The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

I hadn't heard anything about it before seeing it, but now I want to hear inverviews. Is this the one you're talking about andy?

Somebody disagrees with you. Maybe he's like Jerry Lewis over there.

The first burial is not explicit. There is some weird Raymond Carver-esque shit with the Mickey Mantle 61 guy's wife and the town floozy.

Weird anti-mercy-killing message to... hey Levon Helm!

That's all I'm gonna say right now, I'll be back though... Hey I'm Steve Shasta.

Lonesome Dove meets Weekend At Bernies!

The narrative is jumpy, so prepare yourself for a little suspension of chronology from the beginning.

There is a photograph in the movie, study it closely, you only get a couple askew glances at it.

If you speak Spanish, notice the difference in translations: "mi mujer" vs. "my wife", "mi hombre" vs. "my son", "rancheria" vs. "little town", etc. I think there is something at work there (just a theory).

There are nice little paeans to TLJ's career (even The Fujitive) peppered throughout.

Steve

also strange motif of sexual deviance (impotence, adultery, pornography, bored wife) that i couldnt make sense of. america is full of "billboards" and is decadent and cant even get it up and get off a woman anymore?

question: did Melquiades sleep with the blonde wife or not? this seems important to me!

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a study of the emotional, psychological, spiritual and social implications of having an international border running through the middle of a culture.

We have used the narrative form of a journey wherein circumstances conspire to compel a hero to leave a mundane place and travel through various other places; some of them dangerous or life-threatening, some of them humorous, some of them mysterious, all of them arduous, until ultimately, he arrives at a good place where he knows who he is and how to gracefully relate to the world around him. It's a form that's been used for thousands of years, and it serves us well in this study of social contrasts and the mechanics of faith.

Some visual influences have been the Kabuki Theatre, the art of Donald Judd and Dan Flavin, and the films of Akira Kurosawa and Sam Peckinpah.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Screenwriter's Statement

Above everything The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a story of friendship, a friendship that goes beyond borders, one that continues even after death. When Melquiades gives his most precious possession to Pete, it makes no sense at all...until you consider their friendship. When Pete risks his life to travel to Mexico, it makes no sense at all...until you consider his friendship with Melquiades.

This film was born out of friendship. When I first met Tommy Lee, it was not on a set or at a studio but in his home. He had seen a film I had scripted and called me in Mexico City and invited me up to Texas for dinner. All evening long we discussed my Mexico and his Texas and the ways they differ and the ways they are the same. It's a conversation we continued months later when he invited me to meet him again. Only this time is was at his ranch in West Texas, the one featured in the film. The first time I went out there I was his guest, but by my second trip I was his friend. On my third trip there we agreed to develop this idea we had into a movie. When we did so, we did it not just as filmmakers but as friends.

- Guillermo Arriaga

man he's such a terrible actor, no range. Story sounds like some half-baked Cormac McCarthy shit.
-- Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, December 19, 2005 3:40 PM (2 years ago)

Shakey has vision!

haha

I saw it. It was aight. A little overwrought.

Went on for fucking ever.

Lonesome Dove meets Weekend At Bernies!

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, February 22, 2006 10:53 PM (2 years ago)

awesome flick

i liked the length

If the length was the only problem...

i liked it

it has problems, but length is sorta the point

i enjoyed this thoroughly

If the length was the only problem...

What didn't you dig, Soto?

hey guys this movie was two hours long ... that's pretty standard these days

you kids all hopped up on mallomars and jujubees and pixie dust

but it sometimes feels arduous, which was kinda the idea

Meh. What's-his-name the screenwriter loves coincidences and simultaneity and The Hand of Fate way too much for my taste, and Jones the director was too reverent.

you and your milk duds and swedish fish and jaffa cakes

you and your turkish delight and lady fingers and grape soda

mmm Turkish delight.

The Hand of Fate way too much for my taste

Fair enough. Are you a fan of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (which I find is in the same spiritual ballpark as this one)?

What's-his-name the screenwriter loves coincidences and simultaneity and The Hand of Fate way too much for my taste

it's kinda appropriate to the subject matter

Jones the director was too reverent.

definitely

Are you a fan of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (which I find is in the same spiritual ballpark as this one)?

There's a lot more pulp in the Peckinpah film. I didn't hate Melquiades Estrada; it just makes the same errors of lots of actor-director projects.

as a movie about a region, it makes the error of being influenced by the regional culture

search: the director's commentary on the DVD

what is a spiritual ballpark

have you ever seen 'field of dreams'?

this was great. I thank ILX for pointing me to it.