SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

SnoopyStyle Mexican PJF investigator Pablo Rodriguez (Ricardo Montalban) and US immigration inspector Jack Bearnes (George Murphy) join forces to investigate the murders of illegals at the crossings. Pablo infiltrates illegals posing as a bracero or farmhand. He befriends bracero Juan. Pablo's soft hands almost give him away but he convinces them that while he's not a bracero. He's actually wanted by the police. Meanwhile Jack follows Pablo and then tries to infiltrate the other side of the transaction masterminded by farmer Owen Parkson.I like Montalban as he infiltrated the smuggling gang. George Murphy really sticks out like a sore thumb in Mexico. I also don't like his plan to infiltrate the other side of the border. It seems ill-conceived from the very start. I would rather not have Bearnes' side of the infiltration and just have him coordinate the police. The story ends up with too many coincidences and too many questionable moves by the bad guys. It's great to have this crime drama which is well done for the era and its genre.

PWNYCNY Those believing that the illegal immigration into the United States is a new issue only need to watch this movie to refute that belief. This movie dramatizes the problem of illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico. This movie candidly those economic and social factors which contribute to the problem and why some choose to circumvent the law in order to sneak into the United States. Those who do sneak in of course do so at great risk, yet for some the risks are worth it because of the desperate need to make money. Dealing with this problem is especially challenging and risky for law enforcement, as this movie shows. The story is presented in semi-documentary form which gives it a feeling of authenticity which further adds to the movie's dramatic power. Watch this movie.

chaos-rampant This movie is very much like one of the most memorable images in it. It's late at night and we're inside a car crossing empty stretches of land kicking up a trail of dust on its path, at some point the beams of light from the headlights momentarily flash a strange running figure and then it's dark again and we've moved on because the movie is trying to get somewhere and there's a fascinating world of possibilities out in the vast arid expanses of land by the sides of the road but we're not allowed out of the car, we're only allowed glimpses from the windows of the speeding car.I know I shouldn't expect circumstantial treatment of plot in the name of suggestive atmosphere from a movie made in a time and place where movies were seldom allowed to be little more than narrative vehicles of premises and points (especially on the b-side level Anthony Mann was working on at the time), and Border Incident is pretty much that, bookended on both sides with voice-over narration that seems the careful studied product of some State Agency. We open with sweeping aerial shots of California farmland as the narrator boastfully muses on about "vast farm empires" and "lifegiving arteries of water". In the end we get handshakes between Mexico and US officials superimposed over the flags of the two countries and shots of farmers picking up bales of hay.Inbetween this Mann is allowed room for maneuvre but he's not allowed off the road. His duo with cinematographer John Alton ranks among the all time best's and you'll find ample evidence here, in the deep-focus arrangements, the unusual angles, the tricks with light and shadow, in the way Alton lights the back of a truck full of Mexican laborers using the flickering headlights of a car on its tail. The end conclusion happens in a place called the Canyon of Death so that Mann must forsake the elaborate tricks with light and shadow he could pull in the domestic setting of something like Raw Deal for heavy stark contrasts between lone figures against clear skies and processions of silhouettes snaking through dark walls of rock and it's great that way.All this, coupled with the unmistakable smell of a government-approved plot, reminds me of Mikhail Kalatozov's stunning collaborations with Sergei Urusevksy for the Soviet film industry. Like their films, Border Incident feels very modern in a roundabout way, there's no music at all for most of the film, and the whole thing is as much a product of its time as it is a forerunner of movies like Prime Cut, Charley Varrick, and gritnik cinema of 20 years later.

edwagreen How could a film dealing with illegal Mexican immigrants being robbed and beaten over the border be dull? Well, "Border Incident" is.No wonder that song and dance man George Murphy's career ended not long after this terrible film came out. Politics was certainly a way out for this future senator who dies a horrible death in this slowly paced film. The film stereotypes the typical Mexican migrant farmer worker as dimwitted and awfully dull.The film only picks up in intensity once the identities of Murphy and Ricardo Montalban have been discovered as federal agents for the U.S. and Mexico respectively.Disappointing at best, we see similar problems in our very own society today.