Howdy folks, I'm Tommy Lee Jones. You probably know me as an actor. (Remember me in The Fugitive? I was good in that. Won me an Oscar, it did.) Today, though, I speak to you not only as an actor but as a director and a human being. I'd like to talk to you for a moment about immigration.
Now, I feel very strongly about the immigration issue. Immigrants have a very tough time making it in America, even more so if they are illegal Mexicans. There's a lot of hatred directed towards Mexican immigrants these days, and I don't think that's right. Mexican immigrants do a lot of things for us, and they do a lot of crummy jobs to help this economy run. That's why I've made a movie about it. It's called The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.
In this movie, I play a ranchhand who befriends the title character, a Mexican cowboy who's come to America looking for work. One day, he's shot and killed by a racist border patrol cop, so in the best traditions of the Western I have to take my revenge. This, of course, involves a great many scenes where I beat the snot out of the border patrolman. I feel that including all these scenes gets my point across very forcefully.
What's more, I've been blessed in that my conviction to the immigrant issue attracted the attention of screenwriter Guillermo Arriga. He's the guy who wrote that movie 21 Grams, and he's Mexican, so how lucky am I that he wrote me a screenplay about the plight of the Mexican immigrant? I mean, truth be told, it's not Arriga's best work. When I was reading it, I thought that it was kinda heavy-handed and obvious, and Arriga's use of irony was, I dunno, a bit laughable. Also, it wasn't really clear to me why the script was non-chronological, other than Arriga likes writing that way. But darn it, it was about an immigrant, and I felt that I could get my message to the world with this film.
I've also been lucky with casting in my journey to make this film. When word got out that I was making a film about the immigrant issue, a lot of talented people offered to help me out. I couldn't cast 'em all, but I got a few of 'em in there. Dwight Yoakam was a no-brainer, being that this film would be a Western and all. Melissa Leo was great too, since she was willing to do the nude scenes. What I was real happy with, though, was getting Barry Pepper to play the border patrolman. He's a talented young actor with a bright future, and there's nobody in Hollywood I'd rather spend half a film beating up.
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Article comments
1 - Pacze Moj
vicious, Vicious, and very funny!
I think I thought I little more highly of the film than you do (though one thing that bugged me, and that you -- err, Mr. Jones -- didn't bring up, is the use of titles: "the first burial", "the second burial"...), but your criticisms are spot on.
Barry Pepper's border patrolman could have been a great character, if Arriga hadn't written him as a racist jerk who half-rapes his wife, punches Mexican women in the face, and probably strangles baby coyotes for fun, right after jerking off to a copy of Hustler... on the job.
My favourite scenes were the few with Melquiades' corpse: grotesquery incongruous with everything else in the film!
There may be a future for you yet, Mr. Jones!
2 - Steve C.
I was actually grateful for the over-literary titles. When I saw "The Third Burial...", I knew the film was almost over and I'd be free to leave.
I think the point when I knew I hated the film was when January Jones hooked up with Melquiades. It was then that I knew I was not watching a serious film.
3 - Marshall
Wow, you guys are way off! The movie plays like a classic greek tale of redemtion. I found it pretty darn entertaining. Now don't get me wrong, there were more than a few obvious signs that this was Jones' directorial debut but all and all I found it a refreshing change from the usual stuff in theaters.
4 - Steve C.
I dunno, man. I understand that it's about redemption and all that (Jones couldn't be more obvious about that, especially in the last scene)... but when a pivotal scene in the evolution of Pepper's character hinges on him recognizing a bad soap opera that he was too busy near-raping his wife to notice the first time it showed up... forgive me if I'm not sold. (And that's not even counting the inanity of said soap opera, both as a plot device and as an easy way for Arriga to crack us upside the head with his Irony Slugger.)
5 - Barbara
I thought this an absolute first rate movie--the land as much a character as the people in it. And well, those racist bigots who think so dern much of themselves and so little of others DO exist, in just that way. It isn't that they are just ignorant, they actually believe no one matters except for themselves...check battered women's shelters if you think that border patrol character isn't a dime a dozen. TL Jones makes one heck of a movie and tells one fine tale. Watched the movie because he is one of my favorite actors, bought the DVD because it is now one of my favorite films.