Journal of English Studies (May 2013)
On third thoughts: the ambivalence of border crossing in Tommy Lee Jones’ "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"
Abstract
The tragic story of Melquiades Estrada in Tommy Lee Jone’s prize-winning 2005 film could easily be one of the case histories in Oscar Martinez’s already classic Border People (1994), which brings togetherpersonal narratives that deal with cross-border migration, transnational interaction, irregular labor, ethnic confrontation and border control. Born and raised on the Texan-Mexican border, Jones is not unfamiliar with these dynamics taking place in border regions, which prove to be a unique human environment deeply marked by transnational processes and, yet, also signs of resistance on both sides to fully embrace or reject the other culture. The Three Burials is a serious attempt at incarnating the spirit of the place, documenting accurately its mixed culture, and describing the pain that most of its inhabitants suffer from. Several reviewers have rightly argued that Jones’ film, like Unforgiven (1992) and Lone Star (1996), “offers another twist on the Western genre, breaking conventions and proving that there is vast unexplored territory within the traditional gun-slinging setting of the frontier.” Elements such as the laconic use of language, the central role played by landscape or the paramount importance of violence and death are clearly reminiscent of a genre whose main conventions are still being fruitfully used for new purposes. Nevertheless, it would be an unpardonable critical blunder to think of Jones’ film as a mere continuation of a tradition that was mainly characterized by its excessive Manichaeism and its conviction that justice will be eventually recovered. This article argues that the message that Jones eventually sends to the audience is one full of ambivalence and ambiguity, and if some degree of justice is established at the end of the film, as Roger Ebert (2006) has noted, it is a ‘poetic justice’ more than a literal one.
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