The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

Director
Tommy Lee Jones

Main cast
Tommy Lee Jones; Barry Pepper; Dwight Yoakam; January Jones; Melissa Leo

Genres
Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Western

Description
When brash Texas border officer Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) wrongfully kills and buries the friend and ranch hand of Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones), the latter is reminded of a promise he made to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), in his Mexican home town. He kidnaps Norton and exhumes Estrada's corpse, and the odd caravan sets out on horseback for Mexico. As Estrada's body begins to rot, Norton begins to unravel, but Perkins remains determined to honor his vow.


Similar movies

Academy Award Winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. is a Border Patrol Officer in the New Mexico desert with a secret past that is about to catch up with him. When his old gang leader tracks him down and forces him to smuggle drugs across the border, he must choose between the life he swore to leave behind and saving his family at any cost.
Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
A police inspector, suspecting an attorney of two child sex murders, has him held for a questioning session that goes on for hours.
The mysterious murder of a US senator bearing the distinctive trademark of the legendary Soviet assassin "Cassius," forces Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere), a retired CIA operative, to team with rookie FBI agent, Ben Geary (Topher Grace), to solve the crime. Having spent his career chasing Cassius, Shepherdson is convinced his nemesis is long dead, but is pushed to take on the case by his former supervisor, Tom Highland (Martin Sheen). Meanwhile, Agent Geary, who wrote his Master's thesis on Shepherdson's pursuit of the Soviet killer, is certain that Cassius has resurfaced. As Shepherdson and Geary work their way through crimes both past and present, they discover that Cassius may not be the person they always thought him to be, forcing both to re-examine everything and everyone around them.
An American with a shady past joins with a morally-bankrupt Irishman to find treasure buried by Arabs in a deserted mosque in the Sahara. The situation becomes complicated when they are surrounded by Bedouin bandits.
Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime.
Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.
New Orleans, 1981. Sonny Phillips, just discharged from the Army, returns home. The only life he's known is as a gigolo, working for his mother, but he wants to leave that behind. However, the job his Army buddy promised doesn't materialize, and he can't escape his past.
Irish Republican Army member Fergus (Stephen Rea) forms an unexpected bond with Jody (Forest Whitaker), a kidnapped British soldier in his custody, despite the warnings of fellow IRA members Jude (Miranda Richardson) and Maguire (Adrian Dunbar). Jody makes Fergus promise he'll visit his girlfriend, Dil (Jaye Davidson), in London, and when Fergus flees to the city, he seeks her out. Hounded by his former IRA colleagues, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the enigmatic, and surprising, Dil.
John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.
A DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who have been tasked with investigating one another find they have been set up by the mob -- the very organization the two men believe they have been stealing money from.
A career criminal (Gibson) nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a 9-year-old boy.
A group of six thieves selected from different areas are sent a letter that promises them a minimum of $50,000 and includes a plane ticket. The letter instructs them to grow a beard. After being given a blindfolded ride from the airport, they arrive at a ghost town and meet with the boss (Number #1, Jan Murray). All of the "Wolves" are assigned a number, wear identical overalls and instructed never to take off the gloves that they are given. They are only to address eachother by their numbers; in that way, if one is caught, he can't rat-out the others. Number #1 reveals to them that they will take over a town, and clean it out. Using the ghost town for training, they develop their tactics to fleece the town.
Two Texas border guards find a jeep buried for 20 years in the desert, with a skeleton, a scoped rifle, and a box with $800,000 in cash. They decide to keep the money, but quietly check up on the info they find. Soon the Feds are running all over the place, and it looks like jeep maybe linked to the JFK assassination. But the Feds are trying to cover it up, and eliminate anyone involved with the jeep.
Self made millionaire Rolando Dominguez (Carlos Guerrero) could not resist the tempting pleasures that came with his success and now finds himself homeless, demented, and tormented by flashbacks of his regretful mistakes and broken promises to his missing son Rollie (Carlos Guerrero Jr.). Rolando struggles with his guilt as he faces the harsh reality that the fortune he worked for in his pursuit of happiness is the very thing that has destroyed his life... Meanwhile Detective Stevens (Steven Bauer - Scarface, Ray Donovan) has vowed to bring Rollie back home to his desperate mother Vanessa (Carmen Lopez) who’s six month agony has led her to question her faith while clinging on to the last bit of hope to see her son again.
When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of Desperation, they must fight for their lives.
Young French officer Augustin Robert escorts artist Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis to Egypt during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Napoleon sent de Paradis to record Egypt's great monuments and temples that are destroyed by French soldiers in acts of barbarism. During combat, Augustin and Jean-Michel are separated from their regiment, and they start wandering through the desert fighting for their life. In one of the canyons Augustin meets a leopard he names Simoom and a strange bond between them appears.
The setting is the east shore of the Caspian Sea (today's Turkmenistan) where the Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov has been fighting the Civil War in Russian Asia for a number of years. After being hospitalised and then demobbed, he sets off home to join his wife, only to be caught up in a desert fight between a Red Army cavalry unit and Basmachi guerrillas. The cavalry unit commander, Rahimov, "convinces" Sukhov to help, temporarily, with the protection of abandoned women of the Basmachi guerrilla leader Abdullah's harem. Leaving a young Red Army soldier, Petrukha, to assist Sukhov with the task, Rahimov and his cavalry unit set out to pursue fleeing Abdullah.Sukhov and women from Abdullah's harem return to a nearby shore town. Soon, looking for a seaway across the border, Abdullah and his gang come to the same town...
A dog that helped soldiers in Afghanistan returns to the U.S. and is adopted by his handler's family after suffering a traumatic experience.
Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.
A disgraced Confederate Colonel who has deserted his command flees to the Everglades where he encounters a disparate group of four other Southern deserters. Together they struggle to find their way out of the swamp and resolve their own personal demons under the eyes of hostile Seminoles as they battle to survive the elements and each other.
The Apache Indians have reluctantly agreed to settle on a US Government approved reservation. Not all the Apaches are able to adapt to the life of corn farmers. One in particular, Geronimo, is restless. Pushed over the edge by broken promises and necessary actions by the government, Geronimo and thirty or so other warriors form an attack team which humiliates the government by evading capture, whi
Rafe Covington is as good as his word, and he's determined to keep his promise to a dying man that he'll look after the man's widow and Wyoming ranch. But the widow doubts the integrity of drifter Covington. And an unscrupulous land grabber and his gunmen are sizing up the ranch the way a spider eyes a fly.
This film predominantly deals with the problems of a young man whom his delusions led into conflict with society. These issues will throw him into an adventure that would be tragic for him, but still helpful for him to see the truth. The story takes place in Kosovo in 1945, in an atmosphere of uncured wounds, wandering, betrayal, burned homes, typhoid and other postwar misery. An authentic story from those days was taken as the film's basis.
An 8-year-old boy and his dog are left to face a vast desert wasteland alone after a plane crash, while an army of men and machines penetrate the desert searching for them. Based on true events.
When an Amacor oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns and copilot "A.J." are sent to shut the operation down. However, on their way to Beijing, a major dust storm forces them to ditch their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the desert.
A con man with his beautiful accomplice and a hostage steals a half million dollars worth of diamonds but finds they're all lost in the desert without water.
A group of Vietnam War veterans re-unite to rescue one of their own left behind and taken prisoner by the Vietnamese...
Sergeant Joe Gunn and his tank crew pick up five British soldiers, a Frenchman and a Sudanese man with an Italian prisoner crossing the Libyan Desert to rejoin their command after the fall of Tobruk. Tambul, the Sudanese leads them to an abandoned desert fortress where they hope to find water. Soon a detachment of German soldiers arrives and attempts to barter food for water, but Gunn and his followers refuse. When the Germans attack, Gunn leads his desert-weary men in a desperate battle, hoping that British reinforcements can arrive in time.
The story of a military border patrol dog and handler.
Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them
The adventure unfolds as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn - Tom's friend from the streets - witness a murder in the graveyard. Tom and Huck flee to Jackson Island and make a pact never to tell anyone about the incident. However, when the good-natured Muff Potter, who has been blamed for the murder is sentenced to death by hanging, Tom breaks his promise and returns to exonerate Muff Potter. In jun Joe, the actual murderer, makes a hasty exit from the courtroom during the trial. A short time later, Tom and Huck find references to a treasure and have to face In jun Joe again.
A naval officer who had deserted several years earlier is drawn back to the Navy when World War II begins. He re-enlists under an assumed name, and is assigned to a minesweeper, where he has to perform hazardous duties while at the same time keeping his real identity a secret.
A man crossing into Mexico with a satchel of $2,000,000, and a bloody past, finds himself under sudden attack in the sleepy town of El Fronteras.
An epic about British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.
A young girl named Neera, who has been separated from her father in Arabia by WWII. Left alone in the desert, she befriends the wild colt whom she names Shetan. Once reunited with her father, however, Neera remains haunted by the images of the lost horse in the desert--one of a few stallions of legend, rumored to be born of the sands, sired by the night sky, drinkers of the wind.
Aviator Marie Vallières de Beaumont (Cotillard) goes on a journey to find her lover Bill Lancaster after his plane disappears in the Sahara. After her plane is forced down in the Ténéré she meets Lieutenant Antoine Chauvet (Canet) of the French Camel Corps who joins in the hunt for Lancaster. As the two endure hardships in the desert, they begin to develop feelings for each other.
Amid a revolution in a South American mining outpost, a band of fugitives - a roguish adventurer, a local hooker, a priest, an aging diamond miner and his deaf-mute daughter - are forced to flee for their lives into the jungle. Starving, exhausted and stripped of their old identities, they wander desperately lured by one deceptive promise of salvation after another.
A Chinese emissary is sent to the Gobi desert to execute a renegade soldier. When a caravan transporting a Buddhist monk and a valuable treasure is threatened by thieves, however, the two warriors might unite to protect the travelers.
When rogue stealth-fighter pilot Vic Deakins deliberately drops off the radar while on maneuvers, the Air Force ends up with two stolen nuclear warheads -- and Deakins's co-pilot, Riley Hale, is the military's only hope for getting them back. Traversing the deserted canyons of Utah, Hale teams with park ranger Terry Carmichael to put Deakins back in his box.
Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.
Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.
A drama centered around Patty Montanari, the widowed mother of two who went to work for her lover Frank Russo, a captain in a Brooklyn crime family.
Paul Manderley, eccentric historian, and his wife, descendant of the Borgias, live in an isolated castle-like mansion in the Mojave Desert. When a guest suddenly collapses, Charlie Chan is invited to stay. As the standard mystery-mansion props come into play, and all means of outside communication are sabotaged, it becomes evident that one of the inhabitants has access to poisons and is prepared to use them...
A Russian teenager living in London who dies during childbirth leaves clues to a midwife in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
Hired by a powerful member of the Russian mafia to avenge an FBI sting that left his brother dead, the perfectionist Jackal proves an elusive target for the men charged with the task of bringing him down: a deputy FBI boss and a former IRA terrorist.
Similar to "The Dirty Dozen" or one of that nature. Japan is trying to take over the world and the generals of the allied forces trying to stop the Japanese have been taken prisoner. A force of loners and fighters is put together to try and rescue the generals and save the war effort with the promise of gold and/or pardons of past crimes.
Brass Bancroft and his sidekick Gabby Watters are recruited onto the secret service and go undercover to crack a ruthless gang that smuggles illegal aliens.
One Man's Hero tells the little-known story of the "St. Patrick's Battalion" or "San Patricios," a group of mostly Irish and other immigrants of the Catholic faith who deserted to Mexico after encountering religious and ethnic prejudice in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. The plot centers around the personal story of John Riley, an Irishman who had been a sergeant in the American Army who is commissioned as a captain in the Mexican army and commands the battalion, as he leads his men in battle and struggles with authorities on both sides of the border
A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent Jim Rhodes, a tough divorcée mourning the loss of his murdered partner while struggling to raise his rebellious daughter in the mountains of Montana. But when a crew of trigger-happy fugitives takes Rhodes and his daughter hostage, a rugged wilderness will explode in all-terrain vengeance. Is there any wounded animal more dangerous than a lawman left for dead? Daniels portrays one of the villains.
After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.
As the home planet of the Green Lantern Corps faces a battle with an ancient enemy, Hal Jordan prepares new recruit Arisia for the coming conflict by relating stories of the first Green Lantern and several of Hal's comrades.
While traveling with his father, young Alec becomes fascinated by a mysterious Arabian stallion that is brought on board and stabled in the ship he is sailing on. When it tragically sinks both he and the horse survive only to be stranded on a deserted island. He befriends it, so when finally rescued both return to his home where they soon meet Henry Dailey, a once successful trainer. Together they begin training the horse to race against the fastest ones in the world.
In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm. His journey takes him into a world beyond his wildest dreams and reveals his true identity.
Three young Inuits set off in search of a promised land to save their clan from starvation.
After their caravan is attacked and their respective families butchered by Arab marauders, teenagers David and Sarah flee across the desert. But the desert is filled with danger from the elements, animals and the unwholesome appetite of the Jackal, a sheik who wants Sarah for himself. However, the desert also holds temptation and love. David and Sarah hide out in an oasis and build a life for themselves, discovering each other in new ways.
A desert bandit leader robs a jeep and hauls off a lot of American money. He doesn't get much of a chance to enjoy it, however, because he and his men are soon attacked by a "phantom", who kills all his men, and steals his weapons. When a beautiful young woman shows up in search of the money, she is raped by the phantom. When another man shows up the three of them decide to head into the desert to find the "treasure" and wind up finding something they weren't expecting.
In a post-apocalyptic world, a warrior wandering through the desert comes upon a group of settlers who are being menaced by a murderous gang that is after the water they control.
Meet Will Duncan, a man who tells his young friend, Dusty, that “an honest heart is more valuable than any amount of money.” Will wants to marry his sweetheart, Annie, and he promised her father that he would save $10,000 to prove he can take care of her. Will never breaks a promise. As a scheming rival does his best to add to Will’s money shortage, there is no shortage of laughs. Through it all, Will proves to be constantly courageous—and frequently funny—example of honesty.

© Valossa 2015–2024