The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Tommy Lee Jones |
Written by | Guillermo Arriaga |
Produced by | Luc Besson Michael Fitzgerald Pierre-Ange Le Pogam |
Starring | Tommy Lee Jones Barry Pepper Julio Cedillo Dwight Yoakam January Jones |
Cinematography | Chris Menges Hector Ortega |
Edited by | Roberto Silvi |
Music by | Marco Beltrami |
Production companies | EuropaCorp Javelina Film Company |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
Release dates | |
Running time | 121 minutes[1] |
Countries | France United States[2][3] Mexico[4] |
Languages | English Spanish |
Budget | $15 million[5] |
Box office | $13.5 million[5] |
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (also known as Three Burials)[6] is a 2005 neo-Western film[3] directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and written by Guillermo Arriaga.[7] It also stars Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, and January Jones.
The film was inspired by the real-life killing in Texas of a teenager, Esequiel Hernandez Jr, by United States Marines during a military operation near the United States–Mexico border[8] as well as the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, which contains the same plot premise and challenges encountered in the film.[9]
The film has many flashbacks with the same event shown from different perspectives.