Review of The Border (1982) by Ola G — 26 Dec 2017

Immigration enforcement agent Charlie Smith (Jack Nicholson) lives in California with his wife Marcy (Valerie Perrine) in a trailer. She persuades him to move to a duplex in El Paso shared by her friend and U.S. Border Patrol agent Cat (Harvey Keitel). Cat convinces Charlie to become a U.S. Border Patrol agent as well. Marcy opens a charge account and starts to purchase expensive items like a water bed as she tries to build a dream home. Cat gradually introduces Smith to the human smuggling operation he runs with their supervisor Red (Warren Oates). Though Smith initially declines to participate, his wife's free-spending ways make him finally take part in the operation. Meanwhile, a young Mexican mother that he has observed is detained, and while she is in their custody, one of Cat's drivers abducts her baby for an illegal adoption. Charlie becomes more and more disillusioned and he finally decides to take a stand for the young Mexican mother and against the corruption he's fallen into...

Vincent Canby of the New York Times said the movie "has the sort of predictable outrage and shape of a made-for-television movie. It has suspense but little excitement. Once the people and the situation have been introduced, there's not a single surprise in the film, nothing of the uncharacteristic sort that differentiates the adequate melodrama from one that is special and memorable. Like so many films prompted by real-life social problems, The Border is a movie in which the characters appear to have been created to fit the events. Missing is any sense of particularity, as well as the excitement that comes when the members of the audience are allowed to discover some sort of truth for themselves.".

"The Border" has a story with good intent (and it´s a quite current one these days in 2017) with immigration, betrayal and corruption, but there´s no surprises nor that much excitement as Vincent Canby of the New York Times mentions in his review. We get solid acting from Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel and the rest of the cast. But that´s just not enough. The film has no real highs and no real lows. It´s like a constant flatline throughout the running time. With that said, "The Border" still engages and provokes thoughts, but with a stronger direction the film might have become better and more memorable.