Betrayed

1988

Action / Crime / Drama / Romance / Thriller

13
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 36% · 14 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 56% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.3/10 10 6976 7K

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Plot summary

An FBI agent posing as a combine driver becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer who lives a double life as a white supremacist.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 11, 2016 at 09:35 AM

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John Mahoney as Shorty
Ted Levine as Wes
Robert Swan as Dean
Timothy Hutton as Juggler at the fair
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958.24 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
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23.976 fps
2 hr 7 min
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1.95 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
2 hr 7 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ODDBear 8 / 10

Tom Berenger's own favorite

Debra Winger plays an FBI agent investigating the death of an obnoxious radio talk show host, but he may have been killed by some white supremacist group. She goes undercover in America's heartland and befriends farmer Tom Berenger, who may have had something to do with the whole thing.

Racism and political beliefs courtesy of Costa-Gavras. Many viewers feel this film completely missed the mark on both accounts. I, on the other hand, have always enjoyed the film very much and think of it mostly as a drama piece, focusing mostly on Berenger's and Winger's relationship. As a suspense flick it also delivers, with high tension especially during the climatic finale. Granted, some scenes are pretty tough to take, but from my point of view this is an excellent study of how many "pure" white folks see the world. They're not depicted here as complete and utter monsters, but regular folks who have radically different worldview than most (I hope).

On the trivia side, Berenger himself said in an interview that this was his favorite among all his films.

Reviewed by classicalsteve 9 / 10

Excellent Drama of the Complexities of Racial Hatred and Family Love

At a crucial moment in the movie, the racist militia group that is the focus of the movie robs a bank, and one of their own are killed by an FBI agent. When asked shortly thereafter how he felt about the killing, the agent says that it was no more than wiping dirt off of his shoe. We often like to think of those people who engage in hatred and violence as being completely "unhuman". We want to believe that they are without emotions, without humanity, without integrity and mostly without love. In short, we want to believe that those with monstrous attitudes are only monsters and nothing else. And it is not so, which is I think the point of "Betrayed". People who adhere to what mainstream society judges as dangerous prejudices are in fact much more complex and often have more of humanity than we would like to believe.

The story centers around two characters: Gary Simmons, played with much tact and depth by Tom Berenger, a leader of a local white supremacist militia group, and Catherine Weaver, alias Katie Phillips (played with complete believability and subtleness by Debra Winger), the FBI Agent who infiltrates the group. Her goal: to link Simmons and his group with the slaying of a leftist shock-jock who is slain at the beginning of the film, an incident which closely resembles the real-life assassination of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg, a leftist personality known for hanging up on callers and other on-the-air rudeness. (In real life he was the most popular and simultaneously the most hated radio host in his geographic area.) The FBI also wants to undercover any future plans the group may be concocting that might involve assassinating celebrities and/or politicians.

At first, Phillips believes the FBI have targeted the wrong people since despite their use of the N-word and occasional racist jokes, they appear to be peaceful friendly and neighborly, they appear to respect women, and they often give a helping hand to those in need. Gary Simmons is a loyal father, a model citizen who speaks his mind, a hard-worker, and a straight-shooter. He always tries to do the right thing. He is low key and doesn't speak often about his political views. And Phillips also finds herself quite taken with his two beautiful children who are innocent while simultaneously being indoctrinated with prejudice that may manifest itself later as hate and violence. To add to the confusion, Phillips finds herself falling for Simmons, wanting to believe that he is the wrong man.

But as Phillips sinks deeper into the family and friends of those around Simmons, she learns she is very wrong. After Simmons takes her "hunting", a deadly game in which a captured African-American is then hunted by a group of whites like a British Fox Hunt with automatic weapons, she realizes there is more to this group than her initial observations would indicate. Then a camping trip reveals that it is true, that Simmons and his close associates are members of a complex supremacist group with connections all over the country to people who believe that Jews, African-Americans, Gays, and Lesbians, and almost any other non-white ethnic group are intending to exterminate their livelihoods if not their lives. They have rationalized that they have to fight back. And these groups are their targets for not only hatred but for proposed violent engagements.

Phillips' other world is her FBI associates that keep pushing her to stay the course and complete her mission by staying within the family. Unlike her mid-west "family", the FBI team are emotionless, less sympathetic to the traumatic toll the assignment is taking on Phillips, and rather cold about what they are really doing. The government agents have little understanding that despite racists' destructive attitudes, they are real people who love, who grieve, and want happiness. While the FBI wants to put the racists into a convenient stereotypical box, Phillips realizes there is much more to these people than their hate. But she does find that their flawed perception of reality lies within a complex myriad of rationalizations that serve to construct their world-view. They have convinced themselves that only their hate and violence can save them.

The movie becomes a struggle between these two worlds, and at one point, Phillips begins to question which side is the "good" side, and ultimately she must make a choice between the two. The irony is that if we want to "fight" prejudice we can't "fight" the people, as it only fuels the next generation of racists and proves their point. Maybe we can't even fight the attitudes. Maybe we need to love them despite their attitudes and maybe that would foster more love as it appears that hate only breeds more hate regardless of which side we are on.

Reviewed by mark.waltz 8 / 10

When given the choice of ethics or love, I'll choose ethics.

FBI agent Debra Winger is assigned to a truly tough case, infiltrating a Texas community where white supremacy is the way, and efforts to eradicate blacks, Jews and gays are top priority. There's a disgusting game where an innocent young black man is taken to the woods, given a gun with 10 bullets, then chased by a group of men with more than 100 bullets. Guess who survives. Winger witnesses this, and is even given the opportunity to shoot the young man, but of course, she can't go through with it. She has ethics. She's also in love with one of the white supremacist, Tom Berenger, and as her cover is blown, she finds her more torn between right and wrong, especially after finding out some of the methods of the agents she works with aren't all that ethical either.

It's one of wenger's most powerful rolls, and she is excellent, a character of great ethical background who is disgusted by the hatred that she sees, but must live among it as if she accepts it. Berenger is a widower with two children, and it's pretty disturbing to see the young girl saying very racial comments about things she doesn't even understand herself. There is a sign of hope with the young girl cool listen to intently when Winger tells her how all the things that she's been taught are wrong, and you can understand how the whole Community has been brainwashed, hearing these hate-filled rants even in her own local church. Veteran actress Betsy Blair ("Marty") plays Berenger's mother, a so-called Christian woman who doesn't do anything to change these use. I'm surprised in the final scene she didn't come up and slap Winger across the face. She's that type of hypocrite.

This is a disturbing film to say the least, yet it is a necessary film to show the evils of bigotry. It shows how seemingly kindly Christian people can be distracted by something so rancid in their brain, and some of the men involved in these crimes are war heroes. A very disturbing scene shows men and women in this community singing Christian hymns while dressed in Klan outfits. The direction by Costas-Gavras is very good. The use of the song, "The Devil's Right Hand", gives an emotional touch to the finale that truly makes a huge impact.

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