THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (2005): A Border Tale
December 6th 2008 06:17
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Tommy Lee Jones and Barry Pepper on the trail
Jones is the master of understatement and restraint which brought him fame and acclaim for his on screen performances and he brings these qualities over to the director’s chair. The low-key subject matter is well chosen – as a native of Texas, Jones tells a story the background of which he knows inside-out, of simple folk and their life of poverty, quiet desperation and routine, cultural clashes – often due to ignorance, and the rediscovery of half-forgotten values on both sides of the conflict-ridden border. The grand themes of loyalty, honour, vengeance and loneliness are familiar from typical westerns of Sam Peckinpah or Fred Zinnemann, but here they receive a modern counterpoint of political issues, cross-cultural awareness and re-defined notions of masculinity and the gaining of self-knowledge. The inherent morbidity of this tale is occasionally relieved by unexpected flashes of grotesque humour, often caused by Barry Pepper’s penchant for overacting, and the skill of both the director and the screenwriter in capturing paradoxical life-situations and multiple ironies of human relationships and how our deeds come back to haunt o reward us.
Review by Patricia Bieszk
© Copyright P. Bieszk 2006.
Originally published on The Scene.
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