Scene Spotter

I looked forward to seeing "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" for a couple of reasons.I like dark revenge movies. But I love movies that are shot in Texas. Because I've been all over this huge state, there's a better than good chance that I can indentify where exactly a particular scene was shot. It's like a sport for me. This Tommy Lee Jones yarn is centered in West Texas, which is what most people who haven't ever been here think all of Texas looks like. It's dry, rocky, desert land with mesas and a few 6,000 foot high mountains --- perfect for shooting a cowboy flick or in this case, a cowboy/border relations/revenge movie.

I'd guess I was the only person in the audience that recognized that one scene was shot in Shafter, Texas, population nobody. I knew the place as soon as I saw the scene This is an old silver mining town just north of the border town of Presidio. I walked around here, poking around the two buildings in the town that are still habitable, about a year and a half ago. It's likely that a few months later, T.L. Jones came here to and made his movie magic. I bet Tommy stayed in Marfa in the evenings, and stared up at the crazy night lights in the sky while hammered on Shiner. Or maybe that's just me.