THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA

Continuing my series on films overlooked by the Academy Awards.

THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA

A friend of mine passed away nine years ago- he committed suicide. In that time I've been always trying to comprehend and deal with his death. I was the last of his friends to see him alive, and I had left him early to catch a train. I often think to myself that if I had stuck around an hour longer, maybe we could have talked over the things which were troubling him. And after his death I think to myself that there were so many unfinished conversations, so many things to say, so many things to discover. I don't know if I want to have that conversation more for the benefit of my friend, or for the benefit of myself.

Maybe then this is why I made a deeper connection to Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA. Set on the Texas / Mexican border, the film tells the simple story of a Mexican cowboy, Melquiades Estrada, who is wrongfully killed by a US border patrolman (played by Barry Pepper). The man's friend, Pete Perkins, played with laconic brilliance by Jones himself, abducts the patrolman and takes him on a journey with Melquiades' rotting corpse over the border to give Melquiades a proper burial.

And what a journey it is, bringing in shades of Dante's Inferno across the blazing Texas landscape, which is stunningly photographed by Chris Menges and a character unto itself. The land is fraught with dangers- snakes, heat, dehydration, and sensory deprivation. Pete makes the patrolman experience all of these in the worst ways, delivering a dual message of both repentance and of the dangers that illegal immigrants face when crossing the border.

Which brings to note that this is also a highly political film, trouncing the issues of immigration and US foreign policy. Jones takes the high road and avoids political grandstanding, and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga does a masterful job of weaving the politics into the narrative. Rather than telling us the problems of US immigration policy, Jones and Arriaga show us the effects of said policies. It's extremely effective and not overpowering, and it serves its purpose well.

There is so much in this script that is never said but rather implied- feelings of friendship, kinship, and belonging. The singular drive that Pete has to give dignity to his friend is both inspiring and maddening, we wonder while watching the film if this journey is for the purpose of the dead or the living. Jones is almost possessed in his portrayal of Pete, a man who toes the line between good and evil, a man who seemingly has no emotions but is driven for the need to experience feelings. He is the anti-hero in the classic Western tradition, a man bound by credo but conflicted by his desires. Jones plays the character with amazing precision and total immersion, and it is one of the year's finest performances.*

There is the running theme of loyalty and repentance throughout the film. The side characters in the story are all caught in webs of deceit, infidelity, and ultimately dissatisfaction. We have cops who by profession are to do good, but in their self obsessions they break almost every moral law. We have lonely housewives who want to do the right thing for their families and their lives, but they succumb to the nature of the territory- idle hands indeed make the devil's work.

Everyone in this film is guilty of some wrong doing, be it legal or moral. And this is the grand injustice of Melquiades' death- his sentence was delivered upon him simply because he was himself, a dark skinned man who lived on the border, an instant target of a racist stereotype, a bullseye painted upon his heart. And in this wrongful act, Pete finds one act of goodness that he can carry out and claim as his own. Pete is selfish in his endeavour, and his final realization at the end of the film is pure cinematic magic.

If anything, this is a tale of pure Americana, of what we desire to be as people, and in turn a portrait of who we really are. We are searching for something that validates us as good people, we feel guilty at times for our privilege, and at other times we freely abuse that privilege. Watching this film made me think more about what I wanted in that final conversation with my friend, and it made me realize that some things are perhaps better left unsaid. Sometimes just to know that your heart is bleeding is good enough.

Snubbed Oscar nominations: Best Actor in a Lead Role (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Director (Tommy Lee Jones)

*Jones received the Best Actor award at Cannes