Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

classicsoncall Telly Savalas kept the patented bald look in place a couple years after his acclaimed Kojak TV series came to an end. Here he plays the title character in a British production filmed in the UK and Mexico. I'd like to know how production companies make their filming decisions when I run across something like this. You would think there were enough British and European topics to tackle, but someone must have thought it was a good idea.The story isn't altogether too bad, as it takes a sympathetic look at the plight of impoverished Mexicans who would do anything to cross over into the U.S. for a better life. The only trouble is, as we find here, there are any number of corrupt coyotes and border agents ready to take advantage of their situation in order to profit off of their sweat and labor. The slaughterhouse scene presented here is not for the faint of heart. I worked in a meat packing plant once, but that was a relatively sanitized affair compared to this. Every scene was like a gut punch, the one that got me was the guy sledging the dead bull's horns off off. I guess if you can disembowel cattle you can just about do anything. The film stretches credibility with the actions of the film's young hero, Benny Romero (Danny De La Paz). The kid marches in challenging every symbol of authority at the sweatshop and puts himself in harm's way countless times to save his young friend Paco and wife Leina (Cecilia Camacho). He had miraculous recuperative powers as well, as evidenced by the amazing comeback against the Suarez henchman who knifed him in the back and razored his face in the saloon brawl. When Romero came off the truck at Suarez' place, he looked none the worse for wear and his face was perfectly clean. But except for the kid being noble, this was pretty much Telly's flick. I don't know if I've seen Michael Gazzo as any character other than Frankie Five Angels in "Godfather II", but he was pretty effective here as the smuggling kingpin Suarez. Too bad the picture fell apart right at the very end when Cooper (Savalas) turned the bus around and rammed the border station for no apparent reason other than to end things in a slam-bang way, but what was the point? There was no follow up, and to my mind, Cooper and the Mexican couple could have wound up goners. Oh well.One final note, and this is a real puzzler. Remember the Mexican café where the female hitchhiker tried to get Cooper to give her a ride across the border? The name of the café was 'El Beisbolista Fenomeno'. Translated, it means 'The Baseball Phenomenon'. Anyone know what that was all about?

DrScore A film sensitive to the plight of Mexican immigrants coming to the US for a better life.Savalas plays a border agent with a compassionate heart. Savalas is really great in this role, and the production/writing nearly rises to his level. When he's not on-screen, the film is two dimensional. The other agents are hateful Americans, the immigrants are sentimentalized heroes. I like the heartfelt understanding, but I wish it wasn't so "good guy/bad guy". Savalas somehow makes it all credible, but he's not always the focus. When he is, good flick.

wes-connors Chesty gringo Telly Savalas (as Frank Cooper) is a US-Mexico "Border Cop". He serves as a father figure to young immigrant Danny De La Paz (as Benny Romero), who wants Mr. Savalas to be best man at his impending wedding. Savalas is tough, but boss Eddie Albert (as Commander Moffat) may be tougher. Tough is what you need to stop smuggler Michael V. Gazzo (as Chico Suarez). Alliances may be in flux.If you find the possibility of hearing "Kojak" and "Oliver Douglas" uttering expletives to be repulsive, you ought to steer clear of "The Border". If not, you may not have the stomach for the "realistic" cow slaughtering scene. Although it doesn't end up being worth much, Mr. De La Paz and Cecilia Camacho (as Leina) steal the show. ** The Border (1979) Tony Richardson ~ Telly Savalas, Danny De La Paz, Eddie Albert

vandino1 This little mediocrity is an attempt to show the misery of illegal immigration between the U.S. and Mexico (well, where else?: is there any misery between the U.S. and Canadian border?) But this attempt is a sad misfire. I have a feeling Charles Bronson was offered the part and turned it down since Savalas is all wrong as a tired, miserable, mostly friendless, near-retirement, border enforcement cop. Bronson or Rod Steiger, maybe, but Savalas is far too cool and commanding a presence to play such a loser role. Then again, the filmmakers can't seem to figure out if he's just another cop or some powerful hombre who is not to be messed with (Eddie Albert, as his superior, alternatively barks at him and cowers, looking for help from villain Michael Gazzo to stop Savalas since Albert is seemingly helpless). As it is, Savalas saunters through the film growling at everyone and making sure to keep his shirt split open to offer his lady fans plenty of Telly cleavage (probably a requirement he forced on the producers --written into his contract as the 'Open Shirt Clause.') Otherwise, you get a solid performance from Michael Gazzo as the smuggler king, and the sight of a little cutie named Cecelia Camacho. The film's "claim to fame" such as it is will be found in the rather gruesome slaughterhouse scene where no CGI, puppets, stand-ins or make-up effects were used: just good ol' fashioned cow slaughter. Never a pleasant sight to see where our meat meets its maker (although on a personal level I find Telly's cleavage slightly more gruesome). Lastly, there is the ridiculous finale where Savalas has the option to avoid a confrontation with his superior Albert and smuggler Gazzo, taking his pals De La Paz and Camacho to safety... but instead decides it would be more productive to seemingly kill himself and the two people he just saved in order to ram his beloved camper through the border gate and run over Gazzo inside the security office. And to top it off we don't find out exactly what happened afterward. Sheesh!