The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
| The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Tommy Lee Jones |
| Produced by |
Luc Besson Michael Fitzgerald Pierre-Ange Le Pogam |
| Written by | Guillermo Arriaga |
| Starring | Tommy Lee Jones Barry Pepper Julio Cedillo Dwight Yoakam January Jones |
| Music by | Marco Beltrami |
| Cinematography |
Chris Menges Hector Ortega |
| Edited by | Roberto Silvi |
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Production
company |
EuropaCorp
Javelina Film Company |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
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Release date
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Country | France United States |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $9,045,364 |
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (also known as Three Burials) is a 2005 French-American neo-Western film directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and written by Guillermo Arriaga. It also stars Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, and January Jones.
The film was inspired by the real-life killing in Texas of an American teenager, Esequiel Hernandez Jr, by United States Marines during a military operation near the United States–Mexico border as well as the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner which contains the same plot, promise, and challenges encountered in the movie.
The film has many flashbacks and sometimes the same event is shown from different perspectives.
Melquiades Estrada [melˈkjaðes esˈtɾaða], a Mexican illegal immigrant working in Texas as a cowboy, shoots at a coyote which is menacing his small flock of goats. A nearby United States Border Patrol officer, Norton, thinks he is being attacked and shoots back, killing Melquiades. Norton quickly buries Melquiades and does not report anything. Melquiades' body is found and is reburied in a local cemetery by the sheriff's office. Evidence that he may have been killed by the U.S. Border Patrol is ignored by the local sheriff, Belmont, who would prefer to avoid trouble with the Border Patrol.
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