Low Key “Burials” Delivers High Quality Film Poignant “Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” Resonates as One of 2005’s Best
By Chase Clements ‘07
News Staff Reporter
A month ago, the Oscars crowned such commercial movies as “Crash” and “Brokeback Mountain,” both excellent in their own respect, with top awards, but many times the films that do not make it to Hollywood and the Oscars prove to be even more powerful than those that do. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Tommy Lee Jones’s directorial debut, is such a case. Although at first the story seems rather simple, interwoven flashbacks, captivating character interactions, and recurring themes add much bulk to the story’s skeleton. The film begins in a small southern Texas town with the newly discovered cadaver of an illegal Mexican immigrant, Melquiades Estrada, who we later learn was the employee and good friend of Pete, Tommy Lee Jones, seen grieving at the loss of his companion. Meanwhile, in a flashback of sorts, stolid, and questionably racist, Mike, a border patrol guard (Barry Pepper of “Saving Private Ryan”), and his uninterested wife Lou Ann move to the same town for Mike’s job. After discovering Mike to be the accidental killer of Melquiades, Pete fulfills the promise he made to comrade, to bring him back to his hometown in Mexico and bury him there. However, Pete decides to captivate Mike so that he can accompany Pete on the journey.
In the end, the relationships between the many characters of the story and their clear and powerful developments, as well as the continuing theme of the relationship between Americans and Mexicans, truly propel the film forward into a class of its own. Lou Ann, completely bored with her husband, finds a friend in a local waitress, in whom she can confide her true feelings. At the same time, the scenes between the failing husband and wife are captivating, because there is such a palpable lack of emotion or passion between them. The flashbacks between Pete and Melquiades illustrate their deep friendship despite racial and cultural differences. However, the key relationship of the film is between the mourning Pete and the insensitive Mike. Together during the long journey across vast stretches of barren land, their interactions cause both of them to develop immensely and to reach some form of redemption in the end.
In addition, the story plays upon the idea of the interaction between Mexicans and Americans on a major point of contact of the two countries. Although they are so close in proximity, they are divided by racial and cultural barriers. The border control guard Mike illustrates great hostility towards the illegal immigrants he captures. At the same time, Pete provides the compassionate angle, when he allows Melquiades to work for him as a rancher. In the end, Mike is forced to overcome his bias during the journey into the outskirts of Mexico. On a lighter note, America’s large influence on Mexico can be seen in the same soap opera show being watched in Texas and across the border, while providing some needed humor. All other aspects of the film prove to be just as effective, such as Jones’s intelligent direction, as well as his portrayal of the tough, Spanish-speaking character, and an excellent beginning. Barry Pepper stands out as well in his gradual development from a completely unemotional, and almost cruel, state. When films as provocative and evocative as this go almost unnoticed to viewers, one can only hope that in the future this injustice can somehow be reversed, so that tasteless movies like “Basic Instinct 2” can be replaced by gleaming gems like this one.
