REVIEWED - THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA: IF A first-time film-maker is going to parade his influences on the screen, it's encouraging when he sets his sights as high as one of the greatest directors of them all, but risky, too, given that such an impossibly high standard has been set. The shadow of the late, great maverick Sam Peckinpah hangs heavily over The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Tommy Lee Jones's first cinema film as director after gaining some valuable experience in 1995, when he directed a TV western called The Good Old Boys, wriets Michael Dwyer
The new film's most obvious thematic reference point in Peckinpah's work is his haunting, violent 1974 quest movie, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, in which a sleazy bar owner goes after the reward money offered by a wealthy Mexican to find the remains of his pregnant daughter's decapitated lover.
Jones doubles as leading actor in his own movie, playing Pete Perkins, a laconic west Texas ranch foreman exacting protracted revenge on a sullen, volatile young US border guard (Barry Pepper) who has accidentally killed an illegal Mexican immigrant named Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), a close friend of Perkins.
The body is found in a shallow grave in the desert as a coyote devours it, and when the authorities decide to ignore the killing, it is deposited in a pauper's grave. Perkins resolves to arrange a third burial for his friend, and he puts the border guard, Mike Norton, through the mill as he forces him to accompany the decaying corpse through the rugged landscape and over the border to the dead man's hometown.
When this moody, intriguing film was shown at Cannes last summer, the jury awarded it two prizes, giving the best actor to Jones for his impassive performance even though Pepper, who demonstrates the coiled-up nervous energy of the young Christopher Walken, was more deserving for his intense, masochistic portrayal. Jones makes a more significant contribution as the director of his actors, who also notably include Melissa Leo (from 21 Grams) and Levin Helm, formerly of The Band, as a blind recluse who wants to die.
The second Cannes prize went to Guillermo Arriaga, the Mexican writer whose credits include 21 Grams and Amores Perros, for his script, which has a time-shifting structure to observe events from different perspectives.
Although the movie tends to ramble, it never lacks for visual interest. Jones wisely followed Neil Jordan's example on his cinema debut with Angel by hiring the gifted Chris Menges as his lighting cameraman. Menges produces a succession of striking widescreen compositions that add immeasurably to the atmosphere.
