Spring Break
Globalization and Paranoia in Anthony Mann's "Border Incident'
by Sean Cobb
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Fall 2008
globalization and paranoia
in anthony mann's
border incident
sean cobb
Today it [illegal immigration] is the greatest peacetime invasion suffered by a country under open, flagrant,
contemptuous violation of its laws- Mr. Willard F. Kelley, assistant commissioner in charge of the Border Patrol Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them.
Gloria Anzaldua, La Frontera: Borderlands
early during Anthony Mann's 1949 Border Incident, a film noir, semi-documentary hybrid focusing on illegal bracero smuggling, Pablo Rodriguez, a Mexican immigration agent, and Juan Garcia, a bracero who befriends Rodriguez but is unaware that he is undercover posing as a bracero, arrange to be transported across the border. They meet a smuggler at a crowded marketplace. For seventy pesos, the smuggler provides Rodriguez and Garcia with small flower pins identifying them for transport across the border later that evening. Immediately after the transaction, Rodriguez
spots his American partner, Jack Bearnes, wearing a flowery cowboy shirt and a cowboy hat. Posing as a petty criminal escaping into Mexico with stolen immigration cards that he will sell to Parkson, the Anglo boss of the bracero smugglers, Bearnes' disguise
signals Rodriguez that he is the contact man. Rodriguez walks toward Bearnes, lights his cigarette, and informs him of the time and place of the crossing. Although the plaza is swarming with people, crowding the stalls and walkways, the camera cuts to an intimate, tight close up of the exchange between Rodriguez and Bearnes. Garcia looks on in the background, framed between Rodriguez and Bearnes, struggling to comprehend
their conversation. He is transfixed by Bearnes' shirt. In this intense triangle of glances, Rodriguez and Bearnes look at each other and Garcia stares at both but, in particular, at Bearnes' shirt. As Bearnes hands the book of matches to Rodriguez, the camera cuts back to a wide shot of the teeming multitude of unemployed braceros engulfing them; Garcia, however, continues to stare at the shirt. After Bearnes leaves, Garcia exclaims, "How beautiful, that shirt." Rodriguez responds, "Yes, it gives a man distinction." The plan is in motion. Bearnes and Rodriguez are set to infiltrate the bracero smugglers, Rodriguez as a bracero, Bearnes as a criminal. As they depart the
in anthony mann's
border incident
sean cobb
Today it [illegal immigration] is the greatest peacetime invasion suffered by a country under open, flagrant,
contemptuous violation of its laws- Mr. Willard F. Kelley, assistant commissioner in charge of the Border Patrol Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them.
Gloria Anzaldua, La Frontera: Borderlands
early during Anthony Mann's 1949 Border Incident, a film noir, semi-documentary hybrid focusing on illegal bracero smuggling, Pablo Rodriguez, a Mexican immigration agent, and Juan Garcia, a bracero who befriends Rodriguez but is unaware that he is undercover posing as a bracero, arrange to be transported across the border. They meet a smuggler at a crowded marketplace. For seventy pesos, the smuggler provides Rodriguez and Garcia with small flower pins identifying them for transport across the border later that evening. Immediately after the transaction, Rodriguez
spots his American partner, Jack Bearnes, wearing a flowery cowboy shirt and a cowboy hat. Posing as a petty criminal escaping into Mexico with stolen immigration cards that he will sell to Parkson, the Anglo boss of the bracero smugglers, Bearnes' disguise
signals Rodriguez that he is the contact man. Rodriguez walks toward Bearnes, lights his cigarette, and informs him of the time and place of the crossing. Although the plaza is swarming with people, crowding the stalls and walkways, the camera cuts to an intimate, tight close up of the exchange between Rodriguez and Bearnes. Garcia looks on in the background, framed between Rodriguez and Bearnes, struggling to comprehend
their conversation. He is transfixed by Bearnes' shirt. In this intense triangle of glances, Rodriguez and Bearnes look at each other and Garcia stares at both but, in particular, at Bearnes' shirt. As Bearnes hands the book of matches to Rodriguez, the camera cuts back to a wide shot of the teeming multitude of unemployed braceros engulfing them; Garcia, however, continues to stare at the shirt. After Bearnes leaves, Garcia exclaims, "How beautiful, that shirt." Rodriguez responds, "Yes, it gives a man distinction." The plan is in motion. Bearnes and Rodriguez are set to infiltrate the bracero smugglers, Rodriguez as a bracero, Bearnes as a criminal. As they depart the
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