The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

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Movie Details

• Genre: Drama, Western
• Release Date: 2006-02-03 Limited
• Running Time: 121 min.
• Director: Tommy Lee Jones
• Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones, Julio Cedillo, Vanessa Bauche, Barry Tubb, Melissa Leo, Sonny Carl Davis, Jesse De Luna
• Producer: Michael Fitzgerald, Luc Besson, Tommy Lee Jones
• Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
• Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
• Official Site: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Official Site

Tommy Lee Jones, making his directorial debut, stars as a ranch foreman named Pete Perkins, who seems to be the only one bothered when Melquiades Estrada turns up dead in the desert. Meanwhile, we also follow the settling in of border agent Mike Norton (Barry Pepper). Once you realize that Jones is playing around with timelines, it's easier to follow, and the inevitability of events becomes clear. Norton's a brutal enforcer of border laws, but he doesn't mean to kill. By the time Perkins realizes who was responsible -- and that no one is interested in bringing the accidental killer to justice -- he's intent on fulfilling the commitment he once made to Estrada, to ensure the dead man is laid to rest in his homeland. Not only will Perkins dig up the body and haul it back to Mexico; he'll bring Norton with him, forcing the man to confront his crime. As a modern-day western, the movie is memorable, though Perkins is such a crazy SOB that you don't always like him.