just got back from seeing the three burials of melquiades estrada at qft.
more than worth the ticket price. 9 thumbs up as ben, or indeed homer, might say.
a beautiful, understated, original study of the US/Mexican border country, of men, loyalty, retribution/redemption, loneliness, and journey...
the script flows back and forth between english and spanish with an easy fluidity and dare i say it, this seems like the film tommy lee jones has waited his entire career to make... he's quite remarkable (i never thought i'd type that) and beautifully understated...the whole thing just oozed with humanity... never mawkish, unexpectedly and typically wryly comic, persistantly realist, at moments violent, but never gratuitously or excessively so, its comment on what redemption means (i won't give away how it concludes) seemed entirely fitting... surprisingly provocative in its portrayal of men and women, moments throughout it felt like it was a distinctly honest film...
there are several scenes that i doubt i'll forget in a hurry...
the scale of the landscape is such that this is one worth seeing on the big screen...
for years i've harboured a desire to go learn how to ride in the western style, and explore the america that lies west of the mississippi while sitting way back in the saddle under a stetson... this reignited a flame last sparked by brokeback... ah, one day...
yup. i loved it.
meanwhile, [grins] tomorrow night i'm gonna go see MI3. needless to say, i doubt i'll be offering any kind of review nor getting anything out of it other than mindless entertainment that will no doubt leave me feeling slightly defiled as a humanoid. or i'll find myself brainwashed into thinking scientology is actually not at all weird.
LB, x
post script: for those who have seen the film, and like the work of flannery o'connor, know their OT history, or indeed enjoy biblical referencing or influence in films, there is a rather fascinating and entertaining wee discussion at IMBD looking at the influence of o'connor, acknowledged by TLJ himself, and of the curious, or possibly just bizarrely coincidental, old testament origins of naming the eponymous melquiades estrada and the 'town' of Jimenez. the conversation suggests a layer of religious subtext way beyond what i confess i had picked up on. TLJ had co-star barry pepper read ecclesiastes under the night sky to prepare for the movie... someone describes it as "the first Catholic western"...
anyways, if you've seen the film its worth a read through...spoilers contained therein so avoid if you haven't seen it and might like to.
fin./
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