DIGGING DEEP COMES NATURAL TO STAR OF `THREE BURIALS'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

WITH HIS directorial debut, ``The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,'' Tommy Lee Jones has crafted a modern Western worthy of Peckinpah with a message of racial understanding that's as relevant (and subversive) as anything you'll find in movies today.

Deeply felt and full of dark humor that reflects the absurdities inherent in life (and death), Jones' movie is ultimately an affirmation that every human being is important - not just to friends and family, but to society as a whole.

As you might guess from the title, ``The Three Burials'' has to do with the life and death of Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), a Mexican vaquero illegally living and working in the West Texas border area of Cibolo County. Melquiades works for rugged, salt-of-the-earth ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Jones), and the two form a friendship built on a mutual love for horses, the outdoors and a good Freddy Fender song.

Much of this background is established through flashbacks, a story structure not uncommon to the film's writer, Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote ``21 Grams'' and ``Amores Perros.'' The narrative structure here isn't nearly as fractured as in those movies, but it isn't conventional either. What all three films share is a commitment to exploring the gray areas of human behavior and an appreciation that sometimes bad actions can have the best of motivations.

When Melquiades' body is found, the local sheriff (Dwight Yoakam) quickly covers up both the corpse and the investigation. For Pete, this won't do. And given that both he and the sheriff are sleeping with the same woman, a married coffee-shop waitress (Melissa Leo, great as always) doing her best to relieve border-town boredom, Pete probably won't have to wait long to find out who killed his friend.

Jones has a strong feeling for the region's gritty landscapes and the people who inhabit them - he does own and work a ranch in West Texas, after all - and he's aided here immensely by the stunning cinematography of two-time Oscar-winner Chris Menges. (Nice that Jones could use his own land for much of the location work.)

The film's third-act redemption is hard-earned, and though its premise of one man learning about another by walking a (few hundred) mile(s) in his boots isn't original, it couldn't be more timely. Life's beauty and ridiculousness, its illusions and realities, cannot be confined to one side of the border or another. Judging by his movie, Jones considers this to be the most spiritual of messages. ``Three Burials'' will make you a believer.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA - Three and one half stars

(R: language, violence, sexuality)

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Julio Cesar Cedillo.

Director: Tommy Lee Jones.

Running time: 2 hrs.

Playing: Pacific's Galleria Stadium 16 in Sherman Oaks; ArcLight in Hollywood; and Edwards South Gate Stadium 20 for a one-week Oscar-qualifying run. It will reopen Feb. 3.

In a nutshell: Tommy Lee Jones knows the terrain in this, his directorial debut, a powerful modern Western about friendship and commonalities in a West Texas border town.

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Tommy Lee Jones is a West Texas ranch foreman who sets out to solve the murder of his employee and friend in ``The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.''