Saturday, May 06, 2006
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Should you see it? If you like La Strada, yes. If not, no.
A few key observations:
1. The film’s emotional trajectory is very much like that of La Strada. The layers of stoicism, confidence and smugness are slowly peeled away from our main character until in the final moments his true, naked humanity is powerfully revealed. Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Pete, is the only likeable male character in the film which is littered with empty men suffering under their own self-repressing machismo. Pete by contrast is thoughtful, funny and allows himself to experience friendship and love. And it is Pete’s ability to be human, need to be human, that causes the ultimate wreck of himself in the end. It seems he is the only person in the film being emotionally (and literarily) truthful. He doesn’t realize that those around him whom he trusts are being deceitful (or less judgmentally we could say self-protecting) in the dehumanizing boarder town run on superficial and violent male ego. And what is most amazing about this film is everything we realize about Pete, his society, and the effect of the society on him (and everyone else) come through 2 short, subtle moments. 1. When he calls his mistress drunk from Mexico and asks her to come to Mexico to marry him. She says you’re crazy, I really didn’t mean I loved you most (or at all for that matter). 2. When we realize Melquiades Estrada has made up the story of having a loving family waiting for him back home in Mexico. In both cases we realize how desperately Pete needed love and friendship in his life. He was unable to see through his mistress’s false words of love, though the facts were obvious. She was both married and sleeping with every man that came through the café’s door. Also, Pete romanticized his friendship with Melquiades Estrada, taking on an impossibly awful journey with his friend’s body to prove to himself that this was a real friendship. In the end it turns out Pete hardly knew his friend. Like La Strada, the true story, the emotional reality of our main character, is not revealed to us until the very last moments. Now it is not as perfect as La Strada where Felinni waits until the final 10 seconds to make the film crash down upon you and you see everything which came before in its true, startling light - but it is in that vein, and it works.
2. The plot of the film, dragging Melquiades Estrada body back to his home town, is Faulkner’s As I Lay Dieing.
3. I saw many similarities between Three Burials and Brokeback Mountain. 1. You got lots of cowboys. 2. The film is littered with self-repressed, macho men, who are unfilled as the film begins and even less fulfilled by the time the film ends. 3. The films are brilliantly conceived, shot, directed and acted. 4. Somehow, as much as I respect the mastery of each and I can’t say that I ‘liked’ them.
Should you see it? If you like La Strada, yes. If not, no.
A few key observations:
1. The film’s emotional trajectory is very much like that of La Strada. The layers of stoicism, confidence and smugness are slowly peeled away from our main character until in the final moments his true, naked humanity is powerfully revealed. Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Pete, is the only likeable male character in the film which is littered with empty men suffering under their own self-repressing machismo. Pete by contrast is thoughtful, funny and allows himself to experience friendship and love. And it is Pete’s ability to be human, need to be human, that causes the ultimate wreck of himself in the end. It seems he is the only person in the film being emotionally (and literarily) truthful. He doesn’t realize that those around him whom he trusts are being deceitful (or less judgmentally we could say self-protecting) in the dehumanizing boarder town run on superficial and violent male ego. And what is most amazing about this film is everything we realize about Pete, his society, and the effect of the society on him (and everyone else) come through 2 short, subtle moments. 1. When he calls his mistress drunk from Mexico and asks her to come to Mexico to marry him. She says you’re crazy, I really didn’t mean I loved you most (or at all for that matter). 2. When we realize Melquiades Estrada has made up the story of having a loving family waiting for him back home in Mexico. In both cases we realize how desperately Pete needed love and friendship in his life. He was unable to see through his mistress’s false words of love, though the facts were obvious. She was both married and sleeping with every man that came through the café’s door. Also, Pete romanticized his friendship with Melquiades Estrada, taking on an impossibly awful journey with his friend’s body to prove to himself that this was a real friendship. In the end it turns out Pete hardly knew his friend. Like La Strada, the true story, the emotional reality of our main character, is not revealed to us until the very last moments. Now it is not as perfect as La Strada where Felinni waits until the final 10 seconds to make the film crash down upon you and you see everything which came before in its true, startling light - but it is in that vein, and it works.
2. The plot of the film, dragging Melquiades Estrada body back to his home town, is Faulkner’s As I Lay Dieing.
3. I saw many similarities between Three Burials and Brokeback Mountain. 1. You got lots of cowboys. 2. The film is littered with self-repressed, macho men, who are unfilled as the film begins and even less fulfilled by the time the film ends. 3. The films are brilliantly conceived, shot, directed and acted. 4. Somehow, as much as I respect the mastery of each and I can’t say that I ‘liked’ them.
