Jack Nicholson The Border Views

Movies & TV shows

AFTER 11 years of marriage, Charlie Smith (Jack Nicholson) is fed up with living in a dreary trailer with his pretty, bubble-brained, Texas-born wife, Marcy (Valerie Perrine), and with his job as a member of the United States Border Patrol stationed in Los Angeles. During the day, Charlie makes token arrests of docile, mostly frightened, illegal Mexican immigrants, who supply L.A.'s small businesses with below-minimum-wage labor, and then goes home to drink beer and listen to Marcy, who dreams of living in splendor in her very own duplex.

The best thing about ''The Border'' is the way Mr. Richardson has cast it, because the actors bring to their roles a lot of information that would be beyond the scope of lesser performers. Much of the way the film works depends on Charlie Smith's growing disaffection for his job and his highly romantic attachment for an innocent, childlike young Mexican woman named Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), who becomes the film's most visible victim of the illegal traffic across the Rio Grande. Mr. Nicholson supplies Charlie Smith with reserves of feeling that might otherwise not be apparent.

While there was an obvious Hollywood bias in the movie, it was none-the-less very well done. As always, any form of enforcement regarding American borders is portrayed as pure evil. And, as would be expected, the bad guys are our guys. Everybody else is just a victim. That said, I actually was moved by the struggle and the helplessness of the people. That and the thanklessness of the Border Patrol's unending job. As always, Jack Nicholson was fantastic. He didn't play the character, he was the character.