Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

SnoopyStyle Maria (Elpidia Carrillo) leaves her earthquake ravaged homeland with her children. Charlie Smith (Jack Nicholson) is a world-weary US Bureau of Naturalization and Immmigration agent in L.A. living with his wife Marcy (Valerie Perrine) in a run-down trailer. Then he gets a new job in the border patrol in Texas with a nice house to please his wife. He and his partner Cat (Harvey Keitel) catch a group of illegals including Maria. Cat tries to pull him into his corruption which causes a major rift.I like the dusty ugly border world. Nicholson does a good job but this is not an exciting movie. It doesn't have good cinematic style. This is more at a TV movie level. I think Charlie Smith would be more compelling if he is a naive newbie.

Rodrigo Amaro Dry and uninspired "The Border" escapes from being weak thankful to some good performances and some good moments. But it's hard, tiring and not engaging movie about an honest border cop (Jack Nicholson) dealing with a practically whole corrupt force who smuggles illegal Mexican immigrants, drugs and gets an awful lot of money with this. Charlie, Nicholson's character, only enters in the game to satisfy his compulsive and big spender wife, who wants to live in a dream by buying stuff. But Charlie also wants to help a Mexican girl (Elpidia Carillo) her younger brother and her son to accomplish their prosperity in this new land, trying to compensate his lack of good deeds now that he's part of a dangerous system that also involves dealers and mercenaries. Best thing was to make the bad cops as more likable folks than the blasé anti-hero. Probably because they were made as simple as possible, people to get ahead in a system that allows you to do that and they never threatened or treated Charlie differently after he turned down their offers, at first. It all changes when Charlie cannot look himself in the mirror disgusted with this situation and people start getting murdered. They are very seductive up to a certain point, and that made the movie more bearable, won't say enjoyable because it staggered frequently with some of its dramatic moments and relatively enjoyable action sequences. Its lack of purpose is upsetting just as much as the mixture of drama and thriller - only reaching memorable peaks with the climatic ending and when the baby is kidnapped. The privileged look given by foreign directors of privileged countries (in this case, the British Tony Richardson) is always one dimensional and clichéd, never trying to be more than just a romanticized copy of reality - see my review of "Crossing Over" as well. And there's so much more to be explored here instead of just giving Charlie investigating everything or seeing his wife living this costly dream of fun barbecues, water bed and stuff. We should be able to relate a little more with the immigrant characters, hear their voices and wishes, give more substance instead of poor folks who want to live a better life - which is true - running away (as sort of pointed out) from earthquakes. Despite its troubles, "The Border" offers a good performance from Nicholson and an outstanding Harvey Keitel as Charlie's "best buddy" who invites the good cop to a world of possibilities and illicit acts as well. At the end of day, you have something good from this film. 6/10

fahlstrom Charlie Smith is a border patrol agent who's life is twisted between trying to satisfy a wife who's demands constantly escalate and who is never satisfied and a job he starts out enjoying but ends up hating. The twists in the story are never ending and the characters are played to the hilt by a great supporting cast led by Harvey Keitel and Warren Oates.You'll watch this dark story of conflict and enjoy it a lot. Another reviewer calls it Nicholson's best job acting. I like Jack and think he's a great actor and this role does reflect that talent.The music is haunting and really lends to the story, especially the title song by Freddie Fender.

drwnutt Jack Nicholson gives a wonderfully controlled performance in this film. His restraint and control is contrasted to Harvey Keitel's fallen character and to his out-of-control, childish wife (Valerie Perrine). He works in dishonest circumstances in which he enforces the law selectively in a tacit arrangement with crooked businessmen. In so doing he is a part of the exploitation of Mexican workers. When he transfers from L.A. to Texas, his conscience is awakened by his dishonest co-worker and a beautiful, victimized Latina (Elpidia Carillo) and her child. There is plenty of action and the story moves in response to the characters.Freddy Fender and Ry Cooder provide memorable and haunting music that just makes the whole film so much more powerful.