vernon film society
Bringing the best in world and Canadian film to film lovers of Vernon and the North Okanagan
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADADirector: Tommy Lee Jones "Tommy Lee Jones makes his feature directing debut here, and the film is as weathered, subtle, and sympathetic as the actor's own face." - Boston Globe
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ATTENTION!
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The consistently superb Jones delivers another sublime performance as Pete Perkins, a fiercely moral, slightly renegade ranch foreman disconsolate at the murder and unceremonious burial of his Mexican ranch hand, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo, THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE). Perkins undertakes a redemptive mission to unearth the sordid truth of his friend’s death, a truth that lays bare the bigotry and injustice of the territory’s mixed culture. The jigsaw narrative recalls Pete’s relationship with Estrada as he lovingly transports the corpse to a final sacramental resting place, all the while wreaking vengeance on those responsible.
With its combination of expert writing, visceral cinematography and Jones’s inspired artistic choices, this film does not just tell a good tale – it inaugurates new mythologies. "Incisive yet supple, wrenching yet deeply pleasurable, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada easily ranks among the year's best pictures." - Los Angeles Times |
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A Gala Presentation at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival® and winner of the Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Tommy Lee Jones) awards at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA is a modern-day Western that imaginatively straddles the present and the past. 
Jones paints a finely measured portrait that oscillates between quiet humanity and lascivious excess. Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, whose earlier features AMORES PERROS and 21 GRAMS galvanized Festival audiences, has crafted another taut and courageous fable.