Jones' 'Three Burials' a charm

Kenny Santana, Contributor, Cannes, qnoy2k@yahoo.com

Name a few great Tommy Lee Jones movies: Blue Sky, Heaven and Earth, The Fugitive, JFK, Men in Black (yes, even this commercial flick) comes to mind. Yet a Tommy Lee Jones movie has always been one in which he stars, not directs, because he has only directed two films to date.

The first was made-for-cable The Good Old Boys 10 years ago, and the second is Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this May.

Three Burials is about Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo) who is shot to death and whose body is taken by a friend, local rancher Pete Perkins (Jones), across the Mexican border. Pete kidnaps a border patrolman (Barry Pepper) to aid him on his journey, and what emerges is friendship between these polar characters.

Praised for its script, performances, gorgeous cinematography and the hard but heartwarming issue, the film nabbed two awards at Cannes: best screenplay for writer Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) and best actor for Jones. Though Jones didn't win the best director category, nobody would disagree that he steered a pretty good picture.

So, what has taken Jones so long to direct a feature film?

"Directing jobs are really difficult to get, you know. I directed a film for Ted Turner television network, directed some plays. Directing movies is a lot of fun, but it's a privilege that you have to work hard to earn. It takes a lot of time. Happily, I'm able to multi-task -- I can write and prepare movie for directing and act and raise kids all at the same time," Jones said at a Cannes press conference.

Jones' multi-tasking ability is probably "easier" because of his creative process. Citing Clint Eastwood as a director with whom who might share a similarity, Jones allows no more than three takes for every scene.

"I think we should all be ready to get it right the first time, and do the second take as back-up and the third take in case there's a scratch in the negative or something. After three takes, if you're continuing the shoot the same thing over and over again, somebody is making a mistake and it's probably me."

This no-frills directing style with constant rewrites -- Jones admits some of the funniest moments in the script was written five minutes before a shoot -- has apparently turned Jones' directorial debut into a gem.

"It's one (movie) that I really did want to make. The important thing is working with people I know and like, and being able to work at home. The movie that concerns itself with themes close to us and where we live. That was the important thing," he said.

The theme is about going home.

"When you emigrate to another country, you have dreams and desires. I think that's what Melquiades is thinking about when he talks about his family, talking about something that he knows he will have. He's sharing an intimate moment with a friend. It's amazing in a film to be able see two cowboys, a window of opportunity to have intimacy. In essence, isn't that what we all want? We want a family," Cesar said about the title character.

Yet in talking about family, the film takes on a violence of its own, and some scenes give a feeling of vigilantism. However, many filmmakers disagree on the suggestion. To them, Three Burials depicts the contrast between beauty and cruelty, good and bad. and the tender and the rough.

"This is not (about) vigilante justice, this is a story about friendship where a friend has to fulfill his promise to his dead friend. And in such a way, he has to take a journey with Mike Norton's (Barry Pepper's) character, trying to be loyal to the ultimate friendship. This is just a simple man trying to go to Mexico to bury his friend and showing this guy what friendship really means," Ariaga said.

Barry Pepper, who plays Mike Norton in an amazing performance admitted, "The timeless archetypical, maybe theological theme and morals parallel what I hold important and what my deeper beliefs are. It's ultimately what attracted me to this script. I would never have been interested in this Mike Norton character if he stayed as linear and superficial, as lonely, pathetic, as when we first meet him. If he didn't have some journey, some form of enlightenment that would enrich him and hopefully, the audience in the end, then there's absolutely no point in telling the story for me."

The cross-border road trip is a quest for a relationship between the two men. Along the journey and encounters they have, the audience will follow the transformation that ensues in Norton, the building of a true friendship and a twist that takes us back to the importance of home.

In a way, this magnificent movie is a coming-of-age tale for any age.

"The important theme of the movie is belief, which is to say, believing in belief. Belief in believing or faith. An important influence in my creative life and this movie is Southern writer Flannery O'Connor... Her definition of faith is "what you know to be true". Faith is what you know to be true -- whether you believe it or not...," said Jones. "(Melquiades) wanted a home and how was it created -- by believing in it," Jones said.

Jones' intelligent film has a heart big enough to make any viewer believe that, truly, home is where the heart is.

Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada will be screened for Jiffest today at 4:30 p.m. at the Graha Bakti Budaya of Taman Ismail Marzuki and on Dec. 14 at 9:30 pm at the Djakarta Theater. For more information, visit www.jiffest.org or call (021) 31925115.