Customer Reviews

Betrayal (1983)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie version of Harold Pinter's riveting play is as great as they come. Jeremy Irons sizzles from the inside out in one of the best roles of his career, while Ben Kingsley navigates Pinter's choppy dialogue and trademark pauses with just the right blend of awkwardness and intensity. One of my favorite films of all time, told backwards from the end of the affair to its hopeful beginning. I was surprised to learn this film is not currently available on DVD.

A unique story that is told backwards, each scene followed by another from earlier in the story. An unusual format. Betrayals are made even more aggregious when you know what will come later. Irons and Kingsley are superb in this gripping tale of betrayal.

Three people, intertwined by friendship, marriage, and work, live with the realities and consequences of the extra-marital affair between two of them. The story is told in reverse, covering a nine year period.

This is one of those plays and films that only gets better with repeated viewing. Over the years, more and more questions have come to mind that compel a repeated viewing of the movie (or reading of the play) in the hope of finding the answers. On some points, the movie is remains as unfathomable as Mona Lisa's smile.

The acting in this movie is beyond wonderful. When you read the play, you can appreciate even more how much the actors do to portray the author's intentions and to make the film such a masterpiece.

I never get tired of this film - it is a marvel of genius on the part of the playwright Harold Pinter, the director, and all three actors. It is also a wonderful and restorative retreat from much of what passes for entertainment on television and in movies as well.

This movie must be seen far more than one time to fully appreciate it.

To watch Ben Kingsley go mad is amazing. Or do we have to say be less mad as the movie proceeds. It may be his best performance. To be so subtle and underneath to be so out of control is a pleasure to see.

Jeremy Irons is quite up to playing someone who is not up to what is going on. Patricia Hodge does know what is going on and is the backbone of a bad time.

Harold Pinter is so fun to watch. This is as fun watching the first time as when you know the trick.

Dang it, get the DVD out there folks!

A manage a trois, but told in reverse time order. Patricia Hodge is Emma, wife of Ben Kingsley (Robert), and she's having an affair with Jeremy Irons (Jerry). The movie begins after the affair has ended and keeps flashing back until we are at the outset of it. The usual frustrations and ecstasies of an affair are portrayed (effectively or not, depending on your point of view), with director Pinter's use of the pregnant pause likewise effective or not depending on your view (too overused for my taste). The movie is realistic but lacking in exhuberance. There's heavy emphasis on nuance and the covering up of truths. I also read the play (by Pinter) and, unlike most other people, like the movie version better: it looks better than it reads. An very good movie, for the most part; worth repeated viewings.

Don't know why it's not on DVD yet, but it should be.

The story of a love triangle told backwards in time, from passing acknowledgement, back to the moment the affair sparked. The time element is not used as a gimic, but a resounding emotional perspective of affairs and consequences, and the false urgency of desire.

Let's see: two Best Actor Oscar winners (Kingsley and Irons) and a Nobel Prize-winning playwright (Pinter) and this film is currently unavailable. H'mm.

You have three truly fine actors: Ben Kingsley (as the betrayed husband), Jeremy Irons (as a man adulterously involved over a period years with his best friend's wife, to the extent of fathering a child his friend supposes to be his own) and Patricia Hoge (as wife and lover of both) and Harold Pinter's wonderful script. The story begins with Kingley's character discovering that he has, over a period of years, been deceived and, in a rage, confronting his wife and friend and ends with the inception of the affair in on a vacation in Venice. The genius of the story is that it all happens backwards. Life is lived forwards and understood backwards so that we don't get the story. There is no hint of soap opera in the emotional passion play. Instead, you get layer upon layer of deception and self-deception of the lovers and their prey. How does the husband hide from himself the obvious patterns of deception going on around him over the years? How do the lovers hide the obvious hatred they bear against someone they supposedly love? Lie piles upon lies on all three sides of the equation as the three principals contrive to keep the truth hidden, but it all begins with its unraveling. It is a tragedy where the ending, paradoxically, makes the beginning inevitable.

I completely agree with the high praise of the other reviews of this film. Beautifully realized in every way. Acting, directing, writing are all excellent. It is truly frustrating that it has not been released on DVD.

Like one of your other reviewers, I urge you to take whatever steps are necessary to make the DVD of this movie available. I bought a VHS of it some time ago from a non-Amazon seller and while it was good quality when I bought it, I am now losing the quality of the sound track - as do all VHS'. It is one of my favorite movies.