Borderline (1980)

Jeb Maynard (Charles Bronson) is the head honcho of the La Mesa office of the US Border Patrol.  Illegal crossings have gone way up recently so Jeb sent to Washington for more help - maybe a dozen men; instead, only Jimmy Fante (Bruno Kirby) has been sent.  That night, Jeb takes Jimmy - affectionately nicknamed "the kid" - with him on a border sweep.  Meanwhile, veteran Scooter Jackson (Wilford Brimley) will patrol the highway for suspicious vehicles.  The uptick in crossings can be linked to a new coyote, El Marino (Ed Harris), a Vietnam veteran who has useful skills for smuggling people into the United States.  He is also willing to up the stakes, since he carries firearms.

The story follows Jeb's efforts to find the murderer of one of his border agents and break up a major smuggling ring.  Though the murder officially falls under FBI jurisdiction, they think it is drug-related.  Yeah, even in 1980, the FBI was incompetent.  Jeb has to use boot prints, tomatoes, tire tracks, and an illegal alien to track the murderers.

This was Ed Harris' first big movie role.  He brings his standard intensity to the role, making El Marino an intimidating adversary.

Despite being a 44-year-old movie, it demonstrates how the southern border is a longstanding problem that remains unresolved.  In the movie, it is suggested that illegals are actively imported by big business as cheap labor.  Amazingly, the big businessman behind the scheme (Michael Lerner) is found not guilty in court; he gets away with it though his underlings go to jail.  Of note, there was a lot of cooperation with and input from the US Border Patrol during the making of the film.

Just okay.

Absence of Malice (1981)

Joey Diaz, a union official from Miami, has gone missing and is presumed dead.  The federal task force investigating has found nothing after more than 6 months on the job.  Deciding to take a new tact, Elliot Rosen (Bob Balaban) decides to squeeze Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman).  Gallagher's father was a bootlegger, loan shark, and well-connected crime boss.  As such, Gallagher is related to or has contacts with criminal sources.  Rosen leaks his investigation to Megan Carter (Sally Field), a reporter for the Miami Standard.  She prints the story and attributes it "knowledgeable sources."   The story cripples Gallagher's business, since all his union employees strike.  He wants to know who the knowledgeable sources are.  The paper's lawyer explains that there is an 'absence of malice' and thus the paper cannot be sued even if the story proves not to be true.

Paul Newman is good but the role isn't demanding.  He mostly comes off as the righteous man out to correct the record or make someone pay.  It's hard not to like Sally Field in any roles but I didn't much like Megan Carter.  She varies from being charming, manipulative, mercenary, or contrite.  Her arc is the most noteworthy in that she goes from being a full-of-herself reporter to being the interviewee of another full-of-herself reporter.  She gets to see both sides.  Epiphany!  Though he only shows up in the climax, Wilford Brimley dominates the final act.  Newman and Field barely register in the scene.

An interesting film about how the press can parrot false stories from government and take no blame from the harm that may follow.  Wow, 40 year old film covers fake news.  Recommended.

Of course, I watched this today because Wilford Brimley died yesterday.  One of his great roles.  RIP

High Road to China (1983)

Eve Tozer (Bess Armstrong) is a daughter of a wealthy industrialist.  She is a spendthrift party girl, a flapper with bobbed hair and scandalously short skirt.  Then disaster strikes.  Word is that her long absent father is going to be declared legally dead and the company - the source of her money - will belong to the surviving partner, Mr. Bentik (Robert Morley).  She has 12 days to get her father to a British Court to avert poverty!  Worse still, Bentik has sent men to prevent her from trying.  Last she heard, her father was in Waziristan; she'll need a plane.

Patrick O'Malley (Tom Selleck) is an American flying ace who owns a couple of planes.  Exactly how he has the planes in Istanbul while also being penniless is not explored.  Nonetheless, he refuses Eve's multiple generous offers to hire him.  He finally relents when she offers 100,000 pounds.  They depart for the east under gunfire from Bentik's goons though O'Malley thinks its a jealous husband seeking revenge; apparently he's a womanizer?  All evidence is to the contrary for the remainder of the film.

Selleck and Armstrong mostly yell at each other.  Sure, we all know they will love one another by the end but it is rather sudden.  The chemistry was weak.  Of course, the characters were not well written.  Why did Eve decide that she should take the plane and do a bombing run of the Chinese soldiers?  To save her father, who had things well under control?  O'Malley is introduced as a drunken womanizer but, little more than a week later, he is sober and falling for Eve.

When they track down her father (Wilford Brimley) on the far side of the Himalayas, he explains that Eve's wealth is in no danger.  All the patents are in his name.  Gee, if only that fancy London lawyer had known that, this whole trip could have been avoided.  On another subject, why is this portly industrialist building bombs for Chinese peasants?  It would have been nice to get an adequate backstory for Bradley Tozer's wanderings.

Though weak in retrospect, it was enjoyable to watch.  May have to get the book to find out what really happened.