The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada is a powerful directorial debut from Tommy Lee Jones, working from a screenplay by 21 Grams’ Guillermo Arriaga. Thankfully, Melquiades Estrada largely eschews the complex time- shifting and fractured narrative that made the earlier film such a chore, relying instead on a classic road/ buddy movie structure seemingly inspired equally by the westerns of Sam Peckinpah (the title seems to echo that of Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia) and the darker novels of Larry McMurtry, specifically Streets Of Laredo.
The characters and locations feel familiar, lived in, clearly drawn from Arriaga and Jones’ personal experience- in this way the film recalls John Sayles’ Lone Star, and like that film Melquiades Estrada deals with racial politics, corruption and police incompetence along the Mexican border. But this is very much a film of its time, an angry condemnation of every uniformed American who shoots to kill and then claims the brown guy started it. It’s rare to see a film which treats human life, every human life, with such respect, achingly aware that for each man, woman or child who dies there’s always someone left behind to mourn.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
09 Feb 2006 6:21 AM | Submit Comment