A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A different way of telling a story

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

When one considers the extraordinary acting career of Jack Nicholson, the performances that immediately spring to mind are the likes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining and even Tim Burton's Batman. They were roles seemingly tailor-made for Nicholson's manic arched eyebrows and devilish grin, but he was capable of so much more when, ironically, doing far less. Arguably, he has never been better than as Charlie Smith, the middle-aged and weary border agent working within a corrupt organisation in El Paso. When we first meet him, he is discussing with the owner of a factory which of his illegal immigrant employees to arrest so he can meet his quota of deportations. He reads the Mexican youths their rights like reading from a shopping list, but they'll be back in a few days. Charlie's job is ineffective and he knows it, and it takes a special actor to pull off indifference and boredom without appearing disinterested.Every night he returns to his nondescript trailer to eat a TV dinner cooked by his stay-at-home wife Marcy (Valerie Perrine). It is Marcy who convinces Charlie to quit his job as an immigration enforcement officer and move to El Paso, where property is cheaper and a job as a border agent awaits him. To please the wife he has fallen out of love with but nevertheless tolerates, Charlie agrees, and falls in with fellow border agent Cat (Harvey Keitel). Along with his supervisor Red (Warren Oates), Cat runs a human trafficking operation across the border, and wants Charlie to join the payroll. Meanwhile, young Mexican mother Maria (Elpidia Carrillo) attempts to flee into the U.S. with her baby and younger brother after an earthquake decimates her town. When she frequently comes up against the border patrols, Charlie start to sympathise with her situation, as well as growing increasingly weary of his wife's wild spending and his colleagues' abuse of power.The Border didn't do particularly well on its release and its memory has somewhat faded since, but director Tony Richardson's film packs enough of a punch to warrant a reevaluation. It perhaps arrived too late in a decade when cinema had moved away from the character-driven 70s and more towards visual decadence. Yet The Border could also be released today, and its subject matter would be just as relevant, if not more so. It highlights the problems on both sides, with corruption rife and those caught in the middle treated like dogs, and what little progress has been made in the decades since. Recent films like Sin Nombre and Cartel Land have explored and highlighted the same issues, and the result is always violence upon violence. Richardson, who is better known for his exceptional British works Look Back in Anger, A Taste of Honey, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runnier and Tom Jones (amongst others), directs with little flair but trusts the story to pack enough power on its own. Although it descends into a generic, action-packed climax (which was forced in after test audiences reacted badly to the original ending), The Border deserves another shot, and features a Jack Nicholson at the very top of his game.

I remember being fascinated by the is film when I saw it as a kid, telling a story set along the US/Mexico border and revealing to me a human drama I was previously unfamiliar with. Watching the film again, it still holds up as a strong piece of filmmaking, but I saw it in a new light, as a revisionist western that should have been directed by Sam Peckinpah (not to mention seeing the film's relevance to our current political climate around immigration). Jack Nicholson plays a disillusioned border agent surrounded by other corrupt agents, particularly his best buddy, fellow agent Harvey Keitel. Jack is pressured to join in on the dirty dealings by Keitel and indirectly by his vapid, spendthrift wife, Valerie Perrine, who wants to build Jack their dream home, to which Jack replies, "I can't afford a f------- dream house!" and "No more, Marcy. No more's no more. No more does not mean more, and more, and more! No more means no more!" In general, Jack is pretty disgusted with the world around him and the American/capitalist way of life, but sees a chance to do some good by helping a young woman and her child he meets crossing the border. "The Border" was written by Walon Green, who co-wrote Peckinpah's classic western "The Wild Bunch," and both films share many of the same themes; disillusionment, betrayal, and the desire to live a simpler life by what others would consider an anachronistic code of honor. Directed by British filmmaker Tony Richardson, he gives the actors room to move through this dusty sweaty story, but he lacks the visual style and the harder edge that Peckinpah would have brought to the picture. Had this film been directed by Peckinpah, "The Border" might have been his best film, although his alcoholism and volatile personality during this period may have prevented that. The mediocre "Convoy" and "The Osterman Weekend" were his only two films around this period and he died shortly thereafter, but Peckinpah directing "The Border" is an interesting what-if to consider. Also worth mentioning is a fine score by Ry Cooder and excellent dusty dry photography by Ric Waite. Overall, despite a great script and a stellar cast (which included Peckinpah stock company actor Warren Oates) "The Borer" misses the mark at greatness. However, it's still a smart, engaging, and thought provoking film. Nicholson once said that of all the pictures he had been in, this was the best film he had ever made. I'm not sure I'd agree with that, but with a stronger director he may have been correct.

"The Border" has a powerhouse cast in it's favor. Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Warren Oates, are uniformly good. What is not so good is the script, and editing. The script seems somewhat redundant, and the editing is seasickness inducing choppy. Despite these flaws, the film is watchable, but I doubt repeat viewings would be necessary. The corruption that is shown, certainly portrays the United States Border Patrol in a most negative way. The plight of the Mexicans is not a very pretty picture, and is exploited throughout the movie. Is it a political statement or entertainment, I am not certain? As a movie I would call it marginally successful at best. - MERK

As a teacher of English in Germany you always look for worthy material on the Latino immigration influx . This film is a valuable opener for such a series of lessons. It reveals the impact of the problem. It makes use of outstanding performances: Nicholson and Keitel are as cool as ever. Pellerine is the American woman. Her friends are that, too. The mafia ring consisting of policemen and coyotes is shown realistically. Violence is explicit but not overdone. Landscape and Latino immigrants are depicted in all their shades and lights. The strong American individual wins in the end - again. The good side beats the bad side. The Ry Cooder soundtrack is more than worth listening to. It is authentically reconstructed as always. Teachers: Pick up that video or DVD and use the movie for your lessons on the US Latino problem!