The four archetypes of The Three Burials (of Melquiades Estrada)

Clayton, Wickham (2017) The four archetypes of The Three Burials (of Melquiades Estrada). In: A fistful of icons: essays on frontier fixtures of the American western. McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson. ISBN 9780786498048

Creators:
Clayton, Wickham
Description/Abstract:

While the Hollywood western has undergone several cycles of de- and re- mythologising the narratives, archetypes, and tropes of the genre, each re-mythologisation returns, with little variation, to the same elements classical Hollywood appropriated. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (dir. Jones; 2005), particularly in the wake of more traditional westerns like Open Range (dir. Costner; 2003), uniquely plays with established classical western archetypes, largely because the film closely, perhaps too closely, adheres to traditional formulations.

Three Burials centres around the unexpected murder via stray bullet of Melquiades Estrada, a Mexican immigrant. The primary characters in the film are made up of classical western archetypes, but exist in Texas, mid-2000s, instead of the American west of the 19th century. This temporal variation is key to understanding the deviances that occur from the archetypal templates. This chapter will examine this film's relationship to the classical western and its character archetypes to explore how Three Burials undermines the fictive façade of the western's generic conventions and plays with viewer familiarity, ultimately creating a unique narrative effect and providing a fresh view of classical elements of the genre.

Item Type:
Book Section
Date:
30 July 2017
Additional Information:

From A Fistful of Icons: Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the
American Western © 2017 Edited by Sue Matheson by permission of McFarland &
Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. www.mcfarlandpub.com.

Schools:
School of Film, Media & Performing Arts
Related URLs:
Depositing User:
Dr. Wickham Clayton
Date Deposited:
22 Jan 2018 11:47
Last Modified:
01 Mar 2022 08:46
Clayton, Wickham:
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8064-9111
URI:
https://research.uca.ac.uk/id/eprint/4320

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