This 'modern' Western, exploring death, delusion and friendship, and helmed by actor Tommy Lee Jones, has been kissed on the feet by reviewers. Border patrol officer Norton (Pepper) "accidentally" shoots illegal immigrant Mel (Cedillo) dead. Local law enforcement turns a blind eye, but Mel's buddy Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) is fiery & grieve sticken. Pete forces Norton into a bizarre pilgrimage, fulfilling a promise to Mel, to bury the body in Mexican soil.
Arriaga's script (a prize at Cannes) has a lovely, fascinating shape to it, even if his crushing portrayal of white Americans--all of them, even Jones, suffering from a zombified affect and crippling shortsightedness--is somewhat counterset against his Mexicans, who are all morally balanced, if not always happy or nice...
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Three Burials is beautiful, authentic and brutally observant of human nature. With real Tex-Mex backdrops instead of the usual Monument Valley vistas and characters too complex to withstand simple white-hat/black-hat reductionism, Three Burials is a visionary portrait of the New West. This is the terrain of Eastwood and Peckinpah, saddled with the concerns of 21st-century life...
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Aided by the sublime work of cinematographer Chris Menges, who conjures dramatic shots out of the big skies and low roofs of the landscapes, Arriaga and Estrada have made a film of grandeur and almost mythic power. The film plays with elemental concepts - the importance of a decent burial (a Western standard); justice and revenge; coincidence; loyalty and betrayal - and it does so with a seeming effortlessness...
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Grizzled Texan Tommy Lee Jones has made an exceptionally moving, surprisingly funny, often beautiful film, packed with unforgettable moments and note-perfect performances...
Full review
Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) has a fondness for showing events out of order and from different perspectives. But Jones' directorial style is as clean and unpretentious as his acting and he keeps the structural jiggery-pokery to a minimum. This is to the good, showing faith in the story and Jones' own stern, unflinching portrayal of a man unmoored by sorrow and loneliness...
Full reviewThe Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is available to stream in Australia now on Stan and Apple TV.
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