The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: December 14th, 2005 (LA)

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones (Pete Perkins), Barry Pepper (Mike Norton), Julio Cesar Cedillo (Melquiades Estrada), Dwight Yoakam (Sheriff Belmont), January Jones (Lou Ann Norton), Melissa Leo (Rachel), Vanessa Bauche (Mariana), Levon Helm (Old Man with Radio), Mel Rodriguez (Captain Gomez), Cecilia Suarez (Rosa), Ignacio Guadalupe (Lucio)

Director: Tommy Lee Jones (feature debut; he previously directed the TV movie "The Good Old Boys.")

Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams)

Premise: To fulfill a promise he made to his recently deceased friend, a ranch-hand takes the body for a proper burial in his hometown in Mexico.

[modage]

theres a screening of this here tonite with Tommy Lee Jones in person but i'm not going because even though it has received a bunch of praise and is written by arriaga, i didnt want to spend $18 x 2 on a movie directed by Tommy Lee Jones.  i'm prejudiced.  he could be the next clint eastwood (dir)?

[w/o horse]

Hahaha.  Come on.  Who didn't laugh at:  "No.  (Beat).  I'm not."

This trailer makes the film look boring and I partly share modage's prejudice.  Here I hope these elements are misleading, because goddamn if Arriaga doesn't write great fucking movies.

[Gold Trumpet]

Of the movies left this year, I want to see this one the most. It is also the one least likely to be near me. Hurrah for video!

[Ghostboy]

I think it looks brilliant. It's been at the top of my must-see list since Cannes. And I don't even think Arriaga is that outstanding of a screenwriter. I'd go see it when I go to LA at the end of the month, but it's probably just one of those quick one-week Oscar engagements.

[w/o horse]

I think it looks brilliant. [sic] And I don't even think Arriaga is that outstanding of a screenwriter.

Hmm, well.  It sounds to me like you're about to turn the corner.

I think the writing of 21 Grams is on par with the melodrama of Magnolia or a Spike Lee joint or whatever American melodrama you want to throw at it; it'll stack up.  I also think he has a sound justification for the non-linearity of the film without a gimmick like, oh, say,  Lacuna, Inc.

Amores Perros isn't too shabby either, and there certainly is a large silent majority of cinephiles and Nixon fans who prefer the film.

If The Three Burials is indeed going to be brilliant, which I have little doubt about it being, it's going to be because of Arriaga's screenwriting more than any other element.

[Pubrick]

wow, u sic'd cos he started a sentence with "And"? that's scary.

anyway, the main criticism i've heard about arriaga is that his books and crap and so's his personality, and cronopio knows what he's talking about so maybe he's right. so in that regard i would say his previous movies hav succeeded mainly through the director's handling of the material. amores perros is underrated, dekapenticon it y'all.

[w/o horse]

No I thought sic was when you were leaving something out of a quote.  What was I going for?  There's some word, right?  Or only an ellipses?

[Pubrick]

sic is when you're quoting someone and they talk like neon, so you add [sic] so ppl don't think it's you making all the spelling/grammatical errors.

when omitting things i find [...] does the trick.

[cron]

ahhhhh, it all makes senese now!
not interested at all in this flm. i've already expressed my views about arriaga.

[w/o horse]

ahhhhh, it all makes senese now!
not interested at all in this flm. i've already expressed my views about arriaga.

I had to catch up on this.  I take it you are fluent in Spanish, right, live(d) in Mexico, perhaps Mexican, to have read his books.  Which is what you said in the 21 Grams thread, that you've read his books.  Amazon shows three, so at least three, right, you heard him at the conference and then went and read his three books because you didn't like him?  And this dislike was based mainly upon:  A)  His cockiness, inflated ego, Ratner syndrom.  Though your comparison was to Guy Ritchie.   B)  That his books have a limited scope, mainly dealing with the influence of the dead upon the living?

Is that the extent of the argument?  All of this is correct?

I want to make sure we're on the same page here.  It's difficult to catch up on lost years of film discussion.

[cron]

i read two of his books,  and after almost two years i haven't changed my mind . also, cuaron and this guy are always saying how the movie industry should be run here in mexico but you don't see them supporting it much, other than providing blurbs for some indie films, which isn't any substantial help. i read that iñarritu had a moneyfight with arriaga, so i'm excited to see what he (iñarritu) does after finishing the car trilogy, now that his creative anchor is gone. i hope he adapts a very mexican book or something and COMES BACK. the best thing about amores perros was how the city looked.

[MacGuffin]

In a word, 'fascinating'
Tommy Lee Jones proves an unconventional director in his first time out, "Three Burials."
Source: Los Angeles Times

WORKING with tough-guy actor and Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones on his directorial debut was, in a word, different.

Set in southwest Texas and Mexico, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" is an offbeat drama that has been nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and opened Wednesday for one-week Oscar consideration. The plot revolves around an earnest ranch hand named Pete Perkins (Jones) who goes to great lengths to bury his friend and co-worker, illegal immigrant Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo) in his hometown in Mexico after he is accidentally killed by a cruel, foul-mouthed border agent (Barry Pepper). Parts were shot on Jones' sprawling Texas ranch.
   
To start with, Jones would speak only in Spanish to Cedillo on the set, since their characters converse in Spanish in the film. "Somehow or another it helped both of us," Cedillo said.

And there was little rehearsing, said Cedillo, who describes Jones as an alchemist of sorts.

"He can look at you and read you and he knows what you are made of," the actor said. "We did rehearse, but we didn't rehearse the way you think we would rehearse."

Cedillo recalls the time they had only 20 minutes to shoot a pivotal scene in which Estrada tells Perkins he wants to be buried in Mexico if anything happens to him.

"We had 150 head of cattle behind us … and my horse was a little jittery," he recalled. "Tommy put his arm around me and said, 'Just remember, it's forever.' "

Certainly not words that caused relief, but Cedillo said he found solace in them, anyway: "When you put it in that context, it takes away the typical mind-set of making a film. You have to remember you are a responsible storyteller."

With Pepper, Jones gave the actor a rifle and sent him up to the mountains and told him to live out there for several days before production began to prepare for the role.

"There would be a tent and a fire pit," recalled Pepper. "There were elk and deer and mountain lions and rattlesnakes. You would sit up there on these 7,000-foot towering cliff faces or search for ancient native hunting grounds for arrowheads or just stare at the fire all night."

At first, Pepper says, he didn't know the method behind Jones' madness.

"But you just go with the flow and where it took you," he said. "I had my most profound revelations about the character up there. Tommy was never concerned with my ability to portray the devil or angel, he was only interested in the fragile moment of enlightenment the character has, that dawning of the gift of redemption that Pete offers him."

Jones' insight to the characters was equally unconventional — he often used literature, music and even riddles to convey what he was looking for.

"The music," in particular, "was eclectic," said Pepper. "It was old Southern country ballads and Spanish acoustic guitars, really simply beautiful music."

Still, Pepper persisted in asking Jones how he could best portray the character.

"The only thing he gave me was 'You're spiritually vacuous,' " Pepper said. "He gave me the Bible and asked me to read Ecclesiastes and gave me a series of novels by Flannery O'Connor. I read a lot of her work and a lot of the Bible. I spent a lot of time in the mountains. It was as simple as that."

Pepper discovered Jones' approach was freeing and empowering for the actors.

"He left it in your hands and challenged you to think. He couched everything in a story or a riddle or a joke. I think he scares the [heck] out of most people, but once you get to know him, he has a wonderful sense of humor and is a really fascinating guy to work with. Beneath the grizzly surface is this real Southern gentleman."

Cedillo was also asked to live on the sprawling "set" as a way to get into character: "I lived on a small house on his ranch and there were times we would get rained out, [and] I would ride my horse" to the shoot.

Cedillo, 35, felt a real kinship to Estrada — he was born in Mexico and moved to Fort Worth when he was 5.

"Tommy didn't have to break into my head to try to imagine to be from there and to suffer to come here," he said. "We know what it's like when you come to this country and you don't see your family for several years. We know what it's like to be discriminated against."

For once in his career, he said, he felt a great responsibility to his race. "I had to try to be sensitive how I approached this role. I had to make sure I kept in mind that Melquiades is an angel, a metaphor for the innocent."

In the end, both Cedillo and Pepper, also 35, described working with Jones as a personal journey unlike any other.

"This is a man who does things his way, to search out an unknown actor to play the title character. That takes a lot of guts," Cedillo said.

"With him, what you give is what you get," Pepper said. "He has a ruthless work ethic and a genius-level intellect. He is constantly challenging you to explore and think, but not in a conventional actor-director way."

[NEON MERCURY]

even though the film is written by arriaga [who i like], his script will be visually brought to life by tommy lee jones....that is why it will suck..

[pete]

okay, having watched three films written by him, I can now safely say that I don't like guillermo arriaga.  I think all three movies I've seen written by him would have been better if someone else wrote them.  he does not seem to know the difference between serendipity and contrivance and his melodrama always borderlines childish.  Innaritu is a fine director, and Tommy Lee Jones ain't bad as a director and is a great actor, having seen his scripts handled by two directors, I think I now understand which parts of the films arriaga was responsible for--the parts I didn't like.

this movie is populated with great characters, but they all inhabit in a tiny world, where everyone just happens to run into everyone else all the time.  Not only that, unlike the good films with interlinked characters, the relationships between these characters are all so childishly over the top and simple--arch nemisises, sex partners, friends...etc.  a lot of the subplots just fizzle out--three of them fizzled out in one minute-long phone conversation!  the movie could've been much more mature, but childish overmanipulations of the script really sold it short.