The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
27th January 2007
Yesterday I watched this. This is the movie which can be said to “be different, not like others”.
I will try not to retell the plot – for this, visit IMDB’s page for the three burials.
For me, this movie tells us that everyone has a path in life. The path, which can be changed by what we do. The path, which can be enforced.
The plot is built around an accidental murder of an innocent man. The story is displayed mixed, with both current and past events displayed side-by-side. Following the storyline, we learn the psychology behind the acts of each character. The interesting part is that completely nothing is said about the characters – we only observe them living, talking, acting, and feeling.
The innocent, who was killed, enforced a kind of fate both on his best friend and on his killer. The fate takes those two through the path of comprehension and understanding – different path for each of them, evidently.
Despite the serious ideas visible through the visual row of the movie, it is also a comedy. The woman going out with three men says to one of them, that she cannot escape with him to Mexico, because she loves her husband. In reply to “you told me I’m the only one you love”, she explains: “this is completely different…”.
The end of the movie leaves us completely uncertain as to what happened next to the main characters. Their common and differing paths ended by lifting the fate enforcement, and we cannot know what is next. Though it appears clear that the fate twisted their ways bizarrely, probably without any chances of restoring the status quo.
P.S. As a side note, inspired by review-comment at IMDB: boredom is really the engine for the events of the movie, except for when Pete takes on a quest of bringing his friend home: then it is not boredom driving him anymore. Boredom drives unmotivated actions in the movie, and this is worth seeing as well – to be warned.
