What began as a $4.5 million neo‑noir from director Tony Richardson became a textbook case of studio-era production tug‑of‑war. Robert Blake was originally cast in the lead but dropped out; when Jack Nicholson signed on the budget immediately ballooned to roughly $14.5 million. Two weeks after shooting started in El Paso, the 1980 actors' strike halted production for 11 weeks. That shutdown had real technical consequences: original cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond was unable to return and was replaced for principal photography by Ric Waite. Nicholson's involvement — and the long delay — also raised the stakes for the studio and producers, who found themselves juggling a far larger investment than they'd planned.
The controversy continued after principal photography: Richardson had filmed a bleak original ending in which Nicholson's character bombs Border Patrol headquarters and is imprisoned. Preview audiences reacted badly to the darkness, and studio and production leaders ordered a new, less punitive resolution. About a year after principal photography finished the film was reopened for reshoots; Zsigmond was able to return for that new material, at an additional estimated cost of $1.5 million. The chain of events — a star-driven budget surge, a labor stoppage that forced a key crew replacement, and test‑screen pressure that overturned a director's chosen climax — illustrates how 1980s studio economics, union action, and preview culture combined to reshape a film long after its cameras had first rolled. The result was a compromised production, equivocal critical reception and a movie that Richardson later described in memoirs with frank, sometimes rueful detail about Nicholson's working methods and the production's mercurial course.
