Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut is a rich, multi-layered story both subtle and touching. Written by his friend and fellow Texan ranch-holder, Guillermo Arriaga, 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada' focuses on the strong friendship between a Texan, Pete (Jones), and an illegal Mexican immigrant, Melquiades (Julio Cedillo), and the promise the Texan made to his friend that he would return his body to Mexican soil should he die. The premise is relatively simple but several problems are encountered along the way and we uncover a small collection of other characters on the peripheries of the narrative that enrich the story and introduce new themes.
The most significant of these characters is Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), a Border Control guard newly arrived with his young wife, Lou Ann, both of whom are loveless and disillusioned. Norton responds with over-agression towards the Mexican immigrants he dedicates himself to stopping, whilst his wife befriends the promiscuous waitress at the local cafe, who is sleeping with both Pete and the local sheriff, Belmont. It is Norton who accidentally shoots Melquiades when he hears gunshots he mistakenly believes are directed towards him. These interweaving narratives are typical of Arriaga's scripts, which include '21 Grams' and 'Babel', but the film never becomes so oppressive or heavily thematic as those others, and both Jones' direction and performance have created quite a little treat.
The film is very much of two halves, even though it is actually separated into four chapters. The first part takes place in Texas, the narrative cutting back and forth showing us the growing friendship of the two ranchers, Pete's investigation of his murder, and Norton's disinterest in little beyond the pornographic magazines he reads when he should be doing his job. There is a strong sense of a Texan identity, with the camera lingering across the dramatic landscape, much like the more recent 'No Country For Old Men'. The main plot twist, when Norton shoots Melquiades, could only happen in the midst of an empty landscape where gunshots could be coming from anywhere and directed towards anyone. Also prevalent in this first section is the use of country and western music, often intruding on the film quite loudly from car radios with their tales of love and loss, placing us firmly in a Texan environment and gaining an insight to the isolation felt by the characters.
The second part of the film is moderately more linear; Pete kidnaps Norton and forces him to dig up Melquiades' body and travel with him into Mexico, on the run from the law and the Border Control. This dark twist brings much more explicit aggression and Norton is subjected to beatings, digging up a decomposing corpse, being dragged through a river by lasso and a rattlesnake bite. There are also some darkly comic moments, such as when Pete sets fire to Melquiades' head and fills it with antifreeze to rid it of ants, or when Norton's desperate escape attempt is accompanied by Pete, silently taunting him on horseback. The gradual decomposing of Melquiades' body parallels the gradual sink of Pete into desperation and juxtaposes Norton's development from selfish and emotionless anger, to sensitivity and understanding. This transformation is never contrived or sentimentalised, however, and we have to wait until almost the end of the film to realise just how far both characters have come.
These changes are characteristic of the heavily metaphorical script. Norton is devoted to preventing the flow of humans from one place to another, and is emotionally blocked himself. But as he crosses the border in the reverse direction, he himself opens up to other people, and is ultimately saved by someone he attacked earlier in the film. He is also punished by his wife's suggested infidelity towards whom he is sexually aggressive, just as the xenophobic sheriff is unable to perform with his mistress, whilst the more transnational Pete (he speaks Spanish with Melquiades) seems to be the favourite with the waitress, although she won't run away with him to Mexico. It's interesting how the characters' abilities to relate to others, particularly other nationalities, is manifested sexually in a what is cast as an infertile environment. The film suggests that the sharing of national identities and cultures, as seen by Jones and Arriaga, is seen as a rewarding cross-fertalisation, and that message is conveyed in an excitingly richly symbolic and artisitc way for an American genre film.
The final twist of the film is fascinating but under-exploited, although it still marks an interesting development in the script which has gradually been pared down, with the sheriff giving up the chase and Norton's wife leaving town. As the film progresses it becomes more and more rewarding, and further from reality, sinking us into an emotional journey for the two men. Jones won the Best Actor prize and Cannes and the film revitalised his career with an Oscar nomination this year for 'In The Valley of Elah'. It is this film, however, that is perhaps the most rewarding film of his I have seen recently. It may be because I simply didn't have any particular expectations and was pleasantly surprised, or maybe it's just a great film. I'm inclined to believe the latter, and I eagerly await Jones' next directorial effort.
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