We watched this strange and compelling Tommy Lee Jones film last night. I had never even heard of this one before…I don’t know how it snuck past me, considering one of my musical favourites, Levon Helm, has a role in it and it features some excellent border music, including Freddy Fender’s Before the Last Teardrop Falls blaring from a pick-up radio.
Included in the cast are January Jones, who is so fabulous in Mad Men and Melissa Leo, whose work I really enjoyed in the old Homocide – Life on the Street series. And let’s not forget Dwight Yoakam as Belmont.
I’m not going to describe the plot in this post…you can read up here. It’s unusual in so many ways, not the least of which is Jones’ character Pete, crossing the Rio Grande from America to Mexico with a stinking corpse and a kidnapped border agent.
It took us a while to understand time in this film, as it flashbacks a lot and there were times when I wasn’t sure at first what was going on. At a certain point, though, this becomes part of the cadence of the film, and I enjoyed the way it was handled.
I don’t know why I hadn’t heard about this film. It’s very good and gets the Anchovy salty of approval.
27th Street 
Heh heh, you and I have a delightful long history of you not doing what I tell you! Despite the fact I’m always right.
In the old days…I used to see a movie in the theatre and depending…i would phone you and force you to go with me to see it. One time I made you go see a movie solely because it had David Bowie wrestling with Carl Perkins! (also had the most amazing roster of other cameos). I once dragged you to see “The Cotton Club” too.
I’m a patient soul…
🙂
Now added to my Amazon wishlist. What a cast!
I went and looked up my post about this movie from a few years ago…and guess who commented? Yep. I was SURE I had insisted you see this movie.
I have posted about this movie no less than half a dozen times har! And here is the original note…I’m not much of a reviewer but here it is for what it’s worth….
http://gnosticminx.blogspot.com/2006/03/three-burials-of-melquiades-estrada.html
Well mia maxima culpa. I shoulda watched it when you suggested it. I must have been the awkward title that drove it from my mind, because you were right, I liked this film a lot.
One good thing though, and that is I’m happy to see that I still don’t always do as I’m told. Har!
I wrote a number of reviews about this movie when we saw it a few years ago. It’s really one of my fave movies and I’m so glad I saw it in the movie theatre. Actually…we bought it as soon as it came on dvd and I wrote another blog review about it. I am nuts for this movie. Glad you saw it and liked it too!