A shock jockey radio host is murdered. The FBI believes a white supremacist group of Midwestern farmers to be responsible. Agent Cathy Weaver, played by actress Debra Winger, is assigned to infiltrate the gang. She does so, and soon finds herself faking a love affair with Tom Berenger, a Vietnam veteran, widower, farmer and leader of one of the white supremacist "terror" cells.
The film's premise is interesting and appropriately disturbing, but like most of director Costa Gavras' Hollywood films, can't maintain its highs. On the plus side, the film plays some interesting morality games. Consider this: the film's racists are humanised and we're invited into their private lives and families, whilst the FBI are shown to be as isolated, narrow minded, compartmentalized and goal oriented as the white supremacists. The end result is that Gavras suggests that the country as a whole has arranged itself into hermetically sealed compartments, arranged around class, politics, race, religion and ethnicity, each section claiming absolute and exclusive humanity. In other words, isolation and social alienation create attitudes of inhospitality, racism and hatred. The Cathy Weaver character tries to resolve this by rejecting both the FBI and the white supremacists and by adopting Tom Berenger's children as her own. She essentially represents the healing balm of maternal love, teaching kindness and understanding to the kids of tomorrow.
In terms of flaws, the film plays several scenes too heavily for shock value. This is the result of the notoriously crass screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. Many of the film's far right leaning xenophobes are likewise big caricatural lunatics and the film's high concept plot is at times unrealistic.
Some of the film's "shocks" nevertheless do work well, Gavras taming Eszterhas' sensationalism with subtle truths. Scenes in which parent's indoctrinate their kids are creepy, the "holiday camp for white supremacists" sequence is haunting and the film's KKK rallies and midnight hunting parties (guess what they're hunting) have visceral effect. There's also something downright unsettling about little kids matter-of-factly saying the N word.
The fact that many of the white supremacists are veterans who fought in Vietnam, opens up some interesting avenues, linking state sanctioned, government approved racism with Berenger's group, who call themselves ZOG ("The Zionist Occupation Government"). ZOG fly under no political flag, but their political assassinations and ethnic cleansings have idealistic overtones typical of various dark national "policies". Gavras draws numerous parallels between the FBI and ZOG's underground network of cells and high tech "agents".
7.9/10 – Some of the best moments in Gavras' filmography are in this film, but one too heavily senses the soul sucking presence of Hollywood's and Joe Eszterhas' vampiric fangs. Gavras is striving for a kind of nervous intimacy, whilst Eszterhas relies heavily on Hollywood formula, his script taking interesting material in all the wrong directions. Like many directors (Hal Ashby, Coppola, Altman, Hill, etc), Gavras struggled once the 80s hit.
Worth one viewing.
The film's premise is interesting and appropriately disturbing, but like most of director Costa Gavras' Hollywood films, can't maintain its highs. On the plus side, the film plays some interesting morality games. Consider this: the film's racists are humanised and we're invited into their private lives and families, whilst the FBI are shown to be as isolated, narrow minded, compartmentalized and goal oriented as the white supremacists. The end result is that Gavras suggests that the country as a whole has arranged itself into hermetically sealed compartments, arranged around class, politics, race, religion and ethnicity, each section claiming absolute and exclusive humanity. In other words, isolation and social alienation create attitudes of inhospitality, racism and hatred. The Cathy Weaver character tries to resolve this by rejecting both the FBI and the white supremacists and by adopting Tom Berenger's children as her own. She essentially represents the healing balm of maternal love, teaching kindness and understanding to the kids of tomorrow.
In terms of flaws, the film plays several scenes too heavily for shock value. This is the result of the notoriously crass screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. Many of the film's far right leaning xenophobes are likewise big caricatural lunatics and the film's high concept plot is at times unrealistic.
Some of the film's "shocks" nevertheless do work well, Gavras taming Eszterhas' sensationalism with subtle truths. Scenes in which parent's indoctrinate their kids are creepy, the "holiday camp for white supremacists" sequence is haunting and the film's KKK rallies and midnight hunting parties (guess what they're hunting) have visceral effect. There's also something downright unsettling about little kids matter-of-factly saying the N word.
The fact that many of the white supremacists are veterans who fought in Vietnam, opens up some interesting avenues, linking state sanctioned, government approved racism with Berenger's group, who call themselves ZOG ("The Zionist Occupation Government"). ZOG fly under no political flag, but their political assassinations and ethnic cleansings have idealistic overtones typical of various dark national "policies". Gavras draws numerous parallels between the FBI and ZOG's underground network of cells and high tech "agents".
7.9/10 – Some of the best moments in Gavras' filmography are in this film, but one too heavily senses the soul sucking presence of Hollywood's and Joe Eszterhas' vampiric fangs. Gavras is striving for a kind of nervous intimacy, whilst Eszterhas relies heavily on Hollywood formula, his script taking interesting material in all the wrong directions. Like many directors (Hal Ashby, Coppola, Altman, Hill, etc), Gavras struggled once the 80s hit.
Worth one viewing.