Borderline

Borderline

United States – 1980

Director – Jerrold Freedman

Avid Home Entertainment, 1995, VHS

Run Time – 1 hour, 44 minutes

In the early 1980’s a whole little cluster of border films came out within a few short years. It seemed that suddenly, illegal immigration was contentious again. In Border Cop (1980) Telly Savalas, and The Border (’82) Jack Nicholson each played a jaded Border Patrol agent who threw up his hands in cynical and frustrated sympathy. He may have felt deeply for the plight of the illegals, may have even been good friends with some of them (or even fallen in love), but he still had a job to do. Borderline, which came out just a few months after the Savalas picture was a gap in my Bronson collection that I had long needed to fill, but I was worried that it might be a difficult experience.

You see, I get totally confused when we white people make movies about non-white people. I start to feel like my emotions are being intentionally manipulated, especially when white actors play sympathetic non-white characters. Steven Segal, Burt Reynolds, Marlon Brando, Telly Savalas; the list goes on and on. Even my creasy Polish-American hero Charles Bronson played Mexicans and Native Americans on occasion. Bronson’s may have been the most believable brownface portrayal, but it still felt somehow disingenuous. These characters are repeatedly robbed, abused and even killed with much handwringing, but my feelings of empathy were all too often haunted by an inkling of insincerity which I couldn’t quite place. I don’t like having to think too deeply about what’s going on on-screen, it really ruins my suspension of disbelief.

It turns out I needn’t have been so concerned. Bronson, though he may have been typecast, or facecast as it were, always manages to deliver yet another compelling performance. In Borderline he plays Jeb, a Border Patrol agent much like his cinematic contemporaries; physically and emotionally overwhelmed with the contradictions of the very system which cuts his paychecks. It is such a difficult and thankless job being the responsible, caring zookeeper. But after watching as crowds of immigrants were herded about like frightened cattle in a prison yard for the first few minutes of Borderline, I was once again feeling the early stages of nagging guilt. But moments later, when Jeb’s best friend and fellow agent Scooter (Wilford Brimley) was brutally murdered, I suddenly had a revelation.

Scooter’s killer is Hotchkiss, “The Marine” (Ed Harris), a cold-blooded, uzi-weilding Nam Vet working for a local California businessman in a grand conspiracy to rake in the cash by drowning the U.S. labor market in a sea of malleable brown servants. Now even though the complications and tensions of illegal immigration policy are central to the rivalry between the Jeb and Hotchkiss, Borderline is not about illegal immigration at all. In fact it’s never even discussed. That’s because everything troublesome about immigration is embodied in one unscrupulous and evil individual, Hotchkiss whose elimination “solves” everything. Jeb’s clear-cut moral victory relieved me of any responsibility for the active contemplation of systemic social issues that often makes watching dramatic movies so unpleasant. Pitting these two men against each-other was brilliant. Not only do they play their roles with gusto, but it utterly mystifies one of the most contentious issues in modern U.S. politics. I must say though, if I have to cheer on the retrenchment of the status quo, Bronson’s the guy who’ll get me to do it every time. It’s so much easier when complex moral issues are boiled down into charismatic and easy to digest character tropes. If it had been anyone but him I would probably still be feeling guilty.

Wait, who's the headliner here, the Subject or the Objects?

French, Italian and United States' posters from Movie Poster Shop.
The French one is my absolute favorite, maybe one of the best posters of all time. It perfectly exemplifies the misguided self-deluding quality of white-people making movies about brown-people.

German poster-thing from Movie Poster Database
Why does (almost) every poster have a giant United States' flag on it?

In 'N Out

In ‘N Out

United States/Mexico – 1984

Director – Ricardo Franco

New World Video, 1987, VHS

Run Time – 1 hour, 30 minutes

In 'N Out first came up here when I discovered a number of Mexican films about border crossing. The Spanish title, Gringo Mojado means more or less literally “white wetback”, and I got excited for something that contradicted “our” narrative of the border and gave some insight into that of our southern neighbors. The director’s Spanish surname further encourages this line of thought and I had high hopes.

It is honestly hard for me to say how much of the Mexican sentiment came through in this film because I haven’t seen many purely Mexican films. I would be willing to guess very little. For one thing it’s filmed in English indicating its intended audience. And secondly all the supporting characters (and at times the stars) conform to expected stereotypes. Despite the obvious assumption, it turns out the director is a Spaniard (a nephew of Jess Franco), and only one of the four producers is not United Statesian. Despite being outnumbered and facing an uphill battle this small Raza element does manage to ripple some otherwise placid waters.

The script itself is a thoroughly uninspired and confusing attempt at comedy but it has it’s moments. Rafael Inclan plays Nieves Blanco (“Snow White”), a mariachi who longs to immigrate to the U.S. in order to be a lounge singer, “the Mexican Dean Martin.” He lives in a small house with his sister Lupita (Mexican TV actress Rebecca Jones) a domestic worker who hates the U.S. and wants nothing to do with it. When Murray Lewis (Sam Bottoms, Apocalypse Now) goes to Mexico to track down a mysterious inheritance, he becomes friends with the Blanco siblings who mock his “woman’s” name, “Maria Luisa”. Throughout the rest of the film, Murray is accosted and harassed by Mexicans who make it abundantly clear that he is not welcome in their country.  At one point, he and Nieves get drunk marveling at the irony of their situation, and Murray suddenly realizes that Mexicans are Americans too. “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States, “ Nieves replies. Murray has to sneak back into Mexico a number of times and in the films greatest moment he and Lupita fall for each other and remain in Mexico, while Nieves, with a new passport and a new name, heads North to croon.


Many of these moments, couched as they are within an unchallenging narrative, simply pass by without comment or emphasis, as if they were accidental. Comedies rely on a large element of expectation and its fulfillment or un-fulfillment to exploit their humor, but In ‘N Out oftentimes fights against itself. If the script had stuck to either a comedic formula, or fully rejected it, it would have been less confused by its own meanderings, both literal and metaphorical. Still, there’s no reason it couldn’t have been both, but the moments of transgression are not played for their comedic potential, and the attempts at comedy thus have little to anchor them. My conclusion, is that despite its moments of transgression, In ‘N Out couldn’t be too challenging otherwise it might have been a message film, and lord knows there's no audience for that.

Warlords From Hell

Warlords From Hell

United States - 1985

Director - Clark Henderson

Warner Home Video, 1988, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 16 minutes

Two United Statesian dirtbikers are jocking it up tearing ass around Mexico when they are caught by some Mexican heavies and forced at gun, knife and fist-point to work on their marijuana plantation. The plantation is guarded by a number of muscular blonde lawless mercenary types from the U.S., including Robert Patrick, all of whom take great pleasure beating up our heroic duo and abusing the indigenous population. Our heroes manage to get a brief missive out of captivity, and disguised as catholic missionaries, two of their friends back home load up a VW van with surplus military ordnance and head south to start a firefight.

Mindbogglingly made and released only moments before the almost identical but more heavily armed and Linda Blair equipped Night Force, Warlords From Hell is, like its cohort, stacked with all kinds of fun and insightful observations on international relations between the U.S. and Mexico. Even if you don't know anything about the long-standing regional tug-of-war in that area, Warlords From Hell is like a crash course in border politics and will get you up to dirtbike-speed in a breathtaking hour and a quarter.

So, where to start. First, despite what you may have heard, sneaking across the border is a totally rad adventure. Although they talk a big game about national sovereignty and security, in truth, over there they need you in order to feed the economy. Secondly there is virtually zero law enforcement because everyone is so impoverished that they have nothing to lose. After all, that's why you're going over there right, you can do whatever the fuck you want without consequence, and because they know how to respect someone with cash.

It is however important to be careful, once you cross the border it can be a little dangerous, there have been reports of bands of armed vigilantes trying to hunt people down and/or employing them under questionably legal circumstances. Not to fear, though it may sound sketchy, if by chance you find yourself in a sticky situation, exploited, robbed, abused or something like that, someone will track you down, put you in their protective custody and get you home free of charge, just like that.

 Well damn, just, damn. Yeeeeeeehaaaaww! That was fun.

Mexican "Wetback" Films

Since I am ridiculously jealous of the Mexican VHS boxes over at Satan's Hope Chest, all I can do is point you in his direction and proffer these movie posters.
I know you're probably thinking, the term "wetback" is racist, and you're right, but the literal translation of the term "mojado" is "wet person" or "wetback," and in general both terms have come to refer to anyone who crosses the U.S.-Mexico border "illegally." Hence the term used in this specific context  means simply "someone who clandestinely crosses the border" and is racist only when used in an Arizona context, as a blanket classification for anyone who doesn't "look white" and therefore is subject to persecution.

Gringo Mojado

Mexico - 1986

Director - Ricardo Franco

A U.S.-Mexico co-production about "A migrant gringo who wished he was from this side of the border." Also known by its U.S. title "In 'n Out."

Las Braceras

Mexico - 1981

Director - Fernando Duran Rojas

The Bracero Program was a U.S.-Mexico bilateral agreement to send Mexican laborers to the United States to work during the Second World War when there was a shortage of domestic labor. "Bracero" roughly translates to "person with arms", or "working arms," which leaves little to the imagination. The program lasted from 1942 until roughly 1964. Ironically after the war, the Eisenhower administration approved and deployed "Operation Wetback" in 1954 to deport large numbers of Mexican immigrants who were in the country "illegally." This just goes to show that border enforcement is predicated on U.S. need for cheap labor, nothing else.
One can only presume that Las Braceras were women who traveled north to find work, and this poster suggests that it wasn't working in the fields with their male comrades.

Mauro El Mojado

Mexico - 1986

Director - Alberto Mariscal
 I have been eagerly awaiting the relaease of Robert Rodriguez' Machete ever since the first post-Grindhouse rumors of a feature film. I'm feeling significantly less enthusiastic now that it has morphed into an all-star ensemble-cast mega-picture, but I'm still curious.This film, in both this poster and it's plot appear to be remarkably similar to Rodriguez film...
In Mauro (which I haven't seen; can't find it), ex-con Mauro (Mauricio/Maurice) gets out of prison and crosses the border in search of Johnny Ventura (Hugo Stiglitz) a drug smuggler who betrayed him because Maura was in love with Ventura's woman, Oralia. When he finds Ventura he takes his revenge and returns to Mexico with Oralia to live in peace.

Mojados

Mexico - 1979

Director -Alejandro Galindo
Pretty straighforward title on this one, but it's hard to find any real information on the plot, English or Spanish.

This is just a sampler of many, many Mexican movies about undocumented U.S.-Mexico border crossing. Perhaps not so strangely, there are far fewer American films on this subject.

Night Force

Night Force

United States - 1987

Director - Lawrence D. Foldes

Lightning Video, 1987(?), VHS

This is nothing more than a young clueless republicans-of-the-80's battle cry. I use the term battle cry because these dudes are hard, rich-white kids with gym memberships - and they are going to get some.

Somewhere in Beverly Hills some rich white kids are hanging out: one of them is Carla (Linda Blair) and the other, her best friend Christie, the blonde daughter of a senator, and fiance of a super rich lawyer. Christie, the embodiment of pure white American goodness, will spend a great deal of the movie naked and whimpering, much of it at the mercy of brown skinned people.

Later at Christie's engagement party, she's out in the horse stables screwing her fiance's brother, and just in case you didn't get it the first time, after confessing to Carla in the gym showers, Christie flashbacks much of the previous sex scene while fondling herself in the shower. Exiting the gym moments later with perfect, massively ratted and rigid hair, Carla and Christie are fired upon from an unmarked black van, and Christie is kidnapped.

Unsatisfied with the liberal government's spineless impotency and unwillingness to intervene, Christies' ugly horsefaced friends (one of them played by Steve McQueen's son) gather up all the gung-ho they can find and arm themselves with some good clean indefatigable patriotic American spirit. Renting a U-haul trailer and packing along all their naivete, they zip off into South American jungle to confront the bearded, unabashedly Castro-esque warlord leader. Their first encounter with Mexicans in their native environment goes rather poorly, and they are rescued by Bishop (Richard Lynch), a hard drinking expatriate sporting a neckerchief (my brain tells me zebra print or something?).

Taking them back to his base, Bishop treats them to a hauntingly beautiful solo flute concerto, and later confesses to being a 'Nam Vet.



Having never returned to the States after his tour, Bishop now wears snazzy safari clothes and plays flute in his private Mexican enclave. This being a perfect opportunity to prove that 'Nam vets are just misunderstood, damaged-but-otherwise-good American patriots, Bishop volunteers to lead the totally clueless kids on their misadventure. Later he makes creepy sexual overtures toward Carla and tells her the secret of his flute playing: it's to "confuse people about his personality", and is at the same time, "a prayer".

During a gunfight a bad guy is captured, and the complicit kids stand around while Bishop tortures answers out of him. The next day, the Night Force raids the three-shack enemy base at midday, fight off a halftrack and majestically ride a white stallion through the battle.



Christie, and by proxy the purity of the American way of life, are saved from covetous third world savagery. Some of Force are sadly lost, but 'ol Bishop, that never-say-die-free-spirited rapscallion, always shows up to bail the Force out, and prove that if you can suspend your total bored disbelief, some people really do give a damn.