Bordertown

Plot

A journalist investigates a series of murders near American-owned factories on the border of Juarez and El Paso.

Release Year: 2006

Rating: 5.9/10 (5,463 voted)

Director:
Gregory Nava

Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, Maya Zapata

Storyline
Lauren, an impassioned American reporter for the Chicago Sentinel heads to Juarez, a Mexican bordertown, in order to investigate a series of mysterious slayings involving young factory women from all over Mexico. As she discovers hundreds of victims, she gains the trust of local factory workers but falls into danger.

Cast:

Maya Zapata
–

Eva Jimenez

Irineo Alvarez
–

Domingo Esparza

Rene Rivera
–

Aris Rodriguez

Jennifer Lopez
–

Lauren Adrian

Martin Sheen
–

George Morgan

Karolinah Villarreal
–

Young Lauren

Debrianna Mansini
–

Flight Attendant

Randall Batinkoff
–

Frank Kozerski

Gonzalo Mauro Montiel Aguirre
–

Curandero

(as Gonzalo Mauro Montiel)

Antonio Banderas
–

Alfonso Diaz

Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez
–

Lourdes Jimenez

(as Zaide Sylvia Gutierrez)

Amelia Zapata
–

Lourdes's Friend

Julio Cedillo
–

Julio

(as Julio Cesar Cedillo)

Jorge Urzua
–

Eduardo Lopes

Ruben G. Rojas
–

Eduardo's Man

(as Ruben Rojas)

Taglines:
Lies. Corruption. Murder. One reporter will break the silence.

Details

Official Website:
Official site [Japan] |
SND [France] |

Release Date: 22 February 2007

Filming Locations: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $21,000,000

(estimated)

Gross: $8,329,799
(Worldwide)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Loosely based on a series of unsolved murders in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, an industrial border town near El Paso, Texas. Although estimates conflict, innumerable young women have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered since 1993.

Quotes:

Eva Jimenez:
[putting a Mexican flower clip in Lauren's newly-dyed black hair]
Now you look like me.

User Review

Who isn't paying attention?

Rating: 10/10


Made as a sort of political commentary for free trade agreements –
NAFTA (North American Free Trade) – that was a mistake, someone got
really sidetracked! This is a movie very worth seeing, and a story that
is screeching for a gesture of humanity. It stands on its own without
any need for appeal to populist causes.

This a story and wants to be a film, a dramatized documentary about
sordid evil human exploitation. What has been happening in Juarez,
Mexico for the past decade may have been helped by some political and
commercial developments, but the origin and the result is pure deathly
evil.

Pay attention. The first nearly 50% of 200 votes about this film on
IMDb were "1". Eh … one? Think here for a moment . . . the story was
and continues to be viciously true, the depiction is very accurate.
Over 4000 (!) women in this US/Mexican border town have gone missing,
and over 400 have been found dead !! In just a few years.

This has been going on for a decade and has been repeatedly reported
throughout the world's press. Dedicated reporters and honest police in
this town have been killed in numbers scraping to reveal the truth, and
still the vacuum of female death continues.

For credibility, Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Lopez have had so so
ratings, but have had hits as well as misses, but have not been known
to be lacking in integrity. Greg Nava, writer and director has had some
strong directing with some powerful histories (6+ ratings most of the
time.) Martin Sheen, rarely misses. So, should the first 40% of the
votes really be "1" ?? Were all these cinema professionals so off base,
or is an internet group subverting the IMDb voting system en mass??
Well, this is the question that probably is begging the integrity of
not just this film, but even the IMDb. Guys we need an investigation
here. Please check folks, this leads to the very heart of what 10,000's
and perhaps 100,000's of IMDb fans trust in. (And in the case of this
film, 100's are dying for.) For the film, Jennifer is pretty good, and
Antonio has a few but not so many good lines. Nothing is spectacular,
but the story and the cinematography is on. The script and direction
could have been much better.

Objectively and even from an informed perspective – I've seen 100's of
films each year for nearly 50 years,worked in the industry, and have
called about 80% of the winners for the top 5 or six film awards
ceremonies (by award criteria/bias) for the past 15 years with better
than 85% accuracy – this movie is not a popularly rated film so far,
per 388 "objective" persons surveyed viewers. But take a look and tell
whether the package rates a 4.8 ! I don't believe that this film rates
a "10" any more than it rates a "1" or a "4.8". So based on that
ludicrousy, I vote "10" until the investigation resolves the nearly 20%
of early volume of "1" votes.

It is important that honest and committed film viewers and consciences,
vote to give this movie, issue, and the IMDb a dignified rating so that
the curious uninformed will be properly attracted to an awareness of
this better than average film, that portrays this horrific reality.