The Border Movie

The Border
Rating:
Run Time: 107 min
MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1982
Directors: Tony Richardson
Genre/Type: Drama
Thriller
Producers: Edgar Bronfman
Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Tom Jones director Tony Richardson might seem a curious choice to direct the contemporary western The Border, but he does his best to emulate Sam Peckinpah. Jack Nicholson stars as an El Paso border guard, saddled with avaricious wife Valerie Perrine. Hoping to stifle her nagging about money matters, Nicholson begins accepting payoffs to allow Mexican aliens to cross the border without interference. This leads to a relationship with a young Mexican mother Elpidia Carillo. Harvey Keitel and Warren Oates lend strong support to this atmospheric tale.

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In this age of security alerts and “shoe bombers”, some of us may be a bit concerned about crossing the International Border into Canada and returning. Rest assured, it’s not that hard. You just need to be prepared. Canadian Customs officia...
The border between New South Wales and Queensland winds its way through the towns of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta. With buildings, roads, and other structures spanning the border it is often not obvious which state you are in. This can be im...
The Border Patrol is s a very limited purpose federal law enforcement agency. It is not a police force in the sense of city police and county sheriff’s deputies. Local police have broad authority to enforce all criminal statutes, and have a...
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Cast

Actors Character Born
Jack Nicholson Charlie Apr 22, 1937 in Neptune, NJ
Harvey Keitel Cat May 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York City, NY
Valerie Perrine Marcy Sep 3, 1943 in Galveston, TX
Warren Oates Red Jul 5, 1928 in Depoy, KY
Elpidia Carrillo Maria
Shannon Wilcox Savannah
Manuel Viescas Juan
Jeff Morris J.J.
Mike Gomez Manuel
Dirk Blocker Beef Jul 31, 1957 in Los Angeles, CA
Lonny Chapman Andy
Gary Grubbs Honk
Alan Fudge Hawker Feb 27, 1944 in Wichita, KS
Floyd Levine Lou
Stacey Pickren Hooker
Billy Silva George
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Back to the topReview

Review by Michael Costello
Director Tony Richardson delves into the complex symbiosis between border guards and illegal aliens on the U.S./Mexican border in a film that's often engrossing, but finally too sprawling and diffuse to be compelling. The film takes a somewhat detached view of both guards and aliens, in laying out an ethnography of tastelessness and obsessive materialism among the Border Patrol that fuels the shady deals that exploit the desperate Mexicans. Jack Nicholson, whose characters have often ridiculed the kind of minor official he plays here, is surprisingly straight as the weary, cynical guard who finally tires of Harvey Keitel's venal boss, and the conflict between them gives the film what energy it has. Less successful is the sketchy character of the Mexican woman played by Elpidia Carillo, who supposedly inspires Nicholson's redemption. Despite the film's limited impact, the documentary aspects of this situation, which seems to have changed little in the intervening years, remains of interest. Valerie Perrine and Warren Oates are typically excellent, and the sweeping camera work of Vilmos Zsigmond and Ric Waite is also worth noting.
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