''800 Bullets'' ( es, 800 balas, links=no) is a 2002 Spanish film directed by

Álex de la Iglesia Alejandro "Álex" de la Iglesia Mendoza (born 4 December 1965) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former comic book artist. De la Iglesia's films combine grotesque and very dark elements such as death and murder: most of his ...

and penned by the former alongside

Jorge Guerricaechevarría Jorge Guerricaechevarría (born 10 July, 1965), also known as 'Guerrica', is a Spanish screenwriter. A regular co-scribe of Álex de la Iglesia's films, he has also been a recurring collaborator of Daniel Monzón. He won a Goya Award for the scri ...

. The cast features Sancho Gracia,

Ángel de Andrés Ángel de Andrés Miquel was a Spanish theatre actor and director. Background In 1938, after the Spanish Civil War broke out, the young Andrés worked as an amateur street actor and then as a "galán cómico" in the Salvador Videgain theatre ...

, Carmen Maura,

Eusebio Poncela Eusebio Poncela Aprea (born 15 September 1947) is a Spanish actor. Biography Eusebio Poncela Aprea was born in Madrid on 15 September 1947. After graduating in drama, he made his debut onstage in the play '' Mariana Pineda'' in the mid 1960s ...

Terele Pávez Teresa Marta Ruiz Penella (29 July 1939 – 11 August 2017), better known as Terele Pávez, was a Spanish actress. She appeared in more than ninety films since 1954. She died on 11 August 2017 due to a stroke at the age of 78. Selected fil ...

and Luis Castro, among others. The film, a tribute to Spanish stuntmen who worked in

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

s, features similarities to Spielbergian Oedipal melodramas.

Plot

Julián Torralba is a former film stuntman in Almeria, Spain. He and several of his colleagues, who once made a living in American Westerns shot in Spain, now are reduced to doing stunt shows for minuscule audiences on the decaying set built for those old Westerns. Julián wrestles with dark memories of the death of his son, also a stuntman, and with estrangement from his daughter-in-law Laura and her son Carlos. Carlos, a young boy, becomes intrigued with his late father's life and runs away to join Julián and his band of has-beens. There Carlos is initiated into the rambunctious life of these hard-drinking faux cowboys. But when Laura, a powerful executive looking for a new site for a tourist resort, learns that Carlos has joined the hated Julián, she moves to destroy even this remnant of Julián's once-proud career. Julián and the cowboys decide to fight back the only way they know how.

Cast

Production

Produced by Pánico Films, ''800 Bullets'' was shot in the

province of Almería Almería (, also , ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homonymous city of Almería. Almería has an area of . With 701, ...

. Shooting locations included the Paseo de Almería, the Calle Reina Regente (both in the provincial capital,

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

), Santa María del Águila (

El Ejido El Ejido () is a municipality of Almería province, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It is located 32 km from Almería with a surface area of 227 km2, and as reported in 2014 had 84,144 inhabitants. El Ejido is the centre of prod ...

), Las Salinillas ( Gádor- Gérgal- Rioja- Tabernas), Garganta de Alfaro (Rioja) and the Poblado estudio Fort Bravo-Texas Hollywood (Tabernas). The film had a budget of around

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

5 million.

Release

The film had its world premiere on 11 October 2002 at the

Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...

(FICC), making its domestic theatrical release a week later, on 18 October. The film performed bad at the box office, becoming one of the economic blunders in 2002 Spanish cinema, grossing less than €2 million.

Awards and nominations

, - , align = "center" rowspan = "4" , 2003 , , rowspan = "4" ,

17th Goya Awards The 17th Goya Awards took place at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid, Spain on 1 February 2003. ''Mondays in the Sun'' won the award for Best Film. Winners and nominees Major award nominees Other award nominees Honorary Goya * M ...

, ,

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

, , Sancho Gracia , , , , rowspan = "4" , , - , Best Original Score , , Roque Baños , , , - , Best Editing , , Alejandro Lázaro , , , - , Best Special Effects , , Juan Ramón Molina, Félix Bergés, Rafael Solórzano , ,

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * *

External links

* {{Álex de la Iglesia 2002 films 2002 comedy films Films about stunt performers Films directed by Álex de la Iglesia Films set in Spain Films shot in Almería Films scored by Roque Baños Films with screenplays by Jorge Guerricaechevarría 2000s Italian-language films Spanish adventure comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s Spanish films