IN L.A., `BORDER WAR' IS A RE-RUN.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

The new immigration documentary ``Border War'' may have premiered in Los Angeles last Thursday, but it isn't for Angelenos. Not really.

In fact, for us, the search for justice by the wife of L.A. County sheriff's Deputy David March -- who was killed by an illegal immigrant four years ago -- is old news. The idea of a person being loyal to both their birth country and ancestral homeland, such as Enrique Morones, president of Border Angels, isn't a novel one. And we know that plenty of the most ardent anti-immigration activists are Latinos like Lupe Moreno of Orange County.

These are three of the five individual stories that make up the bulk of the anti-immigration film funded by a conservative group, Citizens United, and screening here through this Thursday.

The other two vignettes aren't stretches either. The compassionate Mexican-American Border Patrol agent, Jose Maheda in Arizona, could be any number of Los Angeles police officers battling the Mara Salvatrucha and other gangs. And surely most Californians are at least passingly familiar with the work of Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is one of the loudest voices on the enforcement-only side of immigration reform debate.

But apparently the rest of the country is blissfully unaware.

``Ninety-nine percent of Americans don't have a clue about this kind of thing,'' the film's co-producer, David Bossie, said Thursday, shortly after he flew into Los Angeles to promote the national opening of the film in Burbank and Newport Beach. He hopes this film will change that, and in so doing gain converts to the enforcement-only camp in the immigration debate. These five stories, he said, will be an eye-opening experience for the Minnesotans and Washingtonians who are the intended audience for the film, as it was for him, a native Northeasterner.

``Oh, my God. Just making this film was really a learning experience,'' Bossie said. ``It really was. I thought I knew a lot about the issue.''

I watched an advance copy of the film at home Wednesday night, the day before it was set to open in Burbank. Normally, I don't review films for columns, and I'm not going to review this one other than to say it was so much less inflammatory than I was hoping.

The film intrigued me for a number of reasons. First, it's a documentary on a hot topic that's only going to get hotter this fall. Also, it features homegrown people, places and issues. And who doesn't love seeing our own King Chuckabubba, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, up on the big screen?

But most significantly, I was intrigued because theatrically released documentaries have traditionally been the domain of liberals. Think of Al Gore's ``An Inconvenient Truth'' or Michael Moore's ``Fahrenheit 9/11.''

Was Bossie going to break the mold with his conservative film? I wanted to know. Bossie's off to a strong start with release of the film across the country this week. The film will also no doubt get a big boost from being picked up by Hollywood's biggest powerhouses, Bob and Harvey Weinstein (liberals, FYI) for distribution of the DVDs.

``Border War'' is the second film by his Citizens United Productions. The first, ``Celsius 41.11'' -- a refutation of Moore's aforementioned film -- didn't make much of an impact. But ``Border Wars'' comes just as the immigration debate is heating up again.

From my take, Bossie's not quite the conservative's answer to Michael Moore. Not yet, anyway. Not with this film. Despite the high production values, a dramatic score and an inherently incendiary issue, the movie just isn't all that exciting. And that was disappointing.

I wanted melodramatic hand-wringing. I wanted overblown ``invasion'' rhetoric. I wanted pathos. I wanted volleys of gunfire traded from both side of the Mexico-U.S. border. I wanted action and heroes and villains. I wanted some of that ``war'' promised by the title.

What I got was even-handed if mostly action-free vignettes about five people's lives affected by illegal immigration. As surprised as I was by the tame and measured take, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Other than the ``Cops''-style scenes with agent Maheda as he busted coyotes in between his philosophical musing about treating immigrants with respect, there's little warfare, figurative or otherwise.

In fact, if I hadn't known that this was the product of an unabashedly conservative group with an agenda, I wouldn't have immediately guessed. The film's heroes are as sympathetic as its villains, and are simply given time to tell their stories. I didn't even realize until talking to Bossie that Morones, whose group helps illegal immigrants in need, was one of the film's bad guys. Perhaps it's just my perspective.

As well, the illegal immigrants ever in the background of ``Border War,'' mostly come off as hapless victims and underscore the human tragedy that's touched on, but never really explored in this film. When Maheda and company bust an Arizona safe house, the inhabitants who file out aren't creepy-looking gangsters or drug runners who are waging war on America. They are mostly women and children, all poor and all looking confused and terrified.

I just hope these aren't the kind of villains who will rile up the Midwesterners.

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