by Ed Travis
You find out that an action movie from 1980 starring Charles Bronson, Ed Harris, Wilford Brimley, beloved character actors Bert Remsen and Michael Lerner, and even City Slickers’ Bruno Kirby exists. Delight bursts forth. Then you realize it is a movie where Charles Bronson is a US Border Patrol Agent named Jeb Maynard who is keeping our nation safe from… illegal immigration… hesitation and doubt set in. Just how dated and offensive will this movie be? And why has almost no one ever even heard of it before? There’s no obvious answer to the latter question, since this movie is far more entertaining and exciting than many of the other Bronson films that have gotten wide releases on every home video platform since they played cinemas. And, refreshingly, the answer to the former is that Borderline is surprisingly non-partisan. Opting instead to shed a little light on what the US-Mexico border beat was like circa 1980 and create a murderous villain for Bronson to contend with, Borderline actually creates a few characters with some dimension and avoids villainizing the Mexican immigrants in any way.
Writer/Director Jerrold Freedman (Native Son, Kansas City Bomber) steers the ship here, and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (Silence Of The Lambs, The Sixth Sense) lenses the project. So while there are some thrilling nighttime border chase sequences and even some interesting camerawork around the border patrol station, the full screen presentation of this DVD release, along with a lackluster transfer from the original elements don’t do the movie any favors. It really doesn’t look great as presented in this release, which is unfortunate since many like me will be discovering this film for the first time here on DVD. The disc also features no bonus features, so all one gets is the movie itself in an acceptable-at-best full screen presentation.
Fortunately the movie is a joy to unearth for fans of these cast members. The credits “introduce” Ed Harris, so one imagines this is his very first big screen role. And immediately his smoldering on screen presence is known. One can’t be surprised that Harris has gone on to such a lengthy and esteemed career after seeing this debut performance as a border coyote known only as “The Marine”, a veteran who will stop at nothing to achieve his mission because he’s been trained that way by our own government. On the other side of the law is Bronson’s Maynard, who is coming after The Marine hard because his old friend Wilford Brimley is summarily taken out in the opening moments of the film. This is a no frills police procedural, complete with training up the rookie (Kirby) and good old fashioned detective work. It’s in the detective work that we see Bronson’s Maynard is quite sympathetic to the plight of the immigrants themselves; befriending an illegal woman (Karmin Murcelo as Elena Morales) whose son was lost in the crossing and even himself doing an undercover border crossing to gather information. This undercover crossing is just one of several exciting action set pieces found in Borderline. As the bad guys ramp up their plans to smuggle enormous amounts of illegals across the border, Bronson and his team use their intel to mount their own sting operation in scenes of ratcheting tension that are engaging if not masterful. It is all familiar good guys versus bad guys procedural stuff, but with just enough nuance and authenticity, bolstered by a constantly exciting cast, to make this a strong recommendation for fans of Bronson, Harris, and tough guy action. The disc itself is sub-par, but the joy of discovery atones, at least partially, for that transgression.
For a high stakes, cops versus robbers adventure on the border, you could do a lot worse than Borderline.
And I’m Out.
Borderline is now available on DVD from Timeless Media Group, a division of Shout! Factory