VividSimon Simply Perfect

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Sabrina *Spoilers marked at end* I'm a little puzzled by the low rating here. I gained some light by reading the more negative reviews and it seems that the points of the film may have been missed by some. Those who did get it and still didn't like it I can totally respect, but so many here just aren't getting it.If you have any interest in the film, give it a chance, please. This is seriously underrated, as it is one of the most complex and mature films to come out of the 80s. Winger and Berenger both deserved Oscars, honestly. She is so underrated herself. Winger absolutely inhabits this role. She IS this woman. Her beautiful eyes are so expressive. She can convey everything we need to know just by her face. She carries this film through any faults it has.Berenger is equally fantastic. No wonder this was his favorite role.**SPOILERS AHEAD**After he discovers that she's with the FBI, we see him laying in bed with her, tears falling silently on his pillow. In this moment we find the point of the film. People who do terrible things are still human. They are not monsters. Just people. They can be wicked and disgusting and twisted, but still have love and gentleness in their souls. In the film's last moments, this point is driven home in a bittersweet goodbye with her almost-stepdaughter Rachel. We can see the path Rachel is on, the same as her father. In just a few years she could behave just as wickedly as he did.But there's a glimmer of hope that she will remember Winger's character, remember her words, and choose a different path. And so, how will we ever address these societal issues unless we can realize these are just people? That doesn't mean sympathize or excuse. But knowledge is required for true change.Amazing film.

leplatypus This disturbing movie of Costa-Gavras reminds me about the closely named episode of the X-Files (5.18) in which Mulder like Debra goes undercover to dismantle a right wing militia (and it's also the proof that this show had really incredible quality !). In a way, Costa could be the European Spielberg as the two can tell strong, political story on the level of the common people and without any propaganda. Here, the militia members are totally crazy and criminal but if most of them are really devious, a few and the kids are just lost souls. The same can be said about the law enforcers : some does a clean work but others can't see that they push the limits and that they use Debra against her will. In that way, Debra is similar to Diane in « NYPD Blue » in which undercover mission is indeed a kamikaze one.What's frightening is that this movie is from the 80s. As seen in a sequence, it was a time when Internet wasn't there. You can see that the militia is using a rudimentary network with Amiga computers to chat together and it's also a computer printout that will be the trigger of the showdown. So you can imagine what happens now in those circles ! I got an hint with « American History X » but those kind of movies are rather not the kind of drama and cop movies nowadays. At last, it's also a 80s movie as the cast has also more talent than those today and it's a bit sad that we can't see anymore Debra or Tom Berenger now.

tieman64 A shock jockey radio host is murdered. The FBI believes a white supremacist group of Midwestern farmers to be responsible. Agent Cathy Weaver, played by actress Debra Winger, is assigned to infiltrate the gang. She does so, and soon finds herself faking a love affair with Tom Berenger, a Vietnam veteran, widower, farmer and leader of one of the white supremacist "terror" cells.The film's premise is interesting and appropriately disturbing, but like most of director Costa Gavras' Hollywood films, can't maintain its highs. On the plus side, the film plays some interesting morality games. Consider this: the film's racists are humanised and we're invited into their private lives and families, whilst the FBI are shown to be as isolated, narrow minded, compartmentalized and goal oriented as the white supremacists. The end result is that Gavras suggests that the country as a whole has arranged itself into hermetically sealed compartments, arranged around class, politics, race, religion and ethnicity, each section claiming absolute and exclusive humanity. In other words, isolation and social alienation create attitudes of inhospitality, racism and hatred. The Cathy Weaver character tries to resolve this by rejecting both the FBI and the white supremacists and by adopting Tom Berenger's children as her own. She essentially represents the healing balm of maternal love, teaching kindness and understanding to the kids of tomorrow.In terms of flaws, the film plays several scenes too heavily for shock value. This is the result of the notoriously crass screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. Many of the film's far right leaning xenophobes are likewise big caricatural lunatics and the film's high concept plot is at times unrealistic.Some of the film's "shocks" nevertheless do work well, Gavras taming Eszterhas' sensationalism with subtle truths. Scenes in which parent's indoctrinate their kids are creepy, the "holiday camp for white supremacists" sequence is haunting and the film's KKK rallies and midnight hunting parties (guess what they're hunting) have visceral effect. There's also something downright unsettling about little kids matter-of-factly saying the N word. The fact that many of the white supremacists are veterans who fought in Vietnam, opens up some interesting avenues, linking state sanctioned, government approved racism with Berenger's group, who call themselves ZOG ("The Zionist Occupation Government"). ZOG fly under no political flag, but their political assassinations and ethnic cleansings have idealistic overtones typical of various dark national "policies". Gavras draws numerous parallels between the FBI and ZOG's underground network of cells and high tech "agents".7.9/10 – Some of the best moments in Gavras' filmography are in this film, but one too heavily senses the soul sucking presence of Hollywood's and Joe Eszterhas' vampiric fangs. Gavras is striving for a kind of nervous intimacy, whilst Eszterhas relies heavily on Hollywood formula, his script taking interesting material in all the wrong directions. Like many directors (Hal Ashby, Coppola, Altman, Hill, etc), Gavras struggled once the 80s hit.Worth one viewing.

Eumenides_0 From the mid-sixties to the early eighties, Costa-Gavras made an enviable run of movies. When he moved to Hollywood he made one last great movie, the 1982 thriller missing. Since then his work has deteriorated. Betrayed belongs to this period of deterioration.In a rare instance for Costa-Gavras, the movie is not co-written by him. Nor is it co-written by his usual screenwriters - Franco Solinas or Jorge Semprún. It's written by Joe Eszterhas, arguably one of the worst screenwriters Hollywood ever had. Betrayed is not as bad as Showgirls or Basic Instinct, however, and actually has a credible premise.Debra Winger plays Catherine Weaver, an FBI agent working undercover, whose mission is to insinuate herself in the life of Gary Simmons (Tom Berenger), a man suspected of having ties with white supremacists and possibly the murderer of a well-known and polemical talk radio host. Catherine falls in love with Gary, becomes intimate with him, is accepted in his house by his mother and children. She can't believe such a kind, noble man could be a murder.Then one night he takes her to go hunting a black man he and his friends have kidnapped for the purpose of sport. This sequence defines everything great and wrong about the movie: on the one hand, it's a chilling, disturbing sequence; on the other hand, it's ridiculous that Gary would share such a dangerous part of his life to a woman he barely knew. The viewer needs to excuse such situations many times in the movie.The title of the movie is an interesting choice and refers to the betrayal Catherine is committing: after all, she's accepted and well treated by Gary and his friends (with the exception of the psychotic Wes, played by an amazing Ted Levine). She constantly feels torn apart between her loyalties to the FBI and the love she has for Gary and his family. Debra Winger captures the emotional conflict very well.But it's Tom Berenger that steals the movie as the sweet, polite rancher who secretly organises an army and plots to overthrow the ZOG - Zionist-Occupied Government. Berenger plays Gary as a very human and even likable man. This movie deserves merit for not demonising Gary and his followers and for giving him a sound, coherent voice, even if it's fueled by hatred and twisted logic.Betrayed is never an awful movie; in fact it's quite enjoyable. But it doesn't feel like a Costa-Gavras movie. Anyone could have directed this and get the same result. And the ending is so sentimental and sweet, it seems forced, and hardly representative of the work of a man who has made bleak movies like Z, The Confession, State of Siege, Special Section or Missing.