Product Description

Oscar® winner Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor, The Fugitive, 1993) directs and stars in this poetic and striking modern-day Western. Peter Perkins (Jones) is a veteran cowboy who embodies the values of the old west, living in a small Texas town bordering the U.S. and Mexico. He hires Melquiades Estrada as a ranch hand and quickly befriends the man. But when Estrada is gunned down under mysterious circumstances, Perkins takes justice into his own hands and kidnaps a trigger-happy border patrolman (Barry Pepper - Saving Private Ryan), forcing Perkins to unearth Estrada's body and accompany Perkins on horseback on the long and treacherous journey through the frontier mountains and back roads of Mexico to bring his friend's body home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10074 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-06-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the most acclaimed films of 2005, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada marks the assured and worldly-wise directorial debut of veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones. While the majority of critics and Oscar®-voters heaped praise upon the "gay cowboy" breakthrough of Brokeback Mountain, Jones delivered this equally resonant, elegiac study of male friendship in a Western setting, crafting a flawless parable of borderline existence on the border of Texas and Mexico. It is there, amidst some of the most beautifully bleak landscapes in recent American film, that Jones and screenwriter Guillermo Arriga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) set their existential quest for meaning, focusing on the honor-bound commitment of Texas ranch foreman Pete (played by Jones with a heavy heart and deep moral conviction) to return the body of illegal Mexican immigrant ranch-hand Melquiades Estrada (played in flashback scenes by Julio Cedillo) to his preferred resting place in the Mexican wilderness. Estrada had been accidentally shot by Mike (Barry Pepper), a newly-arrived U.S. border patrolman, and Pete forces Mike to participate in his cross-country ritual of duty--a voyage of revenge and redemption that will change both men forever, and bring some semblance of meaning to the senseless death of Pete's good friend. In triumphant collaboration with cinematographer Chris Menges, Jones carefully instills his superior cast (including Dwight Yoakam, January Jones, and Melissa Leo) with the slow, desperate rhythms of lives on the border (of Texas and Mexico, and life and death), prompting many critics to draw praiseworthy comparisons to Sam Peckinpah's thematically similar 1974 drama Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and the exquisite absurdities of Luis Bunuel. Whatever your own reaction might be, Three Burials is not a film to view or respond to lightly; there's humor and more than a bit of madness to this great, inquisitive film, but Jones is looking deeply into the soul of humankind, and he dares you to draw your own conclusions about the journey Pete and Mike have taken. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

The Three Burials Of Malquiades Estrada purchase
Mr. Boyce,

Thank you for the DVD. It came alot sooner then I expected and it was in "mint condition".

May God continue to bless all of you.

Jesse Lujan
tresvaqueros.com

The meaning of human dignity and moral conviction
Tommy Lee Jones gives an amazing performance in this film portraying worn out ranch hand with no family or significant human relationship who befrends illegal Mexican immigrant. They work in town close to Mexico - US border and occasionally have tender moments with local married women. This is a lonely town with lonely people resigned to the lives of quiet despair and infinite boredom. When one day Melquides gets shot by accident by a local US border patrolman, unexpected events start to happen. Other US border patrolmen are trying to cover up murder while the ranchand is looking for a way to bring some dignity to illegal immigrant's burial rites. In what seems almost fantasy adventure, ranchhand kidnaps hothead patrolman who killed Malquides and both start journey to Mexico with intent to deliver Melquiades' body to his family. This journey is full of unexpected twists and turns, has humorous moments in it and bares human souls at their best and their worst.

I was unaware that Tommy Lee Jones directed this movie. For that he deserves another recognition. This film is full of beauty in its slow, ackward way. Presented in a form of flashbacks, we see Malquiedes' three burials: one where is is left to the mercy of the wild animals, another one where he is just another anonymous man in an unmarked grave and the last one where he is buried in Mexico in his final resting place that he longed for while he was alive.

This film moves slow like a Texas hot day, but keeps one engaged from start to finish. All characters are well developed and the story leaves much to one's own imagination. It is a story about an ultimate self-discovery. I loved this movie. Why isn't everyone talking about it?

Just my opinion
After reading all the reviews, I ordered this movie and I can not tell you how disappointed I was! There was not one thing I enjoyed about this movie. I thought it was depressing from the beginning and never got any better. The acting was good, but as for the movie, I would give it 0 stars!! Don't waste your money on this one. Buy Man of the House. It is great!
BTC