The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a 2005 drama film directed by Tommy Lee Jones and written by Guillermo Arriaga. It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, and Dwight Yoakam.
Plot
Melquiades Estrada, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is shot and buried in a shallow grave in the high desert of West Texas (inspired by the real-life shooting of Esequiel Hernandez.[2]). His body is found and reburied in a local cemetery. After kidnapping the killer and forcing him to disinter the body, Pete Perkins, Melquiades' best friend and employer, undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey on horseback into Mexico, with his captive in tow and Melquiades' body tied to a mule.
The film has many flashbacks. Sometimes the same event is shown twice, from different perspectives.
Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) and his wife move to the border area of West Texas. He is a naive and gung-ho border patrolman, prone to violent over-reaction. He has rough sex with his wife, without any regard for her pleasure or emotion.
Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo), a Mexican immigrant working as a cowboy, shoots at a coyote which is menacing his small flock of goats. Patrolman Norton thinks he is being attacked and shoots back, killing Melquiades. Norton quickly buries Melquiades and does not report anything.
Melquiades' body is found and is reburied in a local cemetery by the sheriff's office. Evidence that he may have been killed by the U.S. Border Patrol is ignored by the local sheriff, Belmont (Dwight Yoakam), who would prefer to avoid trouble with the Border Patrol.
Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones), a rancher and Melquiades' best friend, finds out that the killer was Norton. Pete kidnaps Norton and forces him to dig up Melquiades' body.
In order to keep his promise to Melquiades that he would bury him in his home town of Jiménez in Mexico if he died in the U.S., Pete undertakes a journey horseback into Mexico, with his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule. His motive for taking Norton along appears to be revenge as well as to teach him respect and empathy for Mexicans.
It is clear to Sheriff Belmont that Pete has kidnapped Norton, and he searches for them; when Belmont sees them heading toward the Mexico border, he takes aim at Pete. But Belmont can't bring himself to shoot Pete, in spite of his dislike of the man. So Pete and Norton are pursued by the border patrol instead.
On their way across the harsh countryside, the pair experience a series of surreal encounters. They spend an afternoon with an elderly, blind, American man (Levon Helm), who has only Mexican radio for company and eventually asks them to shoot him since there is no-one left to take care of him. He does not want to commit suicide, because, he argues, doing so would offend God. Pete refuses, because if he killed the man, he would offend God.
Norton attempts to escape but is bitten by a rattlesnake and discovered by a group of illegal immigrants crossing into Texas. Pete gives one of them a horse as payment for guiding them across the river into Mexico, and to a herbal healer to treat Norton. She turns out to be a woman whom Norton had punched in the face and broken the nose a few weeks previously. Nevertheless, at Pete's request, she saves Norton's life. However, she breaks Norton's nose as revenge for his doing the same to her earlier.
The captivity, the tiring journey, and the disintegrating corpse slowly take a profound psychological toll on Norton. At one point, the duo encounter a group of Mexican vaqueros watching American soap operas on a television hooked up to the battery of their pickup truck. The program is the same that was airing when Norton had sex with his wife in their trailer earlier in the movie. Norton is visibly shaken and is given half a bottle of liquor by one of the vaqueros. Parallel to this, back in the United States, Norton's wife decides to leave the border town, ostensibly to return to their home town of Cincinnati. She has grown distant from her husband and seems unconcerned about his kidnapping, stating that he is "beyond redemption."
Pete and Norton then arrive at a small town that is supposed to be near Jiménez — the town Melquiades Estrada claimed was his home. No one in the town has heard of Jiménez. Perkins has some luck in locating a woman Melquiades indicated was his wife. However, when Pete confronts her, she states that she has never heard of Melquiades Estrada and lives in town with her husband and children. She does however visibly react to Estrada's Polaroid photograph Pete shows her of Melquiades standing behind her and her children, stating that she does "...not want to get in trouble with her husband...". This suggests ambiguously that Estrada and the woman may have once had an illicit affair.
Perkins continues onward, based on Melquiades' vague descriptions of a place "filled with beauty". Eventually with Norton still in tow, Perkins comes upon a ruined house which Perkins feels was the Jiménez Melquiades spoke of. Pete and Norton repair the walls and construct a new roof and bury Estrada for the third and final time. Perkins then demands that Norton beg forgiveness for the killing, after which the border patrolman is free to go. Mike responds with obstinance, and Pete fires several shots from his pistol around Norton until he breaks down and relents, begging forgiveness for killing Melquiades. Pete accepts his outpouring of grief, and gives Norton a horse. As Pete rides away, Norton calls out and asks him if he will be okay, suggesting that Mike may have found the redemption his wife felt he was incapable of.
Cast
Awards and nominations
Cannes Film Festival:
Satellite Awards:
- Nominated: Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama - Tommy Lee Jones
Locations
References
External links
