Three Burials

I recently saw the new Tommy Lee Jones movie, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" which was shot in Van Horn before I arrived. I'd recommend it. The acting is very strong, and the story about devotion to friendship is original and poignant. Jones won Best Actor at Cannes for this, and Barry Pepper is fantastic. Jones also won for Best Screenplay.

But it is not for the faint of heart as bad things happen to a horse and a human body, so please keep this in mind.

It shows our beautiful land around here, and is jarringly honest about the town, which is not to most eyes, beautiful. One of the scenes takes place at the paupers' graves in the Van Horn cemetery, which is one of my favorite places to run in town. Yes, those markers are made of rebar and painted wood. Some of them have names on them; some don't. We do not live in the clean, neat, manicured Midwest, but to me, this makes the cemetery much more interesting. (I'll post more photos of the cemetery later. It is fascinating.)

Tommy Lee Jones is coming back to film in Marfa this spring, as he's teaming up with the Coen brothers to make an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's newest book, "No Country for Old Men."

And Daniel Day Lewis fans will get to see him around Marfa this spring, too. He'll be in town to make "There Will Be Blood," an adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel, "Oil!" The writer/director of "Magnolia" and Punch Drunk Love" will be making this one.