The
U.S.-Mexico border has long been plagued with violence and racism,
and many of the events that unfold in The Three Burials of Melquiades
Estrada are accurate depictions of the ongoing abuse of human rights
in the region.
Release Date: December
14, 2005 (NY & LA Academy run; limited release: February
3, 2006) Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones, Melissa Leo, Vanessa Bauche, Levon Helm Genre: Drama Official Website: ThreeBurialsfilm.com
A man is shot and quickly buried in the high desert of West Texas. The body is found and reburied in Van Horn’s town cemetery. Pete Perkins, a local ranch foreman (TOMMY LEE JONES) kidnaps a Border Patrolman and forces him to disinter the body. With his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule Pete undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey into Mexico.
Guillermo Arriaga’s dramatic and poetic script weaves past and present as it gradually reveals a great friendship, the lonely subterfuge of an illegal migrant’s life, the cost of a promise made and kept, and culminates in the redemption of a callous if accidental killer.
The U.S.-Mexico border has long been plagued with violence and racism, and many of the events that unfold in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada are accurate depictions of the ongoing abuse of human rights in the region. But the film offers, in its conclusion, a pure form of contrition for wrongs committed, and a striking note of empathy for the lives so changed.
Far
more going on than you can absorb in one sitting!
Even
a few days after watching the film, there are bits and pieces
that I wonder about, knowing there is meaning that I haven’t
yet found. Tommy Lee Jones, in his directing debut, has created
a story that can lead us in thinking about many issues – violence
and anger, racism, fidelity, redemption. — Continue
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A man is shot and quickly buried in the high desert of West Texas. The body is found and reburied in Van Horn’s town cemetery. Pete Perkins, a local ranch foreman (TOMMY LEE JONES) kidnaps a Border Patrolman and forces him to disinter the body. With his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule Pete undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey into Mexico.
