Study? Nah, Sneak Preview

From the same folks who gave me free passes to House of Flying Daggers and The Aristocrats, I got passes to a sneak preview of Tommy Lee Jones' new film and among others, winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes for 2005, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. I picked up the passes last night, and had a bit of a dilemma. I have an exam to write in a few weeks, so I really should be studying for that, but I hit a brick wall last night, and ended up deciding to see the movie tonight. I couldn't take Alison with me because she's in Mexico, and she also sent me an e-mail saying she might not be coming back. That's life, I guess. Hasta la proxima... I asked one of my co-workers to go with me, and we both liked it.

I had a super shitty day at work. It began promisingly enough with El matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs on the iPod, but went straight down the toilet before 9:00. I almost quit because I don't need the money so much now and I'm not feeling the love these days. I guess I dropped a hint when I mentioned to my co-worker that I'd rather be in Mexico right now, so at the end of the day, the coolest boss in the world reached into the bar fridge we have tucked away in Finance and pulled me out a beer. And, he didn't protest when I drank it right in front of him. I don't think I'll be making a habit of it though. My co-worker and I shlepped up to the theatre in the freezing cold. You know its bad when someone from the Midwest shivers.

Tommy Lee directed the film and used his ranch to film a lot of the footage. He stars alongside "hometown" boy Barry Pepper, and I coulda won some swag if I had shouted out his real hometown at the right time, but I wasn't raised in a barn and there's no way you're gonna get me to shout from the back row of the balcony just for a fucking t-shirt. The movie also stars January Jones who is the reason why my co-worker agreed to come along in the first place. She plays Pepper's lonely housewife, and doesn't really play into the plot very much except that she shtupped the dead guy, the guy that Pepper's character killed. That dead guy, Melquiades is played by Julio Cedillo who is constantly looking over his shoulder for la Migra, and its too bad he only appears in retro scenes because I would have liked to know more about his character. Oh yeah, Dwight Yoakam plays a slimy (maybe its the moustache) sheriff-type character who gets his conscience back at the last minute and disappears about halfway through the film. Levon Helm appears as a blind man with a death wish living alone in the middle of the desert.

Now the saddest moment of the film, for me anyway was when the fake horse fell off the cliff. This was during the second burial of Melquiades. The first burial involved the sheriff burying Mel against the wishes of Tommy's character Pete. The third burial happens toward the end of the film, and its all a little weird. It ends up that either Mel lied to Pete, or Pete goes insane, or Mel just gave Pete the wrong impression. I settled for the last choice.

There were funny moments in the film, some pretty funny moments actually. The film is essentially the story of a man keeping his promise to his dead friend, despite certain illegalities. And, the best part of it is that he forces the killer to help. Mike, Pepper's character is a border officer, or one of la Migra and he accidentally shoots Mel because he is trigger happy and just a little on edge while masturbating in the desert, during which time a bullet comes dangerously close to his Hustler magazine. Mike returns fire, and shoots Mel who was really just trying to protect his goats and shoot a coyote. Pete is bound to honour his friend's request and starts his research. Quite easily, a little too easily if you ask me, the identity of Mel's killer is revealed and passed back to Peter. Maybe because it happens in a small town in Texas, kinda like the little town my cousin lived in for a few years with her husband, kinda in a way like Mike and his wife, but news travels fast in that town.

In the beginning, Mike catches some run away migrants and he cracks the woman one across the face really bad. She gets her revenge later, twice. While he is off in Mexico helping haul a corpse to Jimenez, he flees and does what any rational person would do in the desert, he slides into a cubby hole, and is promptly bitten by a vibora, or a rattlesnake. Plot hole here, folks. In my highly educated medical opinion, Mike should have died but its not exactly discernible how long he is stranded in the desert, so I guess I'll give the Tommy Lee the benefit of the doubt on that one. Another problem with continuity in the film is that at the time Mike is digging Mel's body out of his grave in Texas, Mike is wearing flip-flops. Then, when they leave Mel's hovel to go to Mexico, Pete takes the boots away from Mike. Now, these could have been Mel's boots, but I just can't be convinced that Mike has the same sized feet as Mel. That being said, I'm not going to go to imdb and add it into the goofs section. It's an error, but its just a wee one.

Then comes the revenge. After being bitten by an apparently less-venomous-than-others rattlesnake, Pete literally drags Mike across the Rio Grande to a small town where they can seek folk medicine. Well, the healer happens to be the same woman who had her face smashed by Mike. At first, she agrees to not let him die, and to remove the poison. She does it, textbook field medicine but you don't actually see her suck out the venom. Only, there is no anesthetic. Just a hot knife, a severely swollen foot and a wad of cloth or something for Mike to chomp down on. Now, some folks in the balcony got squeamish but not me. I just thought pleasantly about that time Alison brought her knives over. Actually, the grossest part of the film for me was when Pete tried to comb the hair of the corpse, above all other gross parts. So did the healer really get her revenge? I guess not, because later on, she takes a pot of fresh, hot coffee and pours it on Mike who sits up immediately and gets his face smashed by a coffee pot. Then he goes outside and peels corn, and waits for Pete who is in the process of getting his drunk ass dumped by his girlfriend long distance-style. I feel it hermano.

They shlep the corpse out to Tostón, and ask for Mel's wife. This is the part where you discover that Mel was either very lonely with an active imagination, or he was a liar. Elevia aka Rosa denies knowing Mel, as does anyone else in the town and they all deny knowledge of a place called Jimenez. On the way out to Tostón, they come across some hunters and Mike starts to cry as he sees them watching his wife's favourite soap opera. This is one of the funny moments, I don't remember the others right now. Just to let the film geeks know, if they don't already - the guy who wrote Three Burials, Guillermo Arriaga appears as one of the hunters. Just when you think Tommy Lee Jones is insane, he remembers the description Mel gave him of Jimenez, and he finds it - a derelict homestead that somehow resembles the building in the Polaroid Mel carried with him. Pete forces Mike to clean up the site and to dig a second grave for Mel's third burial.

Throughout this process Pete softens up toward Mike (but not too much) and lets him out of the cuffs for the last scene of the film. Pete plants the photo of Mel on a tree and tells Mike to beg forgiveness. Mike says he doesn't believe in God, so Pete goes all Yosemite Sam on him, scaring the crap out of Mike who gladly begs for forgiveness and actually apologizes to Mel. Pete leaves Mike at the homestead with a horse, the horse that Mel had given him, and rides off into the sunset. Final words from Mike indicate that he has grown to understand Pete's actions, and empathize (I think that's the right word) with him.

My co-worker told me after the film that he wasn't expecting to like the film, but that it turned out much better than expected. I also felt it was good. Apparently its a film about alienation and other things, but there's quite a bit of emo crap in there, too.