Betrayed (1988) User Reviews

Intriguing if slightly confused movie.

[Mephisto-24 · 6/10 · 8 January 2001]

What do you get when you team up the director of MISSING and Z and the writer of SHOWGIRLS and FLASHDANCE? A political film where the FBI is portrayed as even less honorable than the Klansmen and neo-Nazis they're trying to fight, and the female lead (well played by Debra Winger) is a victim of both sides, valuable to the FBI only because of her sex appeal, and unable to trust anyone except her small stepdaughter. That said, BETRAYED is an interesting, very watchable and disturbingly credible movie with some powerful moments, and the cast (particularly Berenger, Winger and the juveniles) give excellent performances.

Potentially explosive subject matter manufactured for depressing results

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 15 October 2007]

Federal agent Debra Winger goes undercover in rural Texas as a combine operator, infiltrating a group of down-home guys and their families in the hopes of linking them to white supremacy and the murder of a shock-talk radio host. Winger is romanced by the group's ringleader (Tom Berenger), and very quickly seems to cross many lines that aren't covered in the FBI trainee's manual. Berenger takes Winger to a KKK camp-out, to a human hunt (with a black man as the target) and to a bank robbery (to finance their cause), yet Debra's superiors actually request that she get more probing evidence! An exasperating movie, with facetious, halting dialogue leaving whole sequences feeling half-finished--and Winger's character without much personality. Director Costa-Gavras seems intent on underplaying this whole matter, to the point where even shocking moments come off as muted, matter-of-fact occurrences. **1/2 from ****

Disturbing political thriller from an expert of the genre

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 17 July 2016]

"Betrayed" has a gripping start but for a while after that it seems like it's not up to much (maybe because the trailer gives away too much of the plot)....gradually it emerges as a disturbing, thought-provoking and emotionally complex (even the title is ambivalent) political thriller. This may be Joe Eszterhas' weightiest script ever, though it does require major suspension of disbelief at some points. Costa Gavras directs with old-fashioned efficiency (the "hunting" sequence is harrowing), and the two leads, especially Tom Berenger, give their roles more dimensions that you might expect from reading the basic outline of the plot. All in all, it's a flawed but underrated movie. **1/2 out of 4.

He named his dog after Ronald Reagan.

[film-critic · 23 September 2004]

This was one of those mythological films that I speak so highly of in other reviews. This was a gem hidden in the darkness. Looking at the cover, you would never guess that this would be such a powerhouse of a film, but let me be the first to say that it was.

Berenger and Winger are amazing in their roles. Winger giving the best performance that I have ever seen her do, while Berenger takes a character riddled with evil and makes him human. When I first began this film, I was expecting a very true Hollywood production. One that would be dark at first, but all of the sudden create this happy world at the end. This film did nothing close to that. What was amazing about this film was that it let the audience make it's own decisions. Not much was handed to you on a silver platter.

Upon the first ten minutes of this film, you would probably assume that it was a love story. It is anything BUT a love story. It is a crime/thriller/drama film, and quite possibly one of the strongest that I have seen in some time. There are some scenes in this film that I couldn't believe I was watching. The sheer brilliance of the director left me wondering if this film was really made in 1988. The cinematography was outstanding. There is one scene that stands out the most in my mind. After Berenger tries to "put down" his dying horse, he can't pull himself to shoot a living creature, so he has his side-kick do it. After it is done, he runs out into the rain behind Berenger wrapped in a plastic tarp. The image here is of the devil riding close behind. It is so vivid and so beautifully done that you can't help to wonder what that may represent. There are a couple of scenes very similar to this as well.

Now, this isn't a film without some small flaws. The young girl was annoying. Perhaps I find young children in these types of films always to be annoying, but in this case it was especially bad. Also, there were some dopey scenes to this film. There were some parts that I felt I was the director of the film watching some bad lines happen between Berenger and Winger ... but it was only a couple.

Betrayed ends like an open-ended question. It tells you that justice has been served, but not eliminated. It does not paint a pretty picture of our society. Be prepared if you see this for some embarrassing, yet disturbing images of ethnic hatred in this film. Some scenes that you will not believe ever happens in our country, but in the back of your mind you know certain evils do exist. But then also be prepared to see John Mahoney (of Say Anything... fame) do his best work ever. The war took his son, the bank took his land, why shouldn't he fight in this battle of supremacy? Dark and impressive ... WOW, I am lucky to have found this one.

Grade: ***** out of *****

Decent and interesting political thriller with fine interpretation and compellingly directed by Costa Gavras

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 31 August 2020]

A thought-provoking and intelligent film dealing with brooding and thoughtful issues . This exciting political movie revolves around a woman (Debra Winger) who begins working on a farm to discover a prime suspect , and gets to know the clean-living , good-looking owner (Tom Berenguer) . They get on well , and she also gets on with his children . He asks her to stay on when her job is ended . As the relation progresses , she must struggle to remain objective , but things go wrong . As she becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer , taking place a moral dilemma , as things are not what they seem , as he lives a double life as a white supremacist and she lives with a man who detests , fears but also loves .

A notable and rabid political thriller that begins with the Chicago killing of a controversial radio talk-show host by right wing extremists , relying for tension and suspense on a handful of attractive set pieces . This is an intriguing and attractive drama in which an undercover agent pretends to be an ordinary woman , simulating a masquerade in order to investigate a criminal case , only to find surprising revelation , entailing a backlash of grief , tension , pressure and violent deeds . However , relying heavily for the complicated loving relationship and on a handful of charming dramatic pieces , while offering an important analysis of various problems as bigotry , racism , anti-Semitism and violence . Nice performance from Debra Winger as an obstinate agent who eventually falls in love resulting in fateful consequences and adequate acting by Tom Berenguer as a handsome farmer , a widowed who results to be a killer racist . Most of the other interpretations are excellent , such as : John Heard, Betsy Blair, John Mahoney , Ted Levine , Jeffrey DeMunn , Albert Hall , Richard Libertini , and David Clennon.

It contains an evocative and moving musical score by Bill Conti , though composed by means of synthesizer. As well as atmospheric and appropriate cinematography by Patrick Blossier , being shot on location in Chicago, Illinois, Carmangay, Calgary , Bragg Creek, Alberta, Canada. The motion picture was compellingly directed by Constantin Costa Gavras . He is a veteran filmmaker with a long career, nowadays, he's directing still , including several provoking, political and engaging movies , such as : ¨Z¨ , ¨State of siege¨, ¨The confession¨, ¨The sleeping car murders¨, ¨Missing¨,¨Hanna K¨ , ¨Conseil de Familie¨ , ¨Betrayed¨,¨Mad city¨, ¨Amen¨ , ¨The axe¨ , ¨Le Capital¨ , ¨Mad city¨ , Arcadia¨, among others. Rating 6.5/10 . Above average . Admirers of Costa Gravas 's directorial work and political stances will want to see how the filmmaker realized this acceptable film . Essential and indispensable seeing . Well worth watching.

Racists have no clue about manhood.

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 18 July 2007]

It is a shame that we do not get to see much of Costa-Gavras' work here in America. The last film I remember is Z. he is a master of the political story, and this film tells a story about America that we really don't like to think about.

Costa-Gavras does his best work when he also writes the screenplay. Unfortunately here we get Joe Eszterhas, master of some of the worst crap to hit the silver screen - An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, Showgirls, Sliver, Jade, Flashdance. What could have been a great story is merely adequate.

Debra Winger is just not credible as an undercover FBI agent. I just never believed in her. That, except for the story, was the weakest part of the film.

Tom Berenger did a great job as a racist pinhead. If they make a movie about the Oklahoma City bombing, he should play the bomber.

Great support by John Mahoney. he delivered the crucial line of the film: The bank took my farm, and Vietnam took my son, and I am left with nothing. Typical of these racists to blame all their failures on others. Why don't they try some Kipling for a change:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss;

That's a man, not these whiny jerks.

A Chilling Depiction of White Supremacists

[Eumenides_0 · 6/10 · 12 April 2010]

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.

Betrayal... But against America, her Hinterland or a particular person?

[jgcorrea · 6/10 · 25 November 2019]

A camping trip turns sinister as agent Cathy Weaver (Debra Winger) infiltrates a dangerous white supremacist network in Costa Gavras' gripping thriller Betrayed. Tom Berenger stated in an interview that out of all his films, this one was his favorite. It's arguable lest we forget he was in Inception too. The critics couldn't come to a conclusion whether or not this film reflected a conflict between Hollywood and the customary left-wing intentions of its director Costa Gavras. It is never easy to reduce two or more angles to a concise and drastic facet. This is not documentary, it's fiction, but a question is raised: is the American Heartland racialist in general? Is the timeless relevance of the film rather obscure? It portrays the upright, affectionate farmer and war veteran as a racist murderer and terrorist. It goes far beyond comparable roles & characters in the American cinema at large. Anyway, Berenger and lovely Debra Winger provide high-level performance. The rest of the cast, the camerawork, and an uncompromised dramatic composition complete a film that, if is not quite the concerned masterpiece Costa Gavras intended to produce, is still very much interesting.

Excellent film about Aryan nation and Alan Berg murder

[tbyrne4 · 9/10 · 23 November 2006]

"Betrayed" is loosely based on the real life murder of a left-wing radio personality by the name of Alan Berg by a white supremacist group called The Order headed by a guy named Robert Mathews. The actual murder happened sometime in the 80s (I believe). In the film Debra Winger is an FBI agent sent undercover to a farming community in rural Illinois to find out information about a possible suspect (Tom Berenger) when a Chicago radio personality is killed.

I've watched this film a number of times over the years. Something keeps pulling me back to it. As someone else mentioned, there are moments that really burn their way into your memory. I can't believe somebody else commented on it, but there is a moment after Tom Berenger's family horse is "put down" and as Bergener and a young Ted Levine are leaving the barn in the rain we see Levine wrapped in plastic holding the gun he used to shoot the horse and walking slightly behind Berenger. For some reason, I've always found the image haunting. Someone else said the image of Levine signifies the devil, which certainly makes sense.

Another moment is when Winger and Berenger are watching through a window as the combine girls leave the motel and the entire scene is played out with the camera outside, and something is blocking the lower part of Berenger's face, so all we see throughout the scene are his eyes. And Winger says, "I don't like people getting hurt". And Berenger says "They aren't people. They're mud people." Something about it is very disturbing and strange.

The racial tirades in the film are quite jarring, too. Especially when the kids say them. The ugliness and hatred of the words contrasts so sharply with the obvious innocence of the children. We see so clearly that the children are not inherently bad, and are simply being taught hatred, as someone would teach a child the alphabet.

The hunting scene, as almost every reviewer has mentioned, is very disturbing, and is clearly meant to be disturbing. I still have trouble watching it.

I do think this is an important film, however. Most films depict the Aryan nation and similar groups as quite simply evil, without offering any kind of logic or shape to what they are about. Betrayed is a film that actually dares to show them as real people. The character of Shorty, played by John Mahoney is a brilliant creation and his campfire speech to Debra Winger, explaining his motivation for behaving like he does, is extremely important for anyone who wants to learn why some people would join a radical group.

Incidentally, there is also a (very disturbing) play entitled "God's Country" that is about the Alan Berg murder and Robert Mathews. And the Oliver Stone film "Talk Radio" is loosely based on Alan Berg's life and murder.

Overlong but still worth sitting through

[bellino-angelo2014 · 7/10 · 11 August 2023]

When the story begins a Jewish radio host is shot in the recording studio after his show. Soon after FBI agent Katie Weaver (Debra Winger) is assigned of the case in an unusual way: she has to infiltrate in a community of farmers suspected of hiding the responsibles of the crime. Passing as a seasonal harvester she befriends Gary Simmons (Tom Berenger) and when they go to the 4th of July party, they kiss and once at home end in bed. In the meanwhile Katie has meetings with her chief Mike Carnes (John Heard) telling him that Gary looks like a mild-mannered family man and not the leader of a racist group while Carnes insists that lots of clues lead to Gary.

Days pass, and Katie becomes more and more smitten with Gary but one day Gary's dark side emerges when he argues with a farmer accusing him of being homosexual and affected with AIDS. One night Gary goes with his friends to pick a black man and Katie should give the final hit but she refuses. One day Gary takes his kids and Katie to a meeting of white racists where the apparently calm atmosphere is often disrupted by speeches full of hatred and military training. For financing the terrorist activity the group commits a robbery in a bank involving Katie but an FBI fatally wounds Wes (Ted Levine) right when he was discovering Katie as the undercover agent. Some days pass and the group goes to Chicago for murdering a congressman: this time Katie will manage to kill Gary but the congressman will be murdered by another gang member. Carnes orders all the gang members to be arrested and when Katie goes to pick Gary's kids the priest offends her but she reminds him that America is a free country and everyone should go wherever it wants to go.

I explained the plot with all the details because it was a bit complex to follow until the first half but in the last 50 minutes it became clearer and from 6 I raised my score to a meager 7. There are simply so many twists and turns that if you don't pay close attention to them you won't understand the movie easily, and I had to be careful as well.

The acting was great especially by Winger in a role unusual for her while Berenger plays just another of his many ambiguos characters. The soundtrack was very 1980s and made me dream to walk on the streets of Chicago at sunset with that background music, it was that cool. And the ending was certainly unexpected.

While it certainly looks like a forgotten movie, if you stumble upon it give it a try because the subject matter is still actual to this day (if you'll see it you'll know what I mean).

Gavras shoulda stayed with European themes

[ikanboy · 5/10 · 5 January 2007]

This is an initially interesting film that turns sour 1/3 of the way through. Gavras wants us to see how an FBI mole, played by Winger, gets caught between bad guys who are outlaws, and bad guys who are government agents. She infiltrates a white supremacy group, and wants out when she decides they are harmless middle of America racists. Then she sleeps with the suspect and then she sees them murder a Black man.

As we are 1/3 of the way through this should be the end of the infiltration phase and beginning of the Trial phase. Nope! Head agent (John Heard) decides that as there is no body there is no evidence. Apparently the eyewitness account of an FBI agent; a missing Black male (who she could identify if given mug shots of any Black male missing from the area); gazillions of automatic weapons bullets in the area; blood everywhere, isn't enough for the FBI So back she goes to get more information! We are supposed to empathize with her dilemma. All I wanted to do was tell her to either get a moral compass, or grow some balls.

The whole movie is overwrought tripe. Winger and Berenger are wasted to Gavras' need to shove our nose into our own home grown racist fascism. I know the FBI aren't boy-scouts, but I think they draw the line at hanging one of their own out to dry, and ignoring murder and Bank robbery in order to pull in the bigger fish.

Gavras grinds his favorite axes: the sickness of fascism, and the corruption of the government. He gets the first one sorta right - how difficult is it to show KKK types as dense morons - but he misses the second one by a mile. Government corruption is much more subtle,much more insidious than this sorry screen play can portray.

My loyalties are all screwed up!

[sol-kay · 8/10 · 8 April 2004]

****SPOILERS**** Shocking disturbing but at the same time penetrating film by director Costa-Garvras about terror in Americas heartland spilling over into the big city, Chicago. A popular but controversial Jewish talk show host Sam Kraus, Richard Libertini, gets gunned down by a group of white separatists in the garage of his apartment building the killers leave their calling card on the murder scene Z.O.G : Zionist occupied government. A phrase that the separatists use to refer to the US government all throughout the movie.

The FBI in trying to find and arrest those who perpetrated the crime send agent Cathy Phillips/ Kathy Weaver, Debra Winger, undercover to the farm land in the area where they think that the killers come from. Due to the very high anti-government sentiment there with farmers in danger of losing their land. It turns out that Agent Phillips should have been the last person for the FBI to put on a case like that due to her very sad home and family life. Phillips lost her parents at a very young age and had no family her entire life but her employer the FBI which was anything but loving and personal to her.

In the farm land and being undercover as Cathy Weaver she falls in love and lives with murder suspect Gary Simmons, Tom Berenger, and his family. Simmons is a widower with children who's mother also lives with him that has Cathy/Katie for the first time in her life have the family that she always longed for. This very fact is what Cathy says is "Screwing up her loyalties" to the government and FBI that she works for.Cathy/Katie desperately wants to be taken off the case before she betrays the man, Gary, as well as the family that she loves. Still the FBI refuses to do so because Cathy's in too deep and is too close to break the case on the Kraus killing.

Gary is also very honest with Cathy/Katie by telling her about himself and what he and his friends, the anti-government white separatists, are all about. Gary even takes Cathy/Katie out one night to a "Hunt" where Gary and his friends hunt down and murder a terrified young black man in the back woods. This makes Cathy/Katie feel terribly guilty since she's not honest with Gary even though Gary is so brutally honest with her about himself.

Debra Winger is phenomenal as the FBI undercover agent who's emotions are stronger the her senses and is tortured in what she's doing by setting up her lover as well as his family for the FBI. Even though he's a murder and is planing with his friends to commit a major attack and assassination of a number of top government leaders. Tom Berenger is as good as he ever was as the all-America Vietnam war hero who comes across as a cross between Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart that it's hard to believe that he not only believes the radical ideas that he openly talks about but also practices them. Meanwhile with all this going on there's a sinister sub-plot about an Illinois election that is connected with Gary's group that goes totally unnoticed by the FBI until it's too late that Gary kept from Cathy/Katie which exploded at the end of the film.

Pre-dating April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by seven years and the 9-11 terrorists attacks on New York City and Washington D.C by thirteen the film is without a doubt one the best movie about terrorism on US soil ever made and It puzzles me why Costa-Garvras' "Betrayed" doesn't get the attention that it should after those two terrible events.

A pretty decent thriller, in spite of the subject matter

[smatysia · 7/10 · 22 July 2000]

A pretty decent thriller, in spite of the subject matter. Debra Winger is such a good actress. Every time I see a one of her films, I am pleased with her range. I wonder what she's doing these days? She has has that beauty, yet a girl-next-door look. I can't imagine her character going back into that nest of loons, though. Interesting how Berenger's character belongs to this white supremacist network yet has such contempt for the Nazi-loons. Worth a look, and a must-see for Winger fans.

Silly And Pointless

[rbrtclntn · 2/10 · 21 January 2006]

I find it interesting that so many people who are NOT from the heartland of America (and particularly so many not from America at all) have commented on the authenticity of the film. Having spent my childhood in the heartland (Iowa), I don't recall having encountered any racism (I suppose because there just weren't many black people around). Also, I never even heard the word "zionist" until I moved to the East Coast, and heard it used by a radical leftist group defending suicide bombers. This is not to say there's no truth to the film, as we are all aware of the existence of militia groups, but, as often happens when filmmakers are trying to make a point, and believe themselves to be smarter than they are, they end up making a hysterical point (see "The Day After Tomorrow"). What people are crediting as the depth of the characters is actually an exposure of the shallowness of the film; Why is Tom Berenger a nice, hard working patriotic veteran who also hates his country, hunts blacks for sport and robs banks? What got these farmers to this point? I don't ask because I care, but because without that explanation, their actions are random and their characters cartoons. I suppose if the filmmakers don't care, neither should the viewers, so judge the film within that context, but don't give it any more credit than it deserves. So what's the bottom line? Tom Berenger and John Heard are good, as usual, but Debra Winger's performance suggests that of a woman who is no mental condition to do undercover work, and unfortunately, I don't think that's what the filmmakers were aiming for. The film is well shot, but also slow, and, not to beat a dead horse, but without any explanation for the goings on, pointless. It also comes off as smug, thanks to being made by people who have no knowledge or understanding of the culture they're portraying, which makes their lack of desire to explain it a blessing.

Betrayed by Hollywood

[tieman64 · 18 January 2011]

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.

Snakes in the grass.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 15 January 2007]

I generally find Costa-Gavras' works kind of hard to swallow because I gag on the pedagogy. Too many of his films are like Capra's "Why We Fight" propaganda movies from World War II. Here is the enemy. (It's always a right-wing conspiracy.) See how evil he is? And see how naive you cretins in the audience are for not having realized it? My God, what a nag he is. I don't like being preached to even when the sermon matches the prejudices I already hold.

But this movie is an exception. For the first and perhaps the last time on any stage, ladies and gentleman, the director shows us some ambiguity in the characters.

Yes, it's true. No doubt the evil on display is thoroughly rotten, the home-grown variety of racists and terrorists along the lines of Timothy McVeigh, the New World Order paranoids, the fluoride-in-the-water loonies, and the survivalists who have moved off the grid into the mountains of Idaho. But they're not that extreme. They're the salt of the earth. They go to church regularly, believe in God, treat their women with respect, fall in love, form bonds with each other, have suffered in the past, and have hope for the future. They just happen to hate blacks, Jews, commies, and fags, that's all. They're perfectly normal except that they have these encapsulated brain tumors that contain attitudes instead of cancerous tissue.

Debra Winger is an FBI agent assigned to infiltrate a community of farmers in the Midwest who may be up to no good. She thinks the assignment is a washout and she falls for the simple, God-fearing son of the soil, Tom Berenger, who has a cuddly young daughter. Berenger falls for her too and proposes marriage.

But things begin to pop up that are a little disturbing. The little girl spontaneously spouts apocalyptic racist nonsense that she is too young to understand. Berenger opens up to her little by little, taking her on a very strange hunt, a picnic involving happy campers with Uzis, and what is revealed isn't entirely congruous with Winger's picture of Berenger as an uncomplicated farmer. Eventually, finally trusting her, he tells her about a plan to generate a general uprising by assassinating celebrities and committing mass murders in Harlem and San Francisco and "Sick-ago", as he calls it. Berenger and his friends are full of an unfocused bitterness that the director leaves unexplained.

So far, so Cost-Gavras. And here's where it's different. The director develops Tom Berenger as a fully fleshed-out character, and Debra Winger too. When she is finally forced to shoot him, it is because he has found out her real identity and now he WANTS her to kill him. Suicide by FBI. His belief and trust in her is sufficiently profound that when it's shattered, there is really nothing left for him to live for, not even his precious cause. And the same is true for Winger. She has no family because, "The FBI was my family." But they have manipulated her ruthlessly and are unable to see any human dimensions in what they consider just another operation that in the end is more or less successful. She plunks down her badge and gun and goes on what appears to be a cross-country binge before pulling herself together and seeking out Berenger's daughter. Cost-Gavras as HUMANIST!

Even the title is dual-faceted. Berenger's group of subversive farmers has betrayed its own country's ideals, but Winger has betrayed the man she loves.

At that, though, Costa-Gavras hasn't got quite a handle on the subtleties of the political issues. He throws every liberal bete-noir into the pot. A reactionary politician spews out the usual menu of racist nonsense but can also be heard pimping nuclear power and so forth. If he read the message boards on Yahoo, Morningstar, or anywhere else, he'd realize that no reactionaries are in favor of nuclear power. Nobody is FOR nuclear power. Some liberals are opposed to it, but paleoconservatives argue in its favor only in contexts that will irritate the liberals. Well, let's not make too much of a little background speech-making by a minor figure.

This is a pretty good movie, in fact. The familiar parts of it -- the naive investigator finally being wised up to fascist conpiracies -- is more than compensated for by the added dimensionality of the two leads.

But just to make sure you get the point, Costa-Gavras, perhaps feeling that he's been speaking over our heads, plays a song under the end credits -- "The Pistol in the Drawer is the Devil's Right Hand." Got it? Good.

Betrayed: Mama Send the Pistol is the Devil's Right Hand ***

[edwagreen · 7/10 · 2 April 2011]

At least, when the closing credits appear, this song is uplifting and proves that Berenger's young daughter hasn't totally been brainwashed by the cult she lives among.

Tom Berenger plays a heavy in this one where Deborah Winger, his new found girlfriend, is a federal agent penetrating a white supremacy group. He takes her to a variety of his crews exploits-mainly killing blacks and Jews.

Periodically, Winger reports back to her superior and lover John Heard and is really in for a rude awakening at the picture's end when it is determined that she has been used for the agency's other purpose. This dynamic twist really adds to this decent film.

American History X's relative!!!Don't miss this movie!!

[Doc_Who · 7/10 · 20 January 2000]

This movie was made about a dozen years before "American History X". Tom Berenger(Shadow of Doubt,Shattered,Sniper) and Debra Winger(TV's Wonder Woman) star in thriller about Nazi like people living here in the U.S.A. Debra Winger goes undercover to find out a murder somehow related to Nazi racists living in the midwest. To do this , she moves in with a family man(Tom Berenger). During the movie , they fall in love. Of course the FBI is having Cathy Weaver(Winger) report in on a regular basis(she has to lie to Gary Simmons, the man and family she lives with. Later on , she goes on a trip with Simmons and his friends. It is here where the real plan of the racists Nazi's is revealed. The suspense is very thick in this scary thriller. It is American History X's relative because it is very similar , yet the message is brought home about racism!!!Even teenagers can learn from this movie!!!Just be sure they understand racism and the problems it makes!!This movie also shows people starting to get mad their government , so made check Arlington Road with Jeff Bridges too with this movie!!!

Tension-Laden Drama

[nitro72 · 6/10 · 1 February 2022]

Convincing performances & great Alberta locations shine in this tension-laden drama that shows just how frightening and far-reaching ignorance really is - both then & now. Spoiled only slightly by a few missteps & a rushed ending. #nitrosMovieChallenge.

Chilling movie about man's dualistic personality

[derime · 10/10 · 29 April 2001]

I've seen Betrayed for three times now, and each time it just gets better and better.

Tom Berenger is excellent as Gary Simmons. He is perfect for the role, that requires in-depth understanding about love and hate. This man loves his family dearly and is extremely loyal to things he believes to be justified, and at the same time he is capable of doing most savage deeds towards other people he think are sub-human. Simmons is so cold and yet such a nice man at the same time it makes my blood freeze in my veins.

Also Debra Winger is great as Katie Phillips. She finds herself falling in love with this man and then realizes that everything is not so perfect she thought it was. Her disappointment is almost palpable. I highly recommend this movie to all, who wonder with amazement the dark sides of human nature.

The Devil's Right Wing

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 12 October 2022]

Somewhere in the farmlands of the American Midwest, Katie Phillips, an attractive young female combine-harvester driver, and Gary Simmons, the handsome farmer for whom she works, fall in love. That might make it sound as though that most political of directors, Costa-Gavras, was following in the footsteps of another famously left-wing director, Martin Ritt, and making an apolitical romantic comedy about life in the American boondocks, just as Ritt did with "Murphy's Romance". But, of course, "Betrayed" quickly turns out to be just as political as something like "Z" or "The Missing".

Katie is really an FBI spy named Catherine Weaver, on a mission to infiltrate a neo-Nazi terrorist group suspected of the murder of a controversial Chicago Jewish radio host. (For the sake of consistency I will refer to her as "Katie" throughout). At first she is convinced that Gary, a widower with two young children, is really the pillar of the community he appears at first sight, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a regular churchgoer. But of course, it quickly turns out that that Gary is as guilty as hell, and a leading light in the activities of the terrorist gang. To make matters more complicated, Katie's FBI controller Michael Carnes is her former lover and still appears to have feelings for her.

Which effectively makes "Betrayed" an unacknowledged remake of Hitchcock's "Notorious". That film is also about a love-triangle involving a beautiful undercover agent trying to infiltrate a gang of Nazis, one of the members of that gang and one of her fellow agents. There are, however, a couple of important differences in the story. In "Betrayed" Katie is quite genuinely in love with Gary until she realises his true nature; although Michael may still have feelings for her, she no longer seems interested in him. By falling for Gary and sleeping with him Katie is going beyond her brief; the FBI never ordered her to seduce him. In "Notorious", by contrast, the equivalent character, Alicia, is under instructions not only to seduce the Nazi leader Alex Sebastian but even to marry him. He falls in love with her, but Alicia is in love with the Michael-figure, Devlin.

The French title for this film was "La Main Droite du Diable", a direct translation of the title of Steve Earle's song "The Devil's Right Hand", which features prominently on the soundtrack in the version by Waylon Jennings. Its use here might have been ironic; the song's anti-gun lyrics contrast sharply with the attitude of Gary and his fellow-extremists who generally despise all parts of the American Constitution apart from the Second Amendment thereto. I wondered if that might have been a good English-language title, but I think that "Betrayed" is a better one because this is very much a film about betrayal. Katie is betrayed by Gary, who leads her to believe that he is an upright, law-abiding citizen. Gary is betrayed by Katie, who allows him to fall in love with her without revealing that she is a "grasshopper", as his group call spies and informers. She in turn is in a sense betrayed by Michael and his colleagues, who have no compunction about sending her into danger, and more directly betrayed by a mole within the FBI who revels her identity to the terrorists. And all the time Gary and his associates are betraying the country they profess to love. This is a film which calls for good acting, and which gets it, especially from Debra Winger as the conflicted Katie and from om Berenger as Gary, the all-American boy involved in some very un-American activities. Special mention goes to young Maria Valdez as Gary's little daughter Rachel.

"Betrayed" is not, however, really one of my favourites, largely because some of the elements of the plot. There is a particularly shocking scene where Gary invites Katie to come "hunting" with him and some friends. They are not, however, hunting animals. They have kidnapped a black man and force him to run for his life while they hunt him down; the hunt ends with him being shot dead. What is never explained is why Garys assume that Katie will be happy to join in this activity. He might have no reason to suspect that she is a "grasshopper", but neither does he have any reason to believe that she shares his extremist views and will not inform the police. Neither is it really explained why, after a horrified Katie reports this incident to her FBI handlers, they do not immediately move in and arrest Gary and his associates. They have clear eye-witness evidence that the men are guilty of murder, but seem more concerned with nailing the gang for killing the radio host. If more innocent black people have to die in the meantime, that's just too bad. They even encourage Katie to take part in the gang's criminal activities, such as a bank raid during which she shoots and injures a security guard.

Roger Ebert wrote of the film that "Here were people I believed in, involved in a story that no one could believe in", which would sum up my own feelings, except that the elements I complain of above are more than just plot-holes. They are actually serious enough to call the film's political themes into question. Are Costa-Gavras and his scriptwriter Joe Eszterhas defending the FBI as heroic defenders of American democracy against terror? Or are they effectively painting them as an out-of-control secret police, morally little different from the political extremists they are combating? A film which cannot answer questions like those is always going to leave viewers with an uneasy feeling. 7/10.

Horrendous waste of a great idea

[Erewhon · 3/10 · 10 August 2001]

It's too bad Costa-Gavras hooked up with the appalling Joe Eszterhas for this sociopolitical thriller. A movie that attacks the white supremacist movement was a great idea, but this movie is far, far from great. Characters are inconsistent and thinly drawn; motivations are foggy; every point is pounded home. Depicting these racist pigs as regular, ordinary Americans was on the money, and John Mahoney and Jeffrey DeMunn are excellent. But the movie is obvious and forced, turning an important idea into mere hackneyed melodrama.

Effective as both a story and a commentary

[tomsims1 · 8/10 · 28 February 2000]

I found this movie to be effective as both fiction and non-fiction. Debra Winger and Tom Berenger both give first rate performances. This movie reveals how racism is passed down from one generation to the next. The passage, "the sins of the father are visited on the son" seem particularly relevant. I was surprised that it did not receive a higher user rating. Eventhough I saw it years ago, it remains in my memory as a very powerful and important movie.

Well worth a rental

[Barney-39 · 7/10 · 22 October 1999]

Betrayed is a surprisingly effective movie with a good script. Deborah Winger play an FBI agent who has infiltrated a farming community that may have ties to white supremacist groups. Her undercover work leads her to an emotional involvement with one of the people she is meant to investigate, and the situation leads to her become conflicted about her loyalties. The movie has a good plot and some genuinely suspenseful moments.

social paranoia, '80s style

[mjneu59 · 5/10 · 7 November 2010]

Something is rotten down on the farm, where FBI undercover agent Debra Winger discovers the man she loves (handsome, modest farmer and family man Tom Berenger) is actually part of an organized, nationwide white supremacist conspiracy intent on toppling the "Zionist occupied government and their n*gger police". It's all part of the latest topical thriller by old pro Costa-Gavras, who gives us a sometimes shallow but not entirely unbelievable reflection of the cancer lurking just below the spacious skies and amber waves of America's heartland. The script, by superstar hack Joe Eszterhas (plundering yet another fashionable current events headline), manipulates its audience with occasional brilliance, and yet the sheer emotional impact of such a hot-button topic is often enough to camouflage the film's many nagging deficiencies. Perhaps its weakest link is the leap of faith needed to accept the naiveté of Berenger, who after casually hiding his true character from a new girlfriend is suddenly trusting enough to invite her on 'hunting' trips, bank robberies, and KKK weekend retreats. Eszterhas plays all his cards too soon, going to great lengths to portray Berenger in three dimensions (not all of them warped), but then introducing most of his pals as garden variety, flag waving, right wing psychopaths. For all his repugnant race hatred Berenger is less a villain than a victim of his beliefs, and the white hats of Winger's FBI comrades are hardly spot free, leaving her stranded between her affection for a man she hates and her loyalty to an agency that uses her without conscience. The suspense is strongest when sharing Winger's moral revulsion and acute fear of exposure, and it's a measure of Costa-Gavras' skill that he manages to produce some edge-of-seat tension from an awkwardly structured and sometimes unbelievable screenplay.