Harris, Ideology Analysis of The Debt (2010)

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"Every secret has a Price"- The Debt (2010)

In contrast to Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005), John Madden's political thriller, The Debt (2010), tells the story about three Mossad agents who go undercover in Soviet controlled Berlin (East Berlin) to extract a Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen). This film is an American re-make that is based off an Israeli film with the same name. This film was received positive reviews and currently holds a 76% or "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In the opening scene, the audience can notice that the young Mossad agents have completed their assigned mission and is greeted by the Israeli government with open arms. Then, the next scene opens with Rachel (Helen Mirren), who is receiving admiration for her part in the mission, which occurred thirty years before. After the press release of the book that tells the story about how Rachel allegedly killed Vogel, her ex-husband and former teammate, Stephan (Tom Wilkinson), tells Rachel that their former teammate, David (Ciran Hinds), has committed suicide. However, the audience does not not understand why David has committed suicide until Madden uses flash backs to tell the real story about the mission in East Berlin.

It is revealed in the flash backs that the young Rachel (Jessica Chastain) did not kill Dieter Vogel. It turns out that the original mission was botched at a local train station. Then, the young Stephan (Marton Csokas) decides to bring Vogel to the apartment until the young Stephan can talk to the Americans. However, the plan with the Americans does not go through and on New Year's Eve, the young Rachel was left alone with Vogel, who viscously cuts her face and escapes while she is unconscious. When the young David (Sam Worthington) and the young Stephan return to the apartment, they learn what happened to Rachel. It is in this scene, where the young Stephan formulates the idea that all of them should lie about what happened and tell Israel that they shot Vogel. Sadly, the young Rachel complies with the young Stephan, but it is the young David who feels torn about the coverup. The young David does not like the cover up because justice to the people of Israel was not served and his family has died in vain.  Unfortunately, the young David's morality is overlooked and the young Stephan demands that the young David should comply.

When the three Mossad agents arrive back to Israel, they are greeted like heroes with open arms. Then, the film flash forwards to the present with our Mossad agents now with wrinkles and semi-gray hair. Madden takes back the audience to David's apartment, where the audience can see Stephan and Rachel discussing about David's recent suicide attempt. In this scene, it is revealed that Vogel is still alive and is going to be interviewed by a famous journalist in the Ukraine. Now, Stephan tells Rachel this news so she could go to the Ukraine and kill Vogel herself because she has been taking the credit for thirty years.

"David's Suicide"
David Peretz (Ciran Hinds)

In my opinion, I believe that the film's ideology is implicit because Madden shows how telling a lie will catch up with you sooner or later. The Debt (2010) has an implicit ideology because the characters, especially David, has a complicated value system, which is overlooked. Hence, the two scenes where Madden demonstrates the implicitness of the film is when David does not follow the protocol and kills himself in front of a moving truck. Hence, this scene shows how David still believes that their lie will come out if they do not tell the truth.


The second scene where the ideology is implicit is when David sees Rachel the day before he commits suicide. In this scene, Rachel sees him after doing a book tour and confronts him about his departure from the agency and most importantly from her. Sadly, Rachel quietly lashes her anger at him, but then it is revealed that while David was away, he was trying to find Vogel and bring justice.  Then, he asks Rachel, "wouldn't you do the same and expose him?" Unfortunately, Rachel does not agree because her daughter, Sara (Romi Aboulafia), has this image of her mother and Rachel is worried that everything will collapse if her daughter found out the truth. In short, Rachel replies by saying, "We can't go back," which means they have to live out their decisions no matter what happens.

Overall, the film was different from the original Israeli version, but was still able to communicate the ideology that "every secret has a price." Unfortunately, the price that had to be paid was for Rachel going to Ukraine and kill Vogel, which may have costed her life because of the wounds she accumulated. However, thirty years later, justice was finally served.