The Alphabet Project: T is for...

The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

In West Texas nearby the border of Mexico, the arrogant new border patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) mistakenly kills the Mexican cowboy Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo) and buries him in the desert. When Melquiades's body is accidentally found one week later, his best friend, the ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones), claims the body to fulfill his promise and bury Melquiades in his hometown of Jimenez, Mexico and presses the local sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam) to find the killer. However, Melquiades is not delivered to Pete because he is not his relative, and his body is reburied in the local cemetery. When Pete discovers the identity of the killer, he kidnaps Mike and forces him to dig up the grave and take the body to Melquiades's family in Mexico. The two journey across the barren landscape of West Texas and Mexico. While in their journey to Mexico, the sad reality of the hopeless Mexicans that live in the proximity of the border with USA is disclosed.

Trivia: Tommy Lee Jones grew up in Midland, Texas (My hometown) and went to high school with Laura Bush. In College his roommate was Al Gore. Director/Actor Jones gave each cast member a copy of Albert Camus' "The Stranger" to read so that they would understand alienation, a big theme in both the novel and the film. Tommy Lee Jones's theatrical directing debut. His only other directing credit was the TV movie The Good Old Boys (1995). Much of the movie was shot on Tommy Lee Jones's own ranch outside of San Antonio.

I know what you are saying, "The three burials of who?" And the answer would by Melquiades Estrada. The reason I picked this one is that I like Tommy lee Jones and this looked interesting... and y'all have had some good luck guessing my picks lately so I had to put you back in your place...just kidding. Actually it is a rather good film especially and Jones and Pepper are together. Dad saw this movie first and when he heard I had seen it he commented that he didn't realize until the end that Dwight Yoakam played the sheriff and I thought, "Oh yeah Dwight Yoakam was in it...wait a minute...he was the sheriff!?" The only other movie I saw Dwight Yoakam in was Sling Blade and the same thing happened, "That was Dwight Yoakam!?"

Up Next: "U", and just a reminder, you will have a shorter time frame to guess, you have until Saturday morning. This Week's Clue: Another one of those future distopian vampire flicks. And now for last week's clues:

The Terminator - A human-looking, apparently unstoppable cyborg is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor; Kyle Reese is sent to stop it.

Three On The Trail - An evil gang is involved in both cattle rustling and the robbing of stagecoaches. Hoppy must stop them... (This is a first, the first Hop-A-Long Cassidy movie guessed)

The Treasures of Tutankhamun - Umm...It's about The Treasures of Tutankhamun, I guess.

Capote - Truman Capote, during his research for his book In Cold Blood, an account of the murder of a Kansas family, the writer develops a close relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers.

Trainspotting - Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.

Treasure Island - Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver (the fast food mogul) in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint...

True Lies - When a secret agent learns of his wife's extra-marital affair, he pursues her and uses his intelligence resources in a job he kept secret from her.