IMDb > The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
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The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) More at IMDbPro »

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The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) -- Ranch hand Pete Perkins looks to fulfill the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) -- Ranch hand Pete Perkins looks to fulfill the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) -- Ranch hand Pete Perkins looks to fulfill the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) -- Ranch hand Pete Perkins looks to fulfill the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) -- AllTrailers.net - Trailer (Flash)

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Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   17,113 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
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Director:
Writer (WGA):
Guillermo Arriaga (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
3 February 2006 (USA) more
Tagline:
Nobody is beyond redemption. more
Plot:
Ranch hand Pete Perkins looks to fulfill the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
4 wins & 7 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(20 articles)
Guy Pearce Joins The Hungry Rabbit Jumps
 (From EmpireOnline. 25 November 2009, 2:35 AM, PST)

Tommy Lee Jones Won’t Direct The Lincoln Lawyer
 (From Slash Film. 24 November 2009, 9:36 AM, PST)

User Comments:
Shades of 'Unforgiven'! more (186 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Three Burials: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Australia) (DVD box title) (UK) (DVD box title)
The 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada (USA) (alternative spelling)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (International: English title)
Trois enterrements (France)
more
MPAA:
Rated R for language, violence and sexuality.
Runtime:
121 min | Argentina:121 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | Turkey:107 min (TV version)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | Ireland:15A | Brazil:14 | Argentina:16 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Canada:14A (Ontario) (Canadian Home Video rating) | Germany:12 (f) | USA:R (No. 42191) | Finland:K-13
Company:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The producers tried to sway Tommy Lee Jones from using Mexican pastel colors for the title cards, but he told them he wouldn't budge on his decision. more
Goofs:
Errors in geography: The story takes place in the Big Bend area of Texas but there is a banner in the restaurant for the Van Horn Lion's Club. Van Horn is a long way from the Big Bend. more
Quotes:
Pete Perkins: You try to run away again, and I'll kill you. I guess you know that by now.
Mike Norton: Yes, sir.
more
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Porn Pastiche more

FAQ

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102 out of 122 people found the following comment useful.
Shades of 'Unforgiven'!, 30 November 2005
8/10
Author: janos451 from San Francisco

Ay, carramba! A diablo of a marketing challenge: a bilingual movie, with an impossible-to-remember title, a story of white trash, Mexican wetbacks (that's the film's language), cruel Border Patrol "cowboys," and Tommy Lee Jones as the director and the uniquely memorable lead character... and a film that's one of the year's best.

"The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" opens with a somewhat confusing sequence of flashbacks, and for the first half hour, you wish you were watching something more "orderly," but you'll be hooked anyway. For the next hour and a half, however, there is a crescendo of images and situations hitting the viewer over the head, amazing and moving.

Taking the corpse of a friend - and his very much alive killer - back to Mexico for a "proper burial" and to mete out justice, Jones' voyage is a quirky, epic adventure, based on the brilliant writing of Guillermo Arriaga (of "21 Grams"), and filmed to perfection by Chris Menges (of "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission").

Besides Jones (who won the 2005 Cannes Festival best actor award for this), "3 Burials" features fabulous performances by Barry Pepper ("25 Hours"), Julio Cedillo, and a large group of remarkable supporting actors on both sides of the border.

Jones says something in the production notes that could sound arrogant or affected... except that it's true: "Some visual influences have been the kabuki theater, the art of Donald Judd and Dan Flavin, and the films of Akira Kurasawa, Sam Peckinpah, and Jean-Luc Godard." Amen.

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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
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This movie made me laugh... ShirleyM-4
I Really Loved This Movie retav
The Ending? alan118552
Pity For Mike (Pepper)? muse83
horse nansarama2003
Why was there no Jimenez and why the fake family picture? decflatte
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