Betrayed

Summary

“Maybe she read too many magazines”

One of the first Criterion Collection films that I viewed when I started collecting films was the excellent Costa-Gavras political thriller Z. I was then lucky enough to view his films State of Siege and The Confession, which confirmed his great level of talent. When paired with Yves Montand, Costa-Gavras could seemingly do no wrong. I recently saw that another Costa-Gavras film, Betrayed, was being given a release by MGM on Blu-ray. Betrayed had been given a release by Olive Films in 2017, but had been out of print for awhile. Given my love of his earlier output, I was excited to see Betrayed. (Warning: This movie will play better if you do not read my review. Spoilers are basically unavoidable to discuss the plot.)

As the film begins, in Chicago, a Jewish shock jock is killed in a parking garage by a bandanaed man with an Uzi. He spray paints “ZOG” on the car next to his body before hopping back in the van and being driven away. In the Mid-West, Kate Philips (Barbara Hershey) tends to some wheat fields in a combine harvester. She almost runs across a scarecrow which should have been cleared out by Gary (Tom Berenger,) so they meet briefly. That night at the bar, Gary buys her a beer. She explains that she’s from Texas. They dance and he explains it is the first dance he has had in three years, ever since his wife died. He drives her home and they flirt with one another. The next day, one of Gary’s daughters runs up to the combine and invites Kate to dinner that night. She explains that her grandmother Gladys is making a pot roast. Kate shows up for dinner, and meets Gary’s son Joey. Kate and Gary begin dating one another. Gary is charming and sweet as they catch fireworks and enjoy fair rides for the 4th of July. Gary does not know that Kate is not her real name. She is actually an FBI agent named Catharine, and Gary is under suspicion for having participated in the killing of the shock jock. Michael (John heard), a former flame, briefs “Cathy” on Gary’s military service and the suspicious death of his former wife. She moves forward, and it gets interesting as she begins a relationship with Gary, truly falling for Gary and disbelieving that Gary could be part of a White Supremacist cell or possibly be a murderer. She bonds with the two young children and they look to her as a new mommy. Soon Kate finds out that Gary is not the man she had hoped he would be. 

Written by Joe Eszterhas, Betrayed is a decent thriller that focuses on the frightening reality of radical White Supremacists, while also crafting a domestic thriller. The script starts out very well with a strong hook at the beginning of the picture and a well developed romance. Around forty minutes into the film, the movie goes from zero to sixty so fast that it is a bit disorienting as Cathy witnesses a murder committed in the woods of a black man by Gary and his gang of hunters. The machinations of the plot from that point forward did not feel quite as convincing to me as what had passed before, but there is definitely a level of suspense as Kate tries to get information out of Gary while not arrousing the suspicion of his white supremacist cohorts. I can’t quite explain why I found the second half of the film somewhat underwhelming, but it may have been a case of the film just doing a little too much. From the reviews I looked at online at the time, reviewers echoed my sentiments. They essentially felt drawn in and then hung out to dry by the way the plot jumps into unbelievable territory. It is no fault of the actors that the picture unwravels.

Tom Berenger is an extremely underrated actor and I really enjoyed his performance as Gary. He manages to put on the folksy charm in scenes that demand that of him, while also showing Gary’s true colors in other scenes. John Mahoney and Ted Levine are both well cast and well utilized. John Heard is always a welcome addition to a film and does great in his small role. That brings me to Debra Winger. I like Debra Winger as an actress, especially in Terms of Endearment or Hannah and her Sisters, but this role feels like somewhat of a mismatch. I am sure some will disagree with me about this, but I think Jessica Lange or someone a little more formidable could have brought so much more to this role. It isn’t for want of trying, she is acting her ass off, but she felt miscast to me. This is just my opinion and soem will disagree with me. Costa-Gavras does the best he can with the cast and script, but the script’s issues should have been tweaked (especially the last five minutes of the film which should have been cut completely.) 

Overall – I appreciate that MGM has re-released one of the great director Costa-Gavras’s films that had been out-of-print, although expectations of the film should be somewhat reserved.

Video

MGM has presented Betrayed in 1080p using an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The master used is not a new master and matches the master used to stream the film digitally. While the master is not new, I thought the picture looked fine, especially the city sequences and some of the outdoor daylight moments. This is the same master that was used on the Olive Films release. Fine detail is decent. There is certainly room for improvement, but fans of the picture will probably be pleased to have the picture on Blu-ray at all.

Audio

MGM’s DTS-HD MA 2.0 track presents the film well. Bill Conti’s score is used sparingly but is presented well. Dialogue is clear and there are moments of immersion. This is a good enough presentation.

Supplements:

• There are no supplements.

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.25/5 

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 0/5

Overall – 3/5

Betrayed finds the excellent filmmaker Costa-Gavras working on a script by Joe Eszterhas that starts out very strong but finishes much less convincingly. There are some strong performances in the picture – especially from Tom Berenger- but I can’t help but feel that Debra Winger was miscast in the role of Kate (despite her best attempts to make it work.) For completists of Costa-Gavras’s work, I appreciate that MGM has re-released the picture on Blu-ray. The transfer is the same as what was present on the Olive Films disc from 2015. It is decent looking, but obviously would have shined brighter if it had been given a new scan. There are no supplements on the disc.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.