South of the border, during church services, an earthquake strikes. North of the border, patrol agent Charlie Smith (Jack Nicholson) arrests two illegals working below minimum wages at a sweatshop. These vignettes introduce to this movie about illegal immigration by Mexicans to the USA, and the corruption that goes along with it, from the Mexican coyotes, American lawmen, and Mexican hustlers. The border patrol cops work to keep out illegals, but businesses pay to keep them. In the beginning the movie focuses on illegal immigrants, but it morphs into an action movie (with little action) until the end. To please his extravagant wife Marcy (Valerie Perrine), Charlie transfers from his rundown trailer in Los Angeles to a desert duplex in El Paso, Texas, her hometown. To furnish her "dream house," Marcy loves to buy things (on the installment plan) that Charlie knows that the couple simply cannot afford: huge water bed, large sofa, pool in yard. She hosts expensive parties. Charlie's border patrol partner at work is Cat (Harvey Keitel), married to Savannah (Shannon Wilcox), Marcy's high school friend. They live on the other side of the duplex. Cat has offered Charlie a buy-in to his system of earning more cash. This involves allowing illegals inside the USA to do day jobs at nearby businesses and farms. The decent-minded Charlie vehemently turns down the offer at first, but his wife's constant spending changes his mind. Meanwhile Charlie becomes obsessed with helping young Mexican mom Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), who's new infant was stolen from her in a smuggling ring that sells babies for adoption. The compassionate Charlie wants to help Maria and ask for nothing in return. She winds up trapped working in the sleaziest bar you'll ever see and run by the slimiest of characters. Meanwhile Cat is not against an occasional murder. ("We take care of business.") These issues upset Charlie greatly: he decides to take a stand against corruption. The acting holds up well. To mention a few names, Nicholson is always good. But this feature is not like "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces," "Chinatown," "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," or "The Shining." His performance this time is sufficiently subdued and brooding. Keitel is also a good actor; he plays devious characters very well. Warren Oates is effective in a small part as Border Patrol Chief "Red." Mike Gomez as Manuel plays a sufficiently dastardly, creepy snake. The Freddie Fender soundtrack helps. But the film suffers from any lack of excitement. The funniest line in the film emanates from a drunken woman: "You look like my husband. He'd f*** a woodpile if he thought there was a snake in it."

Jack Nicholson does solid work in the role of Charlie Smith, a border patrol officer who moves from California to Texas. Saddled with a well meaning but materialistic wife, Marcy (Valerie Perrine), he realizes that his pocketbook can't keep up with her dreams, so he yields to corruption. This is also encouraged by his new neighbor / partner "Cat" (Harvey Keitel). Soon Charlie is taking pity on young mother Maria (Elpidia Carrillo). When her baby is stolen for the purpose of being sold on the black market, he gets involved in her plight.All of the actors here deliver rather under rated performances. With Nicholson, there's no theatricality, no eccentricity, just a good, straightforward, impassioned portrayal. Perrine plays the wife in such a way that you can't really hate her. Keitel is great as always as the shady partner, as is the sadly short lived Warren Oates, near the end of his life and career, as Charlies' new boss. Carrillo is lovely and extremely engaging, and one might wish that she'd had more opportunities in American film over the years. (Most people likely know her as the sole female character in "Predator".) There's a fair bunch of recognizable actors in supporting and bit parts: Shannon Wilcox, Jeff Morris, Dirk Blocker, Lonny Chapman, William Russ, Gary Grubbs, etc.The story, written by Deric Washburn, Walon Green, and David Freeman, is not a great one, but it is entertaining and involving enough to keep ones' attention. Vivid on location shooting is one asset, the sad depiction of the reality of dirt poor Mexicans is another. You can understand why some of these people want to see if their fortunes in the U.S. will be any better. It also benefits from having a main character who's not a squeaky clean, Dudley Do Right type, but is still a basically decent person who will NOT cross certain lines. Viewers will love the expansive widescreen photography and the lovely score by Ry Cooder.At a time when the issues of border policing and illegal aliens are very much on peoples' minds, this film does remain relevant.Seven out of 10.

To appreciate Jack Nicholson's work in "The Border" you have to take into account the time it was made. Nicholson was just coming off "The Shining" where his performance was universally mocked by the elites as ham boned. His turn here is the polar opposite of Jack Torrance. Nicholson plays a passive border guard submissively going along with a corrupt system until events force him to take a stand for what is right. The transformation of his character is subtle with few broad gestures or demonstratives.The story-line takes place in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, in which there is the border between the two places (the Rio Grande river, more specifically). It deals a lot with the illegal immigration problem, and other issues that occurred at that time. The immigration issue still with us after all these years, but its hard to imagine a movie dealing with that issue in as thoughtful or morally complex a way as this one does being made today.I think the striking contrast between Charlie's air-headed Mary and the desperate and needy Maria needed to be further explored. As it was played Charlie is just a good Joe doing a good deed or two when in fact we know he is much more involved than that. I think the movie would have been improved by making him choose between the two women as he had to make the moral choice between going with the Cat's corruption or going against him. You gotta see this for Jack Nicholson, one of the great actors of our time, who brings subtlety and veracity to a role that could have been ordinary, while giving us only a hint of the commanding and irreverent style that he would adopt in later years.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

"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