The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 4, 2021

Tommy Lee Jones directs the sobering and sublime The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, a picture that explores death and despair in a lonely border town. In it, a life is destroyed by a single act of unfortunate and unnecessary violence. It is a story of lives broken, promises kept, and justice served. The film is partially nonlinear in structure and slow to develop, both creating a palpable unease about the story and the characters, reinforced by the signs of deteriorating humanity. In the film, purposelessness reigns until a purposeless act of violence redefines and reorients the characters. What follows is a journey of intense physical trial and psychological trauma in an effort to right the wrongs of a life destroyed from the outside and lives allowed to crumble from within.

Illegal immigrant Melquiades Estrada (Julio César Cedillo) arrives in Texas in search of work. He's a skilled cowboy and quickly finds work with rancher Pete Perkins (Jones). The two become inseparable friends. They work hard and share a couple of bored local women, middle aged and promiscuous waitress Rachel (Melissa Leo) and lonely young housewife Lou Ann (January Jones). Lou Ann is married to a young border patrol agent named Mike Norton (Barry Pepper). One day, while on patrol and doing anything but his work, Mike hears gunfire and believes someone is taking shots at him. He returns to his truck, grabs his rifle, and guns down a man. That man turns out to be Melquiades who was shooting at a coyote; he never saw Mike. Mike hastily buries the body and does not report the incident.

Melquiades, perhaps feeling the strain of five lonely years separated from his wife and children, or perhaps with foresight into his future fate, once asked that Pete bury him in Mexico should he die in Texas. When word reaches Pete that Melquiades has died, he vows to keep the promise but first seeks answers in his death. Local Sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam) is keeping the investigation at arm's length. But when Rachel hears word that it was Mike who killed Melquiades, Pete takes action outside of the law and along the thin line between right and wrong. He kidnaps Mike and forces him on a perilous trek through Mexico to fulfill his dead friend's wishes.

There's a sense of personal isolation and social distance in the film, even as it follows frivolous sex and ultimately focuses on a journey in which two disparate men come together by fate and force alike to perform a task. Their experiences along the way -- the people they meet, the perils they face -- come to define the journey but also enlighten their own inner being. No longer are their lives in a holding pattern. Perhaps in death some semblance of life and meaning can be found. Perhaps not. But the film allows these characters ample opportunity for reflection on their journey.

It's ultimately in how they respond as to whether or not their story will bear any fruit, but for the audience, at least, much is harvested from the picture. Jones directs Guillermo Arriaga's (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) script with careful attention to detail, not simply capturing action and narrative beats but subtly defining them in any number of ways, largely through intimate character portraits that surrender, often, far more and far deeper meaning than anything the script has to offer. Like the story, Jones shoots the film with a sense of despair, capturing the almost ceaseless feel of emptiness not simply to geography but to souls. Each character faces a different sort of emptiness. Pete misses his friend. Melquiades is dead. Mike is bearing a tremendous burden that is robing him of his very life and freedom. Lou Ann and Rachel exist in meaningless isolation, even when they're with others.

Performances perfectly reflect the movie's feel of despair, emptiness, and failing humanity. These are gritty works well capable of capturing the spirit of the equally gritty world. The cast collectively manages to build life into soulless characters, whatever "life" may mean for each one. The wounded characters are far more complex than the superficial emptiness they each project and Jones is well capable of bringing out the best in his actors to express that messy inner turmoil to a place that can match the external maneuverings. Everything in and about the film works for a larger harmony of purpose. It's quite the cinema experience.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony unearths The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada to Blu-ray with a foundationally sound 1080p transfer. The picture is filmic with pleasing textural yield, offering firm-to-robust definition across the board, whether considering intimate facial portraits, attire, various interiors of relatively unassuming texture, and of course the harsh terrain Pete and Mike cross through much of the film's second half. While the feel of absolute razor-sharpness and perfect clarity is absent -- this does not reach to the Blu-ray output stratosphere -- there's a fine feel for all the basics and Blu-ray certainly does not seem at all incapable of presenting the film at a high level of visual output efficiency. Colors appear mildly depressed and desaturated for tonal effect. There's a mild warmth at play, too, yielding a color landscape that reflects the downtrodden physical and emotional planes of existence within the film. Satisfactory context-driven boldness is in evidence throughout, giving enough depth to clothes, faces, and the like to satisfy requirements as the film defines them. Black levels are not quite so intensely deep as they may have been. There are no egregious source or encode issues in play.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada features an effective, if nondescript, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation offers grounded definition to location atmosphere and a decent sense of spatial awareness around town and out in the wide open terrain where much of the movie takes place. It's not so immersive to call it lifelike but listeners will enjoy the essential feel for location detail throughout. Musical clarity is fine even if spacing, surround and subwoofer extension, and forceful engagement are not commonplace. The track is a bit reserved, which suits the movie's tone. A few heavier effects, like gunshots, play with decent depth and punch though these are certainly wanting for a more realistic sonic posture. Dialogue is clear and firmly planted in the front-center channel.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada contains a commentary track and a trailer. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Actor/Director Tommy Lee Jones and Actors Dwight Yoakam and January Jones deliver a smooth, insightful track. They interject some humor and there are some small gaps but it's certainly well worth a listen.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:50).

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's not an easy road for the characters in, or the audience watching, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The film is a challenge to all: physically, emotionally, spiritually. It's a tale of emptiness and purpose, of perilous journey, of a chance for some degree of hope in hopelessness. All of the characters are built similarly yet respond differently. It's a film of great interior complexity and it's very watchable externally. Sony's Blu-ray delivers fine video and audio as well as an audio commentary track. Highly recommended.