As far as murderous covert agencies go, I’ve always liked the Mossad. I know they’re mean to the Palestinians but there seems to be (at least in the realm of spy fiction which is what I’m basing my opinions on) a brutal simplicity to their aims and motives that’s just missing from your other covert agencies or criminal/terrorist syndicates.
They don’t try and set up friendly dictatorships, they don’t try and blackmail people, they don’t try and profit on drug trafficking or airport construction. They kill people. They kill people who have or want to kill them. No overtly political motivation outside of survival and revenge. Clean, simple, brutal and tidy.
The Debt is about a Mossad operation in the 60’s. 3 operatives are sent to locate a sadistic Nazi scientist (who experimented with glee and bloodlust on captive Jews at concentration camps) and kidnap him for trial and execution in Israel.
The film has 2 separate storylines. One is in the 60’s when the operatives are in East Germany on the actual mission, and the other is set 30 years later when the operatives must deal with unforeseen repercussions of their work in their old age.
The operatives have become heroes to the people of Israel and there are books written about their successful mission. But the mission didn’t quite go down the way the history books report it. There are still some ghosts that need to be murdered.
Not sure why there are so many negative reviews for the film. I’m not suggesting a conspiracy necessarily, but something’s up.
And this film is based on an Israeli thriller that I’m going to have to track down.
I found the film to be highly enjoyable. There are moments of supreme tension that can only be found in a good spy story, and the film is never going the direction you think it is. Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life), Martin Csokas (Kingdom of Heaven), and Sam Worthington (Avatar) play the young operatives; filled with righteous Jewish anger and sexual tension; and Helen Mirren (Red), Tom Wilkenson (Batman Begins), and Cirican Hinds (Rome) play the operatives in their dotage, haunted by truth and lies. And Jasper Christensen (Casino Royale) is fan-damn-tastic as the batshit crazy (or is he!?!) Nazi.
If you like spy movies, check this one out. It does not disappoint.