I've just been watching "The Border" with Jack Nickolson. which is very topical given recent events in the USA in 2018.
A distopian present as relevant now as it was when it was made in 1982. Jack on Mexican Border control.
It does not pull it's punches when it comes to social comment, showing all facets of the strange underworld of this border society - the suffering and exploitation of the poor people, the corruption, the effect of crime and drugs on youth, while it also satirises American consumerism and even manages a somewhat happy ending, where the two main protagonists, Jack and a young Mexican mother, are not exactly better off, but no worse off, which, given what happens in between, feels like a win for them.
I can also describe it as an action movie, as by 1970s standards it has as many car chases and shoot ups as an equivalent Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson movie. Being a somewhat realistic movie, Jack is never allowed to kills anyone out right, he shoots one bad guy in the leg, who, distracted, then runs into a clothes line and accidently blows his head off with his own shotgun, and later he shoots and punctures the tire of a large earth moving machine, which evil Harvey Kietel is hiding under, and the machine slowiy subsides, crushing Kietel beneath it!
So all in all a rare combination of social comment and entertainment, which is probably why it wasn't very successful at the time. Those who are passionate about the political issues may feel it trivialises them, whereas I think it performs the function of highlighting them for those like myself that would not watch a movie on this topic that did not also provide the type of entertainment I seek.
A distopian present as relevant now as it was when it was made in 1982. Jack on Mexican Border control.
It does not pull it's punches when it comes to social comment, showing all facets of the strange underworld of this border society - the suffering and exploitation of the poor people, the corruption, the effect of crime and drugs on youth, while it also satirises American consumerism and even manages a somewhat happy ending, where the two main protagonists, Jack and a young Mexican mother, are not exactly better off, but no worse off, which, given what happens in between, feels like a win for them.
I can also describe it as an action movie, as by 1970s standards it has as many car chases and shoot ups as an equivalent Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson movie. Being a somewhat realistic movie, Jack is never allowed to kills anyone out right, he shoots one bad guy in the leg, who, distracted, then runs into a clothes line and accidently blows his head off with his own shotgun, and later he shoots and punctures the tire of a large earth moving machine, which evil Harvey Kietel is hiding under, and the machine slowiy subsides, crushing Kietel beneath it!
So all in all a rare combination of social comment and entertainment, which is probably why it wasn't very successful at the time. Those who are passionate about the political issues may feel it trivialises them, whereas I think it performs the function of highlighting them for those like myself that would not watch a movie on this topic that did not also provide the type of entertainment I seek.