Mike and Lou Ann Norton were popular in high school; Mike is a taciturn type sporting a buzz-cut, while Lou Ann is a blonde mallrat who may have once been a cheerleader. But that was back home in Cincinatti; by the time they get to the Texas border town where Three Burials is set, reality has begun to catch up with them. Mike has taken a job as a Border Patrol guard - the hated men from the 'migra' who keep America free from unwelcome additions. He whiles away the time by beating up Mexicans who cross him, firing the odd round from his rifle, and whipping out Hustler magazine at every given opportunity. Lou Ann stays at home, languishing in their high-end trailer, drinking coffee in a nearby diner, and staring out her obese bikini-clad neighbour. In the evening they watch two different TV shows on two different TVs in two different rooms. When Mike gets rambunctious during Lou Ann's soap-time she lets him hump her from behind without taking her eyes from the television screen.

The American nightmare lives of the Nortons are contrast with that of Pete Perkins. Pete is an tough-as-leather cowpoke with a big heart. Although Pete shares a mistress with the local sheriff, we know which of them really understands the town. When illegal immigrant Melquiades Estrada appears on the scene the Mexicanophile Pete adopts him. Pete and 'Mel' get along splendidly, they even go on a 'double date' to a local motel - Pete brings his married girlfriend, while Mel enjoys the company of the bored Lou Ann Norton. But Pete's good times come to an end when Melquiades is mistakenly gunned down by the Hustler-clutching Mike. The careerist sheriff can cover this up, dismissing Mel as another dead 'wetback', but it doesn't take Pete long to work out who's responsible and decide how he must atone: Mike will go on a long hot desert journey to bring Melquiades' body to its final resting place.

The TV unreality of Mike Norton's existence is shattered when he takes a life, despite the authorities' happiness to whitewash it. Mike is an errant child, uncertain of his course of action. When his official 'elders' pretend nothing has happened, the ornery Pete assumes the role of his guide. Mike's Pete-enforced journey through the desert with Mel's corpse is as much a rite of passage for Mike as it is revenge for the dead man. In one poignant moment he breaks down in tears, having encounted a group of Mexicans watching his wife's favourite soap on a TV rigged up to a car battery. Although Mel's final resting place proves as elusive as the grande latte nirvana mythologised by Lou Ann's yuppy soap, Three Burials is more about the journey than the destination.

Although this is Tommy Lee Jones's directorial debut, Three Burials bears the hallmarks of screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. While the temporal distortion familiar from 21 Grams is only employed in this film's first act, the treatment of the aftermath of tragedy and the concern for the value of human life are both revisited. The name of Sam Peckinpah has been frequently invoked when discussing Three Burials, but (despite the gradually disintegrating corpse) there is a lighter touch at work here – and a sense of humour, especially with the knowing commentary of the country music on the soundtrack. Although the Tex/Mex border conflict has been treated of in other films (John Sayles's Lone Star comes instantly to mind), Arriaga and Jones's version offers an unusual level of equality, including bilingual dialogue and intertitles.

The central conflict in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada isn't between races, it is between life in its echt and ersatz forms. The difficult life of an outsider like Melquiades means little to the sheriff, who can run off to Sea World at the first sign of trouble; but Pete, who is in touch with the land and its people, knows the value of humanity - that of the perpetrator as well as the victim. His quest to do justice to Melquiades ulitmately releases his killer from his hollow existence. Despite his good intentions, Jones and Arriaga ultimately make the audience question Pete's outlook as much as Norton's; although Pete's journey comes to an end, has he really found what he was looking for? But then again, who does?

Rated 15A (see IFCO website for details)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is released on 31st March 2006.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Official website