The Sixth Easy Piece

The Cooper Point Journal Volume 10, Issue 15 (February 18, 1982)

The Border, directed by Tony Richardson

The film answers the question: “What ever happened to Jack Nicholson at the end of Five Easy Pieces“? Well, it seems he swapped the Midwest for the Southwest; a dizzy-brunette (Karen Black) for an airhead blonde (Valerie Perrine) and an oil-rigger’s boots for a Border Patrol uniform. The names may change but the persona stays the same.

Jack Nicholson is great. Jack Nicholson is perhaps the finest actor in Hollywood. He was outstanding in Carnal Knowledge, Easy Rider, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Last Detail, Chinatown, and most recently, in Reds. A great actor, to be sure, yet, after seeing The Border one is tempted to ask why Is It that his greatest appeal, like that of Chuck Bronson, lies in the fact that he always plays strong, introspective and enigmatic characters? Is it that he carries himself like some hero out of a Knut Hampsun novel–with a distance at once unnerving and enticing? I don’t know.

One wonders if this is an affected persona he hides behind – and if so one must then wonder what lies behind the mask that is Nicholson in each of these movies. Is it that he is a chameleon, like the Iate- great Peter Sellers was purported to be, that is to say only the sum total of the affectations he affects?

Can it be there is really nothing behind the costume, the masks? I’d like to know who he is when he gets home, alone, And I truly hope that when it comes time to do the Jack Nicholson Story Jack will still be around to play the part. But this isn’t saying much about the movie, I know. Okay, let’s talk about the movie. The Border is the Mexican/American border near EI Paso and Nicholson has just moved there with Valerie Perrine in order to keep the wetbacks on their side of the Rio Grande. Things start to fall apart for him pretty early on however. For her part Perrine tries to make him happy by buying waterbeds, couches, and a swimming pool and by throwing parties. And she doesn’t understand why he’s not happy. The viewer too must wonder just what is it that he wants? Hasn’t he learned anything since Five Easy Pieces? Apparently not.

The job as well proves to be more difficult than he had anticipated. Corruption runs rampant in the Border Patrol. He is privy to, and then swamped by every foul and sordid vice: prostitution, drug deals, child-snatching, murder and illegal immigrant entries sanctioned, for money of course, by the Border Patrol. The pressures are too much for the man and another good “cop” starts to go sour.

We’ve seen this all before, somehow I’m sure we’ve seen this all before, Okay. What else? Yes, it’s a tightly constructed plot, plenty of action, plenty of blood. I don’t think you’ll go away learning very much from this one. But it is Jack Nicholson and, if for no other reason, it’s fun to watch. And, oh yes, it does, amazingly enough, have an up-beat ending so you can leave the theater feeling good about the movie. One wonders where he will surface next-and in what disguise, a butcher in Baltimore maybe, or a dentist from Detroit. Yeah, that I would be nice: Nicholson rolling those eyes at you saying, “Open up now. This won’t hurt a bit”.