BORDERLINE is not about the division between lame Charles Bronson movies and the really terrible ones but concerns the more pressing split between the national boundaries of the United States and Mexico. Not a typical Bronson action vehicle, one of its advertising tag lines laid down what was happening back when this came out in 1980, and tragically holds true nearly a half-century later: “Somewhere along a thousand miles of barbed wire border the American dream has become a nightmare.”  But just in case the star’s fan base wasn’t keen on the news or social issues, another ad lure was “Charles Bronson dares you to cross this line!”

In southern California, Border Patrol agent ‘Jeb Maynard’ (Charles B), swamped by the constant flow of migrants coming from further south, is used to seeing desperate people in trying circumstances. His work-load concern gets personal when a fellow agent is murdered (along with a teenage Mexican kid) by a smuggler. With help from the boy’s mother (undocumented, working as a maid in San Diego) he starts to track down the killer, who he suspects is working for a wealthy American farmer. That man in turn is part of a huge migrant smuggling operation that operates nationwide.

Though done on a substantial budget, it looks more like an upscale made-for-TV movie, not surprising as Jerrold Freedman, its director and co-writer (with Steve Kline) did mostly small-screen projects. He did manage a couple of okay feature films, though, the successful Raquel Welch outing Kansas City Bomber and a decent version of Richard Wright’s novel Native Son. This one’s done in the form of a procedural, with captions telling you the time and location of events. Not exciting, just competent, with a $5,300,000 gross tagging spot #101 for the year. Since the budget looks to have been as high as $8,500,000, the box office results were dire: Bronson’s other offering that year, the disappointing adventure Caboblanco was an even bigger bomb, making only $1,900,000 with a cost of $10,000,000.

The most telling aspect of this soso drama is that the leading bad guy is put across quite well, thanks to 29-year-old newcomer Ed Harris, getting his first substantial feature credit. His intensity carries more charge than anything else in the picture. Bronson’s in low-key mode but his fans can take heart that all is not lost: he does get to slam a coyote creeps head into a filthy toilet bowl.

Two years later, the subject drew the higher profile The Border, with Jack Nicholson. It got better reviews but failed to pull audiences, and lost a considerable amount of money. The shrug response to these sober-minded films mimics the slogans-as-solutions shilled up by the cruel and the ignorant over the vastly complex border & immigration dilemma.

97 minutes, with Bruno Kirby, Karmin Murcelo, Bert Remsen, Michael Lerner, Kenneth McMillan, Norman Alden, Wilford Brimley, John Ashton and Lawrence Casey (plugging away 12 years after The Rat Patrol).