The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

[Doc Holliday]

I just saw this movie. And to answer Dole’s three year quandary*, no -- the Mexican isn’t killed because he’s illegal, and no -- that’s not the Border Patrol’s job. If it were that simple, this movie would be dumb and Tommy Lee Jones would be an asshole for making it. In Three Burials, the immigration issue is less a character than it is a landscape. Instead the story is about actions and consequences.





For a first time directing job, this movie is astounding! The pacing, the balance, and well, the directing are all tight, like he's been doing it for years. Every shot and scene are necessary, and timed right to get the movie moving where it should. The first act is the setup -- told non-linear, abruptly cutting between present and past, telling you everything you need to know without dragging on. The second is the journey -- told sequentially with the driven feel every western should have. To clarify, you begin an hour of murder, mystery and suspense then roll head on into an hour of revenge and adventure. And as a cherry on top? In the end you don’t even have to hear the villain dribble on with some long-winded explanation! In fact, there isn’t a villain -- not the rancher, the illegal, the police, not even the Border Patrol! You’re just left with a screen of swinging dicks living with their poor choices.





That’s what I mean by landscape over character and balance over diligence. So many good stories are ruined by directors that are either so focused on making a statement that they sacrifice everyone else to be the bad guys (see Crash, Hombre), or don’t know when and what to cut and the odyssey turns into an eternity (see POTC II and the director’s cut of Fistful of Dynamite).

Tommy manages to resist both, and in doing so projects a tale of friendship, oath, honor, and ultimately doing the right thing.






note: Now I may have gone off like this is some grandiose epic odyssey, well it’s not. No, it’s much more subtle. In fact it’s the perfect set up for Tommy to go into No Country for Old Men -- set in the same land with one of the same actors. Only, there the evil is real and the ideas are much bigger.

* what I’m referring too.

[soundwave]

Good review! I saw this a while back and enjoyed it. It's a slow burn at times but the acting is superb. This film always make me think of Lone Star, which is an excellent film in its own right.