The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Y
May 3, 2005
This review was written for the festival screening of "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada."
CANNES -- For "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," his first feature as a director, Tommy Lee Jones sticks close to home. The story, written by "21 Grams" screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, focuses on the border country between Jones' native West Texas and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico, a beautiful though treacherous terrain where American and Mexican cultures share and divide the land. Tensions between these two peoples provide the backdrop, but the film moves beyond an easy drama about racism to tell a compelling tale about friendship and a quest for justice.
Jones displays a firm hand at the helm -- you sense that he is well within his comfort zone in this environment -- and performances including his own are lively and convincing. The only drawback is Arriaga's unwillingness to fully humanize the villain.
"Three Burials" begins in a dramatic mode but eventually shifts into something of a dark comedy. This tonal shift may perplex some of Jones' mainstream viewers, so the film may find greater success in specialty venues.
The story tells of an accidental killing and the determination of a friend of the victim to see that justice is done. The central figure is Jones' Pete Perkins, a ranch foreman who speaks Spanish and moves easily between the two cultures. Barry Pepper's Mike Norton is his diametric opposite, a Border Patrolman from Cincinnati without any understanding or appreciation of the Latinos he is trying to keep out of the U.S.
When Mike accidentally kills Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), an illegal alien who works on Pete's spread, his captain (Mel Rodriguez) and Sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam) quietly agree to cover it up. But Rachel (Melissa Leo), who runs a coffee shop with her husband, overhears their conversation.
Such is the level of boredom in this small town that Rachel happens to be having affairs with both Pete and Belmont. Knowing that Pete is distraught over his friend's death, Rachel tells him about the conversation. When Pete confronts Belmont and realizes that the sheriff has no intention of doing his duty, Pete takes matters into his own hands.
He kidnaps Mike and has him dig up Melquiades' rotting corpse. He then forces Mike to accompany him on horseback for a journey deep into the Mexican backcountry to bury Melquiades in his native town.
This, of course, is a morally suspect action. While Mike clearly should be arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter, being subjected to physical violence and threats of death hardly seems fair. Arriaga gets around this by making Mike as repulsive as possible. Before the accidental shooting, Mike is contemptuous of all illegal aliens, punches one woman and breaks her nose, is callous toward his wife (January Jones) and -- to really underscore his redneck/gringo propensities -- is a devotee of Hustler magazine.
The journey to bury Melquiades gradually takes on a comic tone, with much of the humor centering on how to deal with a putrid corpse. Pickling in anti-freeze eventually does the trick. The two men hardly become buddies, but Pete does give Mike a genuine gift: a chance to redeem himself and express genuine contrition.
The journey has its odd encounters, including one with an old blind man (Levon Helm) living a lonely existence in a rude country shack and another with a rattlesnake that bites Mike, forcing him to seek help from a healer who turns out to be the very woman whose nose he broke.
Jones the director certainly knows how to play to the strengths of Jones the actor. Much of his sturdy performance comes out of body language and scrutiny of his grizzled face. Pepper makes poor Mike a contemptible figure all right, but during the journey he does suggest a potential for grudging redemption.
Yoakam conveys the mind-set of a police officer who has lost his feel for his job. Leo nicely portrays the ironic disposition of a small-town gal who keeps things lively by juggling three men romantically. January Jones makes the bored housewife into a woman who only gradually realizes how unsatisfied she is with her life.
Chris Menges' widescreen cinematography drinks in the rugged grandeur of the wild landscape, while Marco Beltrami supplies a Western-tinged score that along with country songs make up the soundtrack.
THE THREE BURIALSOF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
EuropaCorp/Javelina Film Co.
Credits:
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga
Producers: Michael Fitzgerald, Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Tommy Lee Jones
Director of photography: Chris Menges
Production designer: Meredith Boswell
Music: Marco Beltrami
Costumes: Kathleen Kiatta
Editor: Roberto Silvi
Cast:
Pete Perkins: Tommy Lee Jones
Mike Norton: Barry Pepper
Melquiades Estrada: Julio Cesar Cedillo
Lou Ann Norton
January Jones
Belmont: Dwight Yoakam
Rachel: Melissa Leo
Old Man: Levon Helm
Capt. Gomez: Mel Rodriguez
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 120 minutes
CANNES -- For "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," his first feature as a director, Tommy Lee Jones sticks close to home. The story, written by "21 Grams" screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, focuses on the border country between Jones' native West Texas and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico, a beautiful though treacherous terrain where American and Mexican cultures share and divide the land. Tensions between these two peoples provide the backdrop, but the film moves beyond an easy drama about racism to tell a compelling tale about friendship and a quest for justice.
Jones displays a firm hand at the helm -- you sense that he is well within his comfort zone in this environment -- and performances including his own are lively and convincing. The only drawback is Arriaga's unwillingness to fully humanize the villain.
"Three Burials" begins in a dramatic mode but eventually shifts into something of a dark comedy. This tonal shift may perplex some of Jones' mainstream viewers, so the film may find greater success in specialty venues.
The story tells of an accidental killing and the determination of a friend of the victim to see that justice is done. The central figure is Jones' Pete Perkins, a ranch foreman who speaks Spanish and moves easily between the two cultures. Barry Pepper's Mike Norton is his diametric opposite, a Border Patrolman from Cincinnati without any understanding or appreciation of the Latinos he is trying to keep out of the U.S.
When Mike accidentally kills Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), an illegal alien who works on Pete's spread, his captain (Mel Rodriguez) and Sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam) quietly agree to cover it up. But Rachel (Melissa Leo), who runs a coffee shop with her husband, overhears their conversation.
Such is the level of boredom in this small town that Rachel happens to be having affairs with both Pete and Belmont. Knowing that Pete is distraught over his friend's death, Rachel tells him about the conversation. When Pete confronts Belmont and realizes that the sheriff has no intention of doing his duty, Pete takes matters into his own hands.
He kidnaps Mike and has him dig up Melquiades' rotting corpse. He then forces Mike to accompany him on horseback for a journey deep into the Mexican backcountry to bury Melquiades in his native town.
This, of course, is a morally suspect action. While Mike clearly should be arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter, being subjected to physical violence and threats of death hardly seems fair. Arriaga gets around this by making Mike as repulsive as possible. Before the accidental shooting, Mike is contemptuous of all illegal aliens, punches one woman and breaks her nose, is callous toward his wife (January Jones) and -- to really underscore his redneck/gringo propensities -- is a devotee of Hustler magazine.
The journey to bury Melquiades gradually takes on a comic tone, with much of the humor centering on how to deal with a putrid corpse. Pickling in anti-freeze eventually does the trick. The two men hardly become buddies, but Pete does give Mike a genuine gift: a chance to redeem himself and express genuine contrition.
The journey has its odd encounters, including one with an old blind man (Levon Helm) living a lonely existence in a rude country shack and another with a rattlesnake that bites Mike, forcing him to seek help from a healer who turns out to be the very woman whose nose he broke.
Jones the director certainly knows how to play to the strengths of Jones the actor. Much of his sturdy performance comes out of body language and scrutiny of his grizzled face. Pepper makes poor Mike a contemptible figure all right, but during the journey he does suggest a potential for grudging redemption.
Yoakam conveys the mind-set of a police officer who has lost his feel for his job. Leo nicely portrays the ironic disposition of a small-town gal who keeps things lively by juggling three men romantically. January Jones makes the bored housewife into a woman who only gradually realizes how unsatisfied she is with her life.
Chris Menges' widescreen cinematography drinks in the rugged grandeur of the wild landscape, while Marco Beltrami supplies a Western-tinged score that along with country songs make up the soundtrack.
THE THREE BURIALSOF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
EuropaCorp/Javelina Film Co.
Credits:
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga
Producers: Michael Fitzgerald, Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Tommy Lee Jones
Director of photography: Chris Menges
Production designer: Meredith Boswell
Music: Marco Beltrami
Costumes: Kathleen Kiatta
Editor: Roberto Silvi
Cast:
Pete Perkins: Tommy Lee Jones
Mike Norton: Barry Pepper
Melquiades Estrada: Julio Cesar Cedillo
Lou Ann Norton
January Jones
Belmont: Dwight Yoakam
Rachel: Melissa Leo
Old Man: Levon Helm
Capt. Gomez: Mel Rodriguez
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 120 minutes
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