The Debt

[yoco]

Release Date: December 29, 2010
Studio: Miramax Films
Director: John Madden
Screenwriter: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds, Marton Csokas, Jesper Christensen, Romi Aboulafia
Genre: Drama, War

In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal. Now, thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in the Ukraine and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth.

[slikrapid]

the 'victim' takes revenge theme again, eh?
they imagine viewers will be approving the murders done by israeli secret service agents (and thus view other atrocities perpetrated by these agents as necessary or even justified) just because they have a supposedly noble task of hunting (and killing?! so they must also be the judge, jury, hunter and executor) some war criminal whose guilt is script-wise probably just taken for granted

a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in the Ukraine

why would he do that, isn't there an international warrant for his arrest (or as the scriptwriters interpret it: a price on his head), he would have simply changed his identity (papers & visuals) and disappeared in the underground

[shawshankraj]

The story begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (played by Mirren) and Stefan (Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Chastain, Csokas, and Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations.

[SealLion]

The Mossad eh??
The Mossad aren't all the heroes that they're made out to be for the defense of Israel in my mind.

Sure. They defend Israel alright. And Israeli leaders protect the agents themselves against international outrage for secretly inviting themselves into foreign countries and killing or kidnapping someone else. Most of the time, it's probably all under the guise of a cooperative spirit between them and the foreign government that finds itself 'surprised'...or at least makes a poor attempt to look like it is when it supposedly uncovers fake passports used by Mossad agents, I'm sure.

Things aren't all cut and dry or black and white as it's made to look like in the news, that's for sure.

Here's something I'd like to briefly touch on.
It's about the very controversial subject of when the Mossad's vengeful murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Olympic Games and the reprisal mission to assassinated about 11 people alleged to have been involved in that same atrocity.

Never mind conspiracies on this subject right now. The point that I'd like to make is the moral equivalency of killers on both sides of the fence.

State sponsored covert assassinations aren't morally correct on any grounds, IMO. Neither is it ethical. What kind of a government is it that supports state sponsored murder??
It's ridiculous to say the least.

It speaks volumes of a government that hasn't' matured out of sulking, burning with vengefulness, and acting like an arrogant little mut.

Most governments I'd like to think are mature enough to not behave in such a fashion. Sadly, tis the way.

PS: Looking forward to the film here, though I"m also looking forward to some BBC docs on this subject like Operation Bayonet and Munich: Mossad's Revenge which covers similar topics that this film here has within this thread albeit from different angles.

[desodorante]

Just another mediocre action movie for mediocre people
On the Mossad side of the thread, and to quote some non-conspirative hearsay/rumor (and therefore avoid criticism), here's an actual story of the Mossad's "work":

Mordechai Vanunu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Check out the photo of his hand in the window)