The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (henceforth Three Burials) is a resonant pictorial, which deliberates upon male friendship, loss, retribution, crime, and cross-border contrasts that incidentally, are lightly mirrored by the collaboration of director Jones and screenwriter Arriaga. The are subtle allusions of political commentary regarding the state of Mexican labor, border patrols and the lawless abuse Mexicans face when trying to make a new life for themselves.
The film brings story elements and thematic details together, as any classical climax would, while continually revealing more. The journey, both literally (to Mexico) and the metaphorical so abruptly exposed in the tagline as one to redemption is palpable throughout the picture, but the audience might fail to notice that they themselves are taken on a journey of their own on, a journey on discovering the ‘why’ to the death of our Mexican hero.
The story pivots upon the accidental shooting of a Mexican ranch hand, Estrada by a border patrolman Norton and the subsequent actions undertaken by Estrada’s loyal friend Perkins following his death. The nonlinear storytelling style is deliberate as Arriaga ‘wanted the character and everyone else to be confused about what happened’ (Moerk, 2005) and the narratives are a fusion of flashback and aftermath. Narratives, plural, is used because Three Burials begins as two separate narrative elements which only collaborate when Norton and Perkins make their forced acquaintance. One of the narratives focuses on the present whereby Pete is searching for the ‘who’ involved in Estrada’s death and the second the story behind Norton and his Barbie-doll, former high school darling wife bored and trapped in a dreary marriage in an even drearier town.
We know of Estrada’s death before understanding his friendship with Perkins and the account of Estrada’s burials is broken up and replayed thrice, the first time as a tragedy, the second as a farce and the third a
The film brings story elements and thematic details together, as any classical climax would, while continually revealing more. The journey, both literally (to Mexico) and the metaphorical so abruptly exposed in the tagline as one to redemption is palpable throughout the picture, but the audience might fail to notice that they themselves are taken on a journey of their own on, a journey on discovering the ‘why’ to the death of our Mexican hero.
The story pivots upon the accidental shooting of a Mexican ranch hand, Estrada by a border patrolman Norton and the subsequent actions undertaken by Estrada’s loyal friend Perkins following his death. The nonlinear storytelling style is deliberate as Arriaga ‘wanted the character and everyone else to be confused about what happened’ (Moerk, 2005) and the narratives are a fusion of flashback and aftermath. Narratives, plural, is used because Three Burials begins as two separate narrative elements which only collaborate when Norton and Perkins make their forced acquaintance. One of the narratives focuses on the present whereby Pete is searching for the ‘who’ involved in Estrada’s death and the second the story behind Norton and his Barbie-doll, former high school darling wife bored and trapped in a dreary marriage in an even drearier town.
We know of Estrada’s death before understanding his friendship with Perkins and the account of Estrada’s burials is broken up and replayed thrice, the first time as a tragedy, the second as a farce and the third a