Debt, The
1966. A team of young Mossad agents are sent to East Berlin to track down a former Nazi war cromonal who apparently is living the remainder of his life there, to get him back to Israel and on trial. However, the mission doesn’t go completely as planned and they have to make some tough decisions in order to succeed.
30 years later the truth of what actually happened starts to come out and they have to face the consequences of their past actions.
Sound and Vision:
The main “issue” with the transfer of this movie is the black levels. They have a rather gray look and night time scenes really don’t look as inky as they should. Other than that, however, we do get a solid image with subdued colors that perfectly fit the Cold War theme and overly bright contrast that again is perfect with the aesthetics of the film.
Crystal clear dialogues and good directional effects make the soundtrack a very atmospheric piece that adds to the atmosphere. This movie is a spy thriller that relies on tension rather than action and the sound does an excellent job in supporting that.
Extras:
- Audio Commentary
- A Look Inside The Debt
- Every Secret has a Price: Helen Mirren in The Debt
- The Berlin Affair: The Triangle at the Center of The Debt
The extras on the blu-ray are actually the same as the ones on the DVD, except for Universal’s standard BD-Live and “My Scenes” functionality. Overall, with only 6 minutes of “features” and an audio commentary track, you can say the extras are superficial at best.
Conclusion:
The Debt is a Cold War spy thriller that relies on tension rather than action. Hellen Mirren and Jessica Chastain display some really good acting work, but the rest of the cast doesn’t quite manage to truly convince. The movie focuses a lot on the interaction and the feelings between the main characters. The result of that is the flashback part being extremely slow-paced and the current-time plot feeling a bit rushed. To make things worse, the 60s era part is so slow that you’ll truly have to be interested in what’s going on in order to have the persistence to continue watching.
Fans of Cold War spy stories that focus on relationships between people and psychology might find The Debt a very good movie, but if you’re looking for plot twists and excitement, you’ll find The Debt to be quite boring actually.
5.0