One of the few benefits of working late hours is the chance to see hard-to-find movies on Turner Classic Movies ( TCM ) and on a few other cable television channels ( ENCORE ). One of the reasons to see 'film noir' productions on TCM is that they seldom circulate in any other forums, and also, the way these films were made works OK on a regular television screen and system.
"Border Incident" is one of those TCM presentations I've seen more than once now, and I am most favorably impressed with it. My initial vote was for a seven but after re-thinking it, I sent in a re-vote of eight.
The camera work, cinematography, was A + in my opinion. It has the best characteristics of what we would now call "docu-drama." Some of these older movies have great acting and corny plots, and in some "film noir" stories you get great story-telling and B + acting. I guess that's why they were called "B" movies.
Actually, that's not true, as I believe the "B" assignment meant that the movie was sent out as the second part of a double feature package.
Fifty-six years after the facts which make up this docu-drama were deemed to be important, the only change in them facts is for the worse.
Greed and opportunism still dominate the "politics of temporary labor" or more accurately, the "politics of cheap labor." There's something gnarly about this movie, and it isn't just about the obvious elements of the plot, being avarice, sadism and murder ....
As a young lad growing up in Texas, I learned first hand how difficult life was and could be for migrant farm workers. Mexican and native-born.
The people-smuggling business has been much in the news lately and it has been the basic theme of several really well-done movies, and I can recommend "The Transporter" as being one, and "The Empire Of The Wolves" with Jean Reno as being another to see on DVD.
There's a lot of real humanity in "Border Incident," and yet it all plays out in a stark and tragic way ....
It's definitely not a modernistic or post-modern cinematic mess.
It's a quality film drama on a very important subject.
"Border Incident" is one of those TCM presentations I've seen more than once now, and I am most favorably impressed with it. My initial vote was for a seven but after re-thinking it, I sent in a re-vote of eight.
The camera work, cinematography, was A + in my opinion. It has the best characteristics of what we would now call "docu-drama." Some of these older movies have great acting and corny plots, and in some "film noir" stories you get great story-telling and B + acting. I guess that's why they were called "B" movies.
Actually, that's not true, as I believe the "B" assignment meant that the movie was sent out as the second part of a double feature package.
Fifty-six years after the facts which make up this docu-drama were deemed to be important, the only change in them facts is for the worse.
Greed and opportunism still dominate the "politics of temporary labor" or more accurately, the "politics of cheap labor." There's something gnarly about this movie, and it isn't just about the obvious elements of the plot, being avarice, sadism and murder ....
As a young lad growing up in Texas, I learned first hand how difficult life was and could be for migrant farm workers. Mexican and native-born.
The people-smuggling business has been much in the news lately and it has been the basic theme of several really well-done movies, and I can recommend "The Transporter" as being one, and "The Empire Of The Wolves" with Jean Reno as being another to see on DVD.
There's a lot of real humanity in "Border Incident," and yet it all plays out in a stark and tragic way ....
It's definitely not a modernistic or post-modern cinematic mess.
It's a quality film drama on a very important subject.