A Brilliant Conflict

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is just a flick with a simple story but it's still watchable towards todays standards. It's all about the borderline between America and Mexico and the business that is going on to 'help' Mexicans cross the line. For a flick of 1980 it is very low on brutality. It was a time that had a lot of blood, nudity and gore in it's flicks but this here just hasn't any of that. There's one killing that is well done, the shooting at the beginning but further there's nothing to see. But the thespians here to see is the main reason to watch it. The main lead is done by Charles Bronson, you love or hate him but I love him even as he isn't an actor with great abilities he still delivers. It was made at a time that Bronson was more in rough flicks or revenge flicks starting with the Death Wish franchise (1974). But there's also Ed Harris (Hotchkiss) here to see in one of his first major roles. He got his first taste of critical acclaim, playing astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff (1983). Also Bruno Kirby (Jimmy Fante ) made it in blockbusters like Good Morning Vietnam (1987). There are more popular faces to see in smaller roles like Charles Cypher.We have seen this story a few times in other flicks but as I said earlier, it still works and is in fact still actual.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

I love Charles Bronson, and I really wanted to love "Borderline," but it's about as exciting as a trip to the grocery store.It's the story of a criminal syndicate that smuggles Mexicans into the US like they were cattle, abusing and under-paying them as illegal laborers. It seems that some shady companies will pay big bucks for employees they can treat like slaves, and as a Border Patrol Officer it's Bronson's job to stop the flow of immigrants at the source.Except no one seems to care. None of the characters have any personality, there are no surprises and not really any action, either. The actors move from scene to scene because the script tells them to... no one has any passion or clear motivation. The movie is filmed without any sense of the fantastic... the Director seems to believe that it's all really happening, but the problem is he doesn't find any of it exciting in the least.Charles Bronson is almost invisible as the lead... he's looks like he could barely keep from falling asleep. Wilford Brimley, Bruno Kirby, and Ed Harris show up in supporting roles, but they too are in mellow comas, low-energy and reciting their lines quietly... The cinematography is awful, and call me old-fashioned by I much prefer a beautiful girl to look at in a film than dozens and dozens of mustachioed Mexicans. There are no women in the film.It's a good thing I wrote this review immediately after seeing the movie, because I can already feel it slipping from my memory like a daydream on a summer afternoon. There's nothing to see here, even for Bronson die-hards. This isn't a movie... it's just some stuff that happened.GRADE: C-

OK now what the hell is wrong with this great film, I've seen hell of a lot worse nowadays that make money too. This has a concept that is out there so i'm proud of everyone involved for bringing it to the screen. Bronson shines again with what he has to work off, i never really under-stud people slagging him off, rubbish actor.... No way, Charlie always proved he could act and he did action movies for big money, so why not, stick to what works. We all remember Charlie and miss him now we have actors that ain't worth watching. Its a little movie that deserves a nice DVD release, so why no one bother, cause they'd prefer to release rubbish instead.BRONSON 10/10

I can't understand why Bronson would choose to appear in such a low-key and predictable movie (unless it was for the money). There's almost no action, there's almost no investigating of the mystery, and you can tell what's going to happen next in almost every part of the movie. Even if you are a Bronson fan, you shouldn't bother with this entry in Bronson's filmography.