The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTommy Lee Jones
Written byGuillermo Arriaga
Produced byLuc Besson
Michael Fitzgerald
Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
StarringTommy Lee Jones
Barry Pepper
Julio Cedillo
Dwight Yoakam
January Jones
CinematographyChris Menges
Hector Ortega
Edited byRoberto Silvi
Music byMarco Beltrami
Production
companies
EuropaCorp
Javelina Film Company
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • May 20, 2005 (2005-05-20) (Cannes)
  • September 11, 2005 (2005-09-11) (TIFF)
  • November 23, 2005 (2005-11-23) (France)
  • February 3, 2006 (2006-02-03) (US)
Running time
121 minutes[1]
CountriesFrance
United States[2][3]
Mexico[4]
LanguagesEnglish
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.

  1. ^ "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Los Tres Entierros De Melquiades Estrada (15)". British Board of Film Classification. January 4, 2006. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  2. ^ "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". British Film Institute. London. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  3. ^ a b Buchanan, Jason. "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". Allmovie. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  4. ^ "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". shotonwhat.com. June 15, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Los tres entierros de Melquiades Estrada (2005) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  6. ^ "Three Burials - the Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  7. ^ Barra, Allen (October 2006). "Screenings: Now on DVD: A Brand-New Classic Western". American Heritage. Archived from the original on March 3, 2007.
  8. ^ Dargis, Manohla (December 14, 2005). "Dead Man Rising: An Odyssey in Texas". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
  9. ^ Sills, C. Warner (June 15, 2006). "As Melquiades Lays Dying". Indiana Daily Student. Retrieved September 16, 2019.