That was an excellent one.

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Fantastic!

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I agree with a couple of the other reviews: a 'sleeper', and I was also lucky to find an old VHS copy in the sale bin at a video store a while back. Given the fairly high profile of the "Simon & Simon" TV stars, certainly at the time this was made, it is somewhat surprising that it went absolutely below the radar. Compared to big name movies with similar subject matter (like "The Border"), this film does a very good job of treating the issue of illegal border crossings from Mexico with a lot of depth, and I would say that in some ways it is even superior in drawing you into the characters situations - a sense of reality that is often missing from more polished or fast paced movies. I strongly recommend viewing if you like any of the actors, or are interested in this sort of story.

Jackals recently popped up on Flix in a nice letterboxed print, titled American Justice. It could easily have been another bang bang shoot 'em up action film but clearly has higher aspirations, and does a good job of reaching for them, if not reaching them consistently. It's the only feature film for veteran TV director Gary Grillo, and features a literate and intelligent script by Dennis Pratt, who later wrote the slightly less noteworthy Leprechaun 4: In Space. The story revolves around Dave (Jameson Parker, a bit of a one-note Johnny), a curly haired Californian who witnesses the murder of a young Mexican woman whilst on his summer hols in Arizona. Unfortunately, the killer turns out to be hyper-macho Officer Jake (Gerald McRaney, anticipating his Major Dad persona), a local lawman whose affable boss (Wilford Brimley, less annoying than usual) doesn't want to face the truth. Though there's action aplenty, the film never forgets that it's telling a tale of small town corruption, and there are even a few surprises that move it further away from the generic action movie template. All in all, a pleasant if minor surprise.

A lot of the people in this movie were locals in a real border town. The man who plays Warner is an actual cowboy and very nice man. The actual ranch locations used were his property and fence lines along the U.S. Mexican border. This movie caused quite an issue when it was filmed in south east Arizona for it's realism. The extras in the movie were all ranch owners who face these problems every day and were thrilled to have at least some of their story told. I recommend this movie, and a lot of the locations were on TV lately on Fox news and other cable news shows while the minutemen were in Arizona. The area where the movie was shot is a hotbed for illegal immigration and corruption, and I thought the movie did a fabulous job showing that.

SPOILER!!!!!! I can't believe it . Rick shoots A.J. dead. I know Jameson Parker is an annoying goody-goody, but that's a bit rough isn't it? Ah well, with so many long-leggged blokes in blue jeans and cowboy boots, and Gerald McRaney playing a very sexy and very nasty villain, A.J.'s death isn't such a bad thing.