Review: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
When I went to see this film tonight, all that I knew of it was from a review I heard on National Public Radio back in December. I nearly didn't choose it. I'm very glad I did.
Directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada also features strong performances from Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam, Julio Cesar Cedillo, January Jones, and Melissa Leo. It is genre-defying, exhibiting elements of the buddy-movie, dark comic, western, crime procedural, and human-studies archetypes.
The story revolves around the mysterious and violent death in Texas of an undocumented Mexican cowboy named Melquiades Estrada (played in flashbacks by Julio Cesar Cedillo). Pete Perkins, played by the brilliantly understated Tommy Lee Jones, was a close friend and wrangling partner. He had promised Melquiades that if the migrant should die in the United States, he would take the body back to his home in Coahuila, a small ranchero called Jimenez. After the murder of Melquiades, Pete first pressures Sheriff Newton (played with an expert air of racism masquerading as by-the-book policing) and, when that fails, turns vigilante.
Pete retrieves the body of Melquiades and kidnaps the man he believes to have been responsible for his friend's death and heads south toward Mexico. It is at this point that the film picks up its meandering between genres. In one arc, we see how the desperate-for-justice Pete Perkins abducts Border Patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Hollywood actors working today); in another, featuring Levon Helm (storied drummer for The Band) as a blind rancher, there is so much black comedy that one can't help but wonder what drug Guillermo Arriaga was on when he wrote the story and screenplay.
The broad themes approached in the film are as numerous as the genres represented in the 121 minutes of its duration. To respect and love your wife; to stay fidelious despite boredom; to honor one's friends and one's promises to them; to admit to wrongdoing, especially if it was unintentional; to look beyond skin color and origin to see the nature of a person's character; and, most importantly and emphatically, whatever truth is advocated by the world, reality is often only a conversation away.
In closing, the film is captivating despite its long periods of silence and mood-building physical narrative -- even if no one's speaking, the landscape is beautiful enough to entertain for minutes at a time. Pepper shows himself to be capable of playing at least three different characters in delivering an emotional performance as a bullying Federal agent, a loser husband, a victim of kidnapping, a murderer, and a penitent. He awed me, to tell you the truth. Tommy Lee Jones has fallen prey to the common criticism: "of course he's done a great job in the role, he directed himself!" I take no truck with that statement. Dwight Yoakam shows that he has crossed over from music into acting, and he no longer needs to prove himself. Cedillo is a remarkably sympathetic character, even while doing the unpraiseworthy.
That the film was nominated for no Academy Awards is a testament to two things. First, there were far too many excellent films released in 2005 to keep track of; and secondly, don't release your movie in December if you want it to be given an Oscar nod. The film did, however, get accolades from elsewhere.
Directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada also features strong performances from Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam, Julio Cesar Cedillo, January Jones, and Melissa Leo. It is genre-defying, exhibiting elements of the buddy-movie, dark comic, western, crime procedural, and human-studies archetypes.
The story revolves around the mysterious and violent death in Texas of an undocumented Mexican cowboy named Melquiades Estrada (played in flashbacks by Julio Cesar Cedillo). Pete Perkins, played by the brilliantly understated Tommy Lee Jones, was a close friend and wrangling partner. He had promised Melquiades that if the migrant should die in the United States, he would take the body back to his home in Coahuila, a small ranchero called Jimenez. After the murder of Melquiades, Pete first pressures Sheriff Newton (played with an expert air of racism masquerading as by-the-book policing) and, when that fails, turns vigilante.
Pete retrieves the body of Melquiades and kidnaps the man he believes to have been responsible for his friend's death and heads south toward Mexico. It is at this point that the film picks up its meandering between genres. In one arc, we see how the desperate-for-justice Pete Perkins abducts Border Patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Hollywood actors working today); in another, featuring Levon Helm (storied drummer for The Band) as a blind rancher, there is so much black comedy that one can't help but wonder what drug Guillermo Arriaga was on when he wrote the story and screenplay.
The broad themes approached in the film are as numerous as the genres represented in the 121 minutes of its duration. To respect and love your wife; to stay fidelious despite boredom; to honor one's friends and one's promises to them; to admit to wrongdoing, especially if it was unintentional; to look beyond skin color and origin to see the nature of a person's character; and, most importantly and emphatically, whatever truth is advocated by the world, reality is often only a conversation away.
In closing, the film is captivating despite its long periods of silence and mood-building physical narrative -- even if no one's speaking, the landscape is beautiful enough to entertain for minutes at a time. Pepper shows himself to be capable of playing at least three different characters in delivering an emotional performance as a bullying Federal agent, a loser husband, a victim of kidnapping, a murderer, and a penitent. He awed me, to tell you the truth. Tommy Lee Jones has fallen prey to the common criticism: "of course he's done a great job in the role, he directed himself!" I take no truck with that statement. Dwight Yoakam shows that he has crossed over from music into acting, and he no longer needs to prove himself. Cedillo is a remarkably sympathetic character, even while doing the unpraiseworthy.
That the film was nominated for no Academy Awards is a testament to two things. First, there were far too many excellent films released in 2005 to keep track of; and secondly, don't release your movie in December if you want it to be given an Oscar nod. The film did, however, get accolades from elsewhere.