22 Ruger, I’d put my money on him before the big, bad, Mexcican (El Mariachi)….

Alas, Bain is dead and El Mariachi is forced to live on through Robert Rodriguez home video (Once Upon A Time iN Mexico was described as such)… I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I would have loved to have seen more of Bain in cinema…