This gallery features images of Johnny Depp as Agent Sheldon Jeffrey Sands in Robert Rodriguez’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO. Released on September 12, 2003, the movie was shot in picturesque San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in late May and early June of 2001. Remarkably, Johnny’s role took only eight days to complete, although he is onscreen for half of the film’s running time. Johnny earned rave reviews for his performance as the clever, unscrupulous CIA operative who seeks to “restore the balance” to Mexican politics by interfering with a drug lord’s attempted coup. The character moves from cocky puppetmaster to blind avenger, growing in stature as he loses his advantages. Sleek as a panther and twice as lethal, Johnny endows the witty, enigmatic Agent Sands with a fallen-angel beauty that compels us to watch.

--Part-Time Poet