"When Gregory K. Bovino was a boy, he saw a movie called "The Border," a crime thriller about corruption among U.S. Border Patrol officers working in El Paso. The film, whose executive producer was Bovino's great-uncle, Neil Hartley, arrived in theatres in 1982. Bovino was eleven. Years later, he would say that the film had inspired him to join Border Patrol. If that's the case, it's a little like entering the hospitality industry after watching "The Shining.""
"The movie is, above all, about the moral compromise and human costs that come with immigration enforcement. But it is also a commentary on the mythic plenitude of American life; the film prods you into wondering whether that allure is illusory. What seems to have left an impression on Bovino, however, is the film's unflattering portrayal of immigration officers, which he appears to have taken as an insult that demanded a response."
Gregory K. Bovino saw the 1982 film The Border at age eleven. The film portrays corruption among U.S. Border Patrol officers and follows an agent drawn into human smuggling. The film's executive producer was Bovino's great-uncle, Neil Hartley. Bovino later said the movie inspired him to join Border Patrol. He rose to become chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector, covering a seventy-one-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. The film emphasizes moral compromise and human costs of immigration enforcement and questions the allure of American life. Bovino described the film's unflattering portrayal of agents as an insult he wanted to counter.
Read at The New Yorker
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