The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (DVD)

My husband put this on our DVD rental list and at first I was a bit dubious about it. I had only heard fleeting things about the film and for the life of me I couldn't remember whether it was good or bad so I didn't know wha to expect really. I have to admit that I was more than pleasantly surprised. The 2005 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is in fact Jones' second directorial offering (the first being a tv movie called The Good Old Boys) who together with the film's writer Giuermo Arriaga who has also given us the likes of 21 Grams have provided a wonderful modern western in a US ... more

At a time when the world as at it most mistrusting in a cross cultural sense, with one secular or religious group suspiciously eying and pointing fingers at the next, this film, in many ways is well timed and very relevant. But with the focus on the middle east and 9/11 in films and on TV maybe for a more general understanding of cultural intolerance we need to step back a little further, forget the specifics and just view these problems from a higher, less specific position. Tommy Lee Jones directorial debut offers us this and much more besides. By focusing on a story that takes place over ... more

Ranch hand Pete Perkins is not a happy man. His best friend and fellow ranch hand, the Melquiades Estrada of the title, has been shot dead by a trigger happy border patrol officer, Mike Norton. Now he wants revenge, but Norton's boss would rather brush the whole thing under the carpet. Perkins therefore decides to take things into his own hands and force Perkins to make amends by taking Estrada's body back to his Mexican hometown to bury him. Will Perkins be able to bypass the law in order to get what he wants? And will Norton come to realise the wrong that he has committed? I don't think I ... more

Every movie needs a twist. If the film is so-so, ambles on, and then delivers a neat and unexpected twist to round it off then it can be saved, even sneak into the good category, as is the case here. This classy and observant drama delivered that gentle subtle twist when required, topping off an interesting and different kind of film from your normal Hollywood fare, a distinct whiff of Greek tragedy here. Although not a lot happens for while it does mange to keep you intrigued until it does, such is the quality of performance and scene setting. The second half is an odyssey of such and that’s ... more

Definitely one of the strangest cowboy films I've seen. Tommy Lee Jones played the part of a cowboy who goes slightly mental after his friend gets shot accidentally by a new border patrol agent. Out of a sense of loyalty to the dead cowboy Tommy Lee Jones tries to fulfill a promise he had made earlier to bury the man in his home town across the border in Mexico. The film can get a bit slow at times but the film combats that with some really odd twists and turns that make you wonder what Tommy Lee was drinking when he came up with the idea. The acting is at a usual high from such top rate ... more