The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (also known as Three Burials)[6] is a 2005 neo-Western film[3] directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and written by Guillermo Arriaga.[7] It also stars Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, and January Jones.
The film was inspired by the real-life killing in Texas of a teenager, Esequiel Hernandez Jr, by United States Marines during a military operation near the United States–Mexico border[8] as well as the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, which contains the same plot premise and challenges encountered in the film.[9]
The film has many flashbacks and sometimes the same event is shown from different perspectives.
