Director Walter Hill's admiration for Sam Peckinpah spills out of control in this contemporary western that even has a final act that tries to recreate the classic battle in The Wild Bunch (1969). You'll also spot copycat scenes from The Getaway (1972) too. Considering Hill made some great action movies in the late 70s and early 80s here he's misfired with a clumsy, almost silly, blood spurting shoot em up with a daft script. Even the final climactic battle, in modern day Mexico, is eye poppingly weird and has continuity errors galore. Nick Nolte, clearly doing a Gary Cooper walk and an emotionless stoic lawman thing, is a cop working on the Texas/Mexico border trying to stem the flow of drugs being supplied by his former childhood friend Cash (Powers Boothe). His best effort is by meeting Cash and sort of asking him, as an old mate, to stop selling drugs. Surprisingly that doesn't work. There's also a girl in play who flits between the two of them on a whim. Into this ridiculous mix a military black ops unit arrives to sort out Cash who is apparently a threat to national security. And just when you think that's enough there's a final, thoroughly stupid plot twist, that will make you groan out loud. On the plus side there's lots of shooting, blood squibs go off literally everywhere and Nolte does a lot of stony faced staring at just about everybody. Because it's a Walter Hill film it has it's fans but really it is not, by any count, one of his films worth remembering.
FILM & REVIEW Walter Hills supurb 80’s action thriller has Nolte as Jack a no nonsense straight down the middle Texas Ranger. He is at war with a drug kingpin Cash (Boothe) who not only operates over the border in Mexico and is therefor untouchable but he and Jack used to be best friends and even shared the same girl but they have ended up on opposite sides. Into this tension comes a US Army Black Ops team led by Ironside all whose members are listed as killed in action. They appear to be in town to rob a bank but are actually after Cash’s ledger books which could embarrass the Govt. Jack reluctantly agrees to team up with them and they all head over the border but as always things aren’t as clear cut as they seem. It was originally going to be a John Milius film but the rights were eventually passed to Hill giving Milius a screen credit. As always with Hill its a Western at heart with Nolte in the Gary Cooper role and you just know when the team arrive in the Mexican compound we are heading for a Wild Bunch finale. Boothe chews everything in sight as the bad guy and it’s got a real a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do feel to it……cracking stuff - 4/5
A fun, bloody mix of 80s action movie cliches (drugs, bad guys in white suits and ex-special forces turned bank robbers) and western film features (Texan and Mexican locations, dusty shootouts and a granite faced Texas ranger as a hero). Nick Nolte plays the aforementioned steely-faced ranger facing off against an ex-buddy turned border drug kingpin; who the ex-soldiers are also attempting to set up. Both the lawman and the outlaw are in love with the same woman, which gives this otherwise brutal film an almost romantic undercurrent (which the film perhaps tries too hard to maintain). Still this is an excessive, exhilarating joyride with some rather unsubtle nods to Sam Peckinpah (the climax is a decadent Mexican fiesta turned into a fatalist machine-gun battle).