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THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA Send This Review to a Friend
The concept that every life is worth something and nobody should be tossed aside in death as if he were garbage is emphasized powerfully in “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” a film directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who also stars. Jones gives it the cache of a classic Western in which the hero is bent on righting a wrong, but this one is very different. Jones plays Pete Perkins, and when Pete’s ranch-hand buddy Melquiades, portrayed by Julio César Cedillo, is gunned down and anonymously buried, Pete decides to take action.
The situation is compounded by a cover up. The Texas local authorities, having little regard for a Mexican, would rather the shooting by a border guard be forgotten. Pete’s solution is to seize the guard, Mike Norton, played by Barry Pepper, dig up Melquiades, force Norton to accompany him on a journey to find his dead pal’s obscure home town in Mexico and see that he is fittingly buried there.
It is a gruesome situation, but not without some humor in the screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga. As the corpse deteriorates in the lengthy, grueling journey by horseback, the situation becomes somewhat absurd with the extent of Pete’s obsession, however justified. Norton didn’t mean to kill Melquiades, and his captivity by Mike begins to make an impression on him and bring on regrets along with his desire to escape.
Pete is stoic in his determination and his skill in evading the authorities who hunt him. It is a gripping Jones performance in line with the special charisma the actor provides in the film roles he takes. His direction is also strong here, as he focuses on delineating the principal and the affection that motivates Pete in trying to do right by a man whom he thinks he knows better than he does, as the film eventually makes clear.
“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” turns out to be among the more fascinating and effective films of 2005. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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