Review of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) by Rocknblues 8 — 19 Dec 2007

Tommy Lee Jones stars as Pete Perkins. Pete is a ranch hand that promised to bury his friend in his hometown in Mexico should anything happen to him. After Pete finds out that his friend had been gunned down by a new boarder patrol man (Barry Pepper), he sets out to backup his promise and make the killer understand what it's like to lose a close friend.

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This is the debut of Tommy Lee Jones as a director and he does a great job here. This movie is about friendship and the loneness. Tommy as the writers explore this very well. This movie is not about the good guys vs. the bad guys. Pete doesn't want to save the world... It's simply a tale of a man that will do anything to back up his promises and see that his friend gets the respect he deserves at any costs. Tommy also doesn't spoon feed us all the answers. In fact, as the movie goes along, we get more questions than answers. It's really up to the movie viewer to decide how much Pete is in the right or in the wrong. How far should one go to keep true on a promise made to a friend? Is it worth the cost of other lives?

Watch the film and decide for yourself.

Me, I enjoyed the characters. Tommy with the help of his weathered face puts on a great performance. In fact, the entire cast is great here. Barry Pepper puts on an underrated performance as the Patrol Man that is forced to pay for a stupid mistake. I would also like to add that Dwight Yoakam puts on a great performance as the somewhat heartless cop Belmont that isn't so interested in solving the case.

I would say it's a top 5 western since Unforgiven. This is one you should watch regardless if you like the western genre or not.

8/10.