Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

22 April 2008

The Border, dir. Tony Richardson (1982)

NIKKI says:
Remember when movies were like this? If I could go back in time, anywhere at all in world history, it would be to this time, when Jack Nicholson could slap Valerie Perrine and we'd understand him fully.

To be continued...

STEVE says:
I couldn't believe Nikki had yet to see The Border (Lyndall, I'm looking at you...), but I'd only seen about 10 minutes of it myself, and that as a kid of 11 or 12, so I couldn't throw stones. Not too hard, at least.

The Border was less plot-driven than we'd expected and more of a character piece. Nicholson plays Charlie Smith, newly relocated to Texas from California, and working as a Border Guard. Here he finds all sorts of corruption, from the Chief (Warren Oates) all the way down to his neighbour and co-worker Cat (Harvey Keitel), which makes him take a look at his own life, and decide to do something good for a change by helping a young Mexican woman find her kidnapped baby, thereby attaining redemption for his own transgressions in the past.

Again, not a great movie, but definitely a very good movie. Watching Nicholson and Harvey Keitel together for the first time was a cinematic gift. Not a bad choice for Nicholson's 71st birthday!

3.5/5