Betrayed Blu Ray Review (MGM)

Betrayed is a 1988 crime thriller directed by Costa-Gavras (The Sleeping Car Murder, The Confession, Missing, Mad City, Music Box, and Shock Troops). It was written and produced by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Jade, Showgirls, Sliver, Jagged Edge, and Flashdance). It was produced by Irwin Winkler (Goodfellas, Rocky franchise, Raging Bull, The Juror, The Net, The Irishman, and The Wolf of Wall Street). The budget was $19,000,000 and it grossed $25,816,139 worldwide at the box office. FBI undercover agent Catherine Weaver (played by: Debra Winger from An Officer and An Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, The Ranch, Urban Cowboy, Forget Paris, and Black Widow) under the name Katie Phillips sets out to infiltrate a small community that’s suspected of murdering a Jewish radio host (played by: Richard Libertini from Fletch). She poses as a combine driver for all the farms around. She grabs the attention of local farmer Gary Simmons (played by: Tom Berenger from Platoon, The Big Chill, Major League franchise, Inception, The Sniper, The Substitute, and Training Day) right away. She starts to doubt the FBI’s leads on the community which includes Shorty (played by: John Mahoney from Frasier, Moonstruck, Say Anything, Barton Fink, and In the Line of Fire) and Wes (played by: Ted Levine from The Silence of the Lambs, Heat, Monk, Joy Ride, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Mangler) so she starts to let her guard down with them. She falls for the hard working Gary and his family after spending more time with them. One night, Gary convinces Katie to go hunting with him and his friends. She was expecting the prey to be animal but it ends up being a black man. She learns the hard way that these men are most likely the dangerous racist group that the FBI has been looking for all this time. The FBI lead by Michael Carnes (played by: John Heard from C.H.U.D, Home Alone franchise, Big, Cat People, and The Sopranos) wants more evidence on the Klan so she’s forced to rob a bank and commit other wild crimes while being undercover. Can she get out of this mess? or Is she in too deep????I’ve actually never heard of Betrayed before I got it for coverage. I didn’t know what to expect with it but I ended up being very impressed with it. It’s a nice 80’s crime thriller. I always enjoy undercover type of films and Betrayed delivered when it came to that. The script kept you on your toes, it was suspenseful. Debra Winger as Katie was very convincing as the working farm girl. Before I knew the full concept, I was sold on it with her great performance. This was a very different role for Debra Winger, I’ve never seen her anything like this in her entire career. It’s definitely one of her more underrated characters. I consider Debra Winger one of the greatest actresses of all time and Betrayed is one that really flew under the radar over the years. Tom Berenger as Gary Simmons is top notch here. After Platoon, this might be his most impressive performance. He pulls off the Jekyll and Hyde act perfectly in Betrayed. At first, he seems like a normal nice family guy. When Katie gets deeper, he completely charges and he’s ruthless. Tom Berenger and Debra Winger chemistry changes so much in this crime thriller as it develops. It has a solid supporting cast that includes John Heard, Ted Levine, John Mahoney, Betsy Blair (Marty), Jeffrey DeMunn (The Green Mile), Albert Hall (Apocalypse Now), David Clennon (The Thing), and Alan Wilder (Child’s Play). Betrayed has a quality balance of suspense, crime, action, and drama. I’m hoping more catalog titles from MGM get more attention with these brand new home video releases. I was really surprised by this one, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from MGM! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer is the same restoration as the Olive Films home video release. It’s still a huge improvement over the previous DVD and VHS versions from back in the day. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track on the disc. The audio sounds better than expected here. All of the dialogue is very clean, the thrills are elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. Unfortunately, there’s no extras here. Don’t let the artwork fool you, this is a pro pressed home video release and it’s not a BD-R. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!