THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA

US, 2005, 120 minutes, Colour.
Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cesar Cedillo, January Jones, Dwight Yokum, Levon Helm, Melissa Leo.
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones.

One of the very interesting features of this film is its sympathetic look at life on the US-Mexican Texas border. Not that there is not a lot of prejudice shown, especially in some of the border patrol and police characters, but there is concern for the plight of the Mexicans trying to cross the border illegally.

Director and star is Tommy Lee Jones, quite a macho presence is many of his films. He is somewhat the same here. However, he plays a cattle man who befriends the illegal cowboy, Melquiades Estrada, and is so grieved when he is shot dead that he is compelled to do two things: to take the body to the Mexican village where Melquiades requested to be buried and to force the man who shot him to take part in this journey. The three burials of the title indicate the quick internments in Texas and the proper burial back in Mexico.

The screenplay is by Guillermo Arriaga who wrote Amores Peros and 21 Grams. Arriaga likes threes. The previous films had three stories or three central characters whose lives were intertwined – which made it a bit hard for the audience at first to work out who was who and whether they were being shown present or future. It is somewhat the same here with the three burials signalled by captions (as well as the central part, The Journey) and the plot moving from present to past without our sometimes realising it. Once we have that sorted out, we are ready to understand Melquiades as a gentle and good man, to appreciate his friendship with Pete Perkins (Lee Jones) and to be challenged by attitudes towards Mike Norton (well played by Barry Pepper), the man who shot Melquiades.

The film certainly creates the atmosphere of isolation in the border towns, the potential for boredom, tangled relationships and the trigger happy men who take on the jobs of surveillance.

However, the core of the film is the journey, a horseback ride through mountainous and sometimes desert terrain, carrying the body of the dead man (and trying to preserve the body for burial). There is a significant encounter with a blind old man who helps them but wants to die. The group meet the Mexicans that Norton had treated brutally but who now save his life. The journey becomes a pilgrimage and, finally, a journey of atonement and belated penitence for wrong done.

It looks like a Western but Western fans may find it too slow. Non-Western? audiences will find that it ultimately works as an allegory of human nature, fall, sin and atonement. Quite an accomplishment for Tommy Lee Jones who won the Best Actor award in Cannes, 2005, while Arriaga won the Best Screenplay award.

1. The career of Tommy Lee Jones, actor, director, screen presence?

2. The Texas settings, the town, the border, the mountains, the rivers, the desert? Mexico? A sense of realism about the Mexican-American? border? The musical score? The Mexican tone?

3. The 21st century issues of Mexicans, illegals, coming into the United States? The reasons, the needs? The border patrols, their work, training, attitudes towards the Mexicans? The realism of the antagonism on the border?

4. The quality of the photography, wide-screen landscapes?

5. The title, expectations, the irony of the different burials?

6. The western tradition, the hero, the villains, the victims – postures and stances, 21st century?

7. The structure of the film, the captions, the past, the interweaving of present and past without information? Audiences alert as to what had happened and what was happening?

8. The opening, the coyote, the hunters and the guns, the discovery of the body, the repercussions? The attitude of Pete, his friend dying? Belmont and his strict police attitude, lack of interest? The border patrol? The autopsy? The reality of the death, the burial?

9. Melquiades and his being present in Pete’s memories? His riding in, meeting Pete, friendly nature, his being interested in a job, Pete employing him? Buying the clothes, their working together, his taming the horse? The photos of the two of them? His setting up a home, his dream for living in the United States? His story about his wife, family? The pathos of his death and the unfulfilled dream?

10. The picture of the Nortons? Their looking over the trailer home, the background story and their coming from Cincinnati, the work, being together at home, Lou-Ann? and her being bored at home, watching the television, the soaps, the sexual encounter while she watched the television, her looking at the uncommunicative neighbours? Going to the diner, being friendly with Rachel? Her meeting with Melquiades? Her being tied up by Pete, leaving the TV on? Her decision to leave her husband?

11. Belmont, his attitude towards the town, his police work, the information about Melquiades, his being lazy, the visits to Rachel and the sexual encounter? His being handy with the guns, threats to Pete, shooting or not? His decision to avoid any decisions and go on holidays?

12. The presentation of the border patrol, the personnel, training, the commander, their work, handy with the gun, chasing illegals? The confrontation with the group? Mike and his brutality?

13. Mike Norton, personality, his appearance, haircut, sullen attitude? His sense of duty – but his being lax, his returning home, expectations from Lou-Ann? Sexual encounters? Lack of personal warmth and love? Out on duty, looking at Hustler magazine? His impatience with the groups, punching the woman? His hearing the gunshots, presuming he was being attacked, shooting Melquiades? His discovery that he had killed him? Removing the body, lying?

14. Rachel, her place in the town, her love for Bob, the marriage? Her relationship with Belmont, her relationship with Pete? Taking Lou-Ann? to the meeting with Pete and Melquiades? Her getting the information? The possibility of leaving – but staying because she loved Bob? Life and work in the diner, Bob and his personality, the reason for her remaining?

15. The latter part of the film as a journey, a pilgrimage? Pete and his attitudes, the experience of Melquiades’ death, the burial, digging up the body? His harshness towards Mike? The saddle, the riding, the horse falling over the cliff? The trek through the desert, Mike and his attempting to run, Pete’s pursuit, relentlessness? The shirt and the shoes? Peter following him?

16. The encounter with the old man, listening to the radio, not understanding Spanish but enjoying the sound, his giving the food, his wanting them to shoot him, his son not coming back to get him? Abandoned in the desert? His lying to the pursuers about Pete and Mike?

17. Mexico, Mike and his being bitten by the snake, the encounter with the illegals’ group, the girl whom he had punched, her healing him, her punching him in return? Fording the river, his being healed? He and Pete going on together?

18. Melquiades’ story, his map, the description of the landscapes, the names of the village, Pete and his inquiries, the head man of the village, their being no such place? Finding the spot for the burial, Mike digging the grave, the burial?

19. Pete and his attitude towards Mike, making him atone for what he had done, Mike and his growing desperation, his asking for pardon, for forgiveness, Pete letting him live?

20. The future for Pete, return to the US or not, Rachel and her refusal to go with him? Mike, the experience of sin, forgiveness and atonement, no wife to return to? His future?