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A- |
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A |
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Melquiades Is A Friend of Mine
by Eric (movies profile)
May 26, 2008
92
of
99 people found this review helpful
Many film critics and moviegoers talk about the constant decline in content in Hollywood. When you see recent presentations of Big Mamas House 2 and Fun with Dick and Jane, I can't say they have no merit. It's easy to look in hindsight and see classics like Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, and countless others and remember fondly. But one thing those same people also forget is that for every classic, there's five that are rubbish. Just a matter of fact. Just watch AMC or TCM for a week straight and you'll understand what I'm saying. And that those above-mentioned films were made years apart.
But back to the subject at hand. When I saw The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, I realized that there are films that are still able to reach those places in our hearts that is usually caught by the "classics". Director Tommy Lee Jones and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams) gives us a film that not only deals with friendship, honor, and lonliness, but also allows us to redefine Hollywood's definition of justice.
The Three Burials starts off with a body in the Texas Borderlands. The body belongs to an illegal immigrant. The sheriff (Dwight Yoakum) just wants to bury him and let it go. But Pete Perkins (Jones), a local rancher and friend of the dead man, wants to see justice. We find out pretty quickly that a young hothead on the Border Patrol named Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) is responsible for the murder due to a misunderstanding. But he's not remorseful. He takes his frustrations out on the illegals he snatches. Even his boss is getting fed up with his attitude, but he quickly quiets the local authorities. But word gets back to Pete, who first gives the sheriff a chance to right this. But when justice is eluded once more, Pete decides to take matters into his own hands. He kidnaps Mike and forces him to dig up his friend's body and help to take it across the border to Mel's village. Mike's journey is not so much about revenge as it is a forced pennence. This story, which ultimately about these two men's journey isn't completely bound two them, but everybody else who had a hand in the events, such as Mike's wife (January Jones) and a very friendly waitress (Melissa Leo) who takes both the sheriff and Pete as lovers on alternating days.
My only problem with the film is the structure of the first act in comparison to the rest of the film. The first act moves back and forth through time to show the back story of all these characters, including Mel (Julio Cesar Cedillo). But the rest of the film is completely linear (which is a good thing, because that could be maddening if done otherwise). Also breaking up the first act has information we already can guess at being told to us once or twice more than needed.
Otherwise, this is the definition of a character-driven film. We see the loneliness that eats at all these characters as they talk about previous lives and fantasies. Mel's request to Pete about bringing back his body, as we find out in the film, has nothing to do with family. The true meaning of the request is for the journey itself. Mike's redemption has nothing to do with shooting Mel, but because of his contempt for which he holds others lives, including his wife's. When his life is in danger, it's interesting to see the results when we get an unexpected surprise.
Performance-wise, Tommy Lee Jones gives a performance of a lifetime. His Pete is a quiet man who mourns in peculiar ways. He is of a lifestyle that is ancient in modern times, but lives strongly in the cracks of this world. Pepper's performance is brave in how he deconstructs Mike and allows his anger and fear to show frailty without compromise. Nor will I forget January Jones' or Melissa Leo's performances as two women who cope with boredom in slightly similar-yet-different ways. Take a scene where both are sitting in a cafe, smoking cigarettes and saying nothing to each other. No dialogue can measure what's being said in that scene.
For Jones' vision of this film, it's spectacular how his direction is being compared with Peckenpah or John Huston. I disagree. His influences, in my opinion, rage John Ford's landscapes (watch the scenes involving harrowing rocky cliffs) and Clint Eastwood's punctuated silences. I must also commend the make-up department for it's dynamo work on Mel's rapidly decaying body. It isn't too gruesome, but it makes you realize that this body is in the middle of the Texas sun.
All in all, this film has been released close to another film dealing with cowboys trying to understand their nature in a world that inhibits them. Brokeback Mountain comes from the front to stare you down. The Three Burials comes from the rear to flank you when you aren't looking. Either way will leave you hog-tied and wanting more. |
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