Watch The Debt For Free

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Very good story line and this says something about human nature. The bottom line is do not lie and your conscious can stay healthy or clean. The romance between the three threw me off a little as the female mossad agent was portrayed as loose ie sleeps around which is not what these types of individuals usually do ie their mental makeup is stronger. Yes people fall in love, but typically not under these circumstances. The end was a little hurried and confusing as the doctor was found but more by chance than any under cover work.

The basis for the 2010 Hollywood remake, this is an intelligent and clever spy thriller, with interesting moral overtones. However, as rarely happens I personally slightly preferred the re- make. I don't know if it was the acting, the writing or the directorial style, but for whatever reason I found myself both more moved and more chilled by the re-make. To be fair, that could be because I saw the re-make first, so knew the story, but this isn't really based on shocking twists, so I think the newer film simply worked better for me. In particular I found Helen Mirren more affecting than her Israeli counterpart, Gila Almagor. That said, this is still a strong film, and there are a couple of very powerful scenes between the agents and their Nazi prey that beat out their counterparts in the re-make.. Worth seeing if you're into films enough that seeing two different versions of a good story is fun, not a chore.

This 2007 original version of the film currently in the theaters with an entirely new cast and crew and know as THE DEBT is the version written by Ido Rubenstien and writer/director Assaf Bernstein: their story and screen play were the nidus for the current version. This version HA HOV is in Hebrew and German with English subtitles and because this viewer has not seen the current THE DEBT in the theaters it is difficult to compare the two. That really is not a significant matter as HA HOV stands solidly on its own as a brilliant film. The film opens at a gala party in Israel where Rachel Brenner (Gila Almagor) is being honored again for her role in ending the life of the infamous 'surgeon of Birkenau' who during WW II did heinous experiments on human beings in the camps of Birkinau, including being responsible for the death of Rachel's mother. But news arrives that at all old folks home in the Ukraine that the surgeon is still alive: the three Mossad agents (Rachel - played at the young age by Neta Garty, Zvi - Itay Tiran, and Ehud - Oded Teomi) in 1965, Mossad agents sent to capture the surgeon erroneously allowed him to escape and promising to keep their secret, told the papers that he committed suicide. Rachel, Zvi and Ehud decide they must complete their broken mission and go to the Ukraine, fine the surgeon and kill him. Zvi and Ehud are not up to the task, so it is left to Rachel to finish their mission. The suspenseful hunt and chase is how the mission is accomplished. The manner in which the film is set into motion is a seamless interchange of the years 1944 during the war and the black and white images of the concentration camps, and 1965 when the three young Mossad agents captured the surgeon (and their interaction with him before his escape) and the present when the now 60ish Rachel carries out her duty. It is chilling, rich in character development, and maintains a degree of tension that is almost unbearable at times. But the other aspect of this film that keeps it form being yet another memoir of the mistreatment of the Jews in WW II is the element of humanity in each of the three Mossad agents as they deal with their task and yet interact with the evil and warped surgeon. This is a very strong film, one that deserves an audience at least equal to those who have seen or will see THE DEBT. Grady Harp

The AVALON Theatre in Washington, DC has moderately successful screenings of Israeli films one night a month. We chose THE DEBT to try it out. Not this time, the movie packed the house and we only beat the inevitable turn-away by skipping the ticket line and buying tickets in their cafe / refreshment counter.The turnout was well deserved, as THE DEBT was well worth out drive across town to see. Tight and suspenseful, it was solid where the big budget holocaust films usually bog down in sludge-style propaganda.This movie excels in its down-to-earth earnest telling of the story, and the Nazi has ample time to tell "his side." Respectful silence from the presumed mostly Jewish audience indicates how they were wrapped up in the story; their story; but with a few moments of outward approval.Perhaps I ought put a sock in it, but people do that too often. The Jews make much of their vow "NEVER AGAIN" and I have no doubt the Jews in Israel mean it. But what about the American Jews in this audience? No doubt most voted for Obama, America's most anti-Israel president, and will likely vote for him again in 2012. Israeli freedom be damned -- if it means questioning their self-destructive liberal causes. People like me offer Israel rock-solid support; but American Jews have little use for us. Go figure!