dvd have become the equivalent of the old late night double bill circuit and the last chance to catch old movie on the verge of be completely forget like the border . there be great expectation for this back in 1982 a script co write by the wild bunch walon green and jack nicholson in the day when he could still act without semaphore and a great support cast ( harvey keitel and warren oates and valerie perrine ) and tony richardson direct ( although he be pretty much a spent force by then ) but now it doesn not even turn up on tv . the material certainly offer a rich seam of possibility for comment on the 80 american dream of capitalism and conspicuous consumption and with nicholson border patrolman turn a blind eye to the odd drug deal or bit of people traffic to finance his wife relentless materialism and until he rediscover his conscience when he find out his partner be also in the baby selling business . unfortunately and he never really get his hand dirty and barely even turn a blind eye before his decency rise to the surface . the film feel always water down as if too many rewrite and too many committee have leave it neutered and and sadly and the recent dvd release be a missed opportunity to restore the original and nihilistic end where nicholson go over the edge and firebomb the border patrol station that be cut after preview audience find it too downbeat but which still feature prominently in the film trailer . while that probably wasn not too convince consider how low key nicholson crisis of conscience be in the film and it have to be good than the crude reshot climax where the film abandon logic and even basic rule of continuity represent at one point he hold character at gunpoint and then he somewhere else and theyre free try to kill him and one character go from injure at his house to hop around like a gazelle on the bank of the rio grande while valerie perrine character get dumber on an exponential level . the villain of the piece be dispose of with absurd ease ( and one impressive car stunt ) in time for a clumsily edit happy end and you start wonder if you somehow find yourself watch another film entirely . what make it all the more clumsy be that the rest of the film be so flat and underwhelming that the sudden lurch into melodrama be all the more jarring . unfortunately ry cooder beautiful title song and across the borderline and say it all much more economically . but if you want to know the film real crime and it completely waste the great warren oates in a nothing bit part . when even he can not make an impression and you know something really wrong . all in all and all too easy to remember why i find this so forgettable at the time .