14.3.06

Can you believe it's March 14th already? Time just seems to be zooming by and I still have a ton of work to complete.

Anyway, I took a break from studying to see the new Tommy Lee Jones movie. It has the unfortunate distinction of having one of the most difficult names to remember, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Hard-to-remember-title aside, the movie itself is a wonderful surprise.

The plot revolves around Pete Perkins (played with gruff-cowboy perfection by Tommy Lee Jones), a Texas rancher upset by the indifference shown by the local cops after his Mexican best friend is killed. Pete kidnaps the killer, unearths his friend's corpse, and takes both men on an epic journey. All this to fulfill a promise Pete made to his recently deceased friend to bury him in his hometown in Mexico.

What follows is a complex tale about loyalty, revenge, morality, and redemption. Much more than just a modern western, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada evokes themes set up by Cervantes' Don Quixote and Faulker's As I Lay Dying to elevate the film into a work of art.

Besides being complex, I'd also like to add that Three Burials is also funny as hell. Not bad-teen-comedy funny but black humour funny and thankfully the quirky, dark humour sprinkled throughout saves the movie from taking itself too seriously.

If this is Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut, then I'm looking forward to what he has in store for us next.

To find out more, check out the offical website: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

No comments: