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The Counterfeiters

from: Sony Pictures

: The Counterfeiters
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 0043396239203
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: August 05, 2008
Running Time: 99 minutes
Sales Rank: 3457
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: February 22, 2008



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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters tells the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a swindler who made a name for himself as Berlin's 'King of the Counterfeiters.' However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he's arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. With the German army on the verge of bankruptcy, Sorowitsch makes a sobering deal with his captors: in exchange for a comfortable bed, good food and fair treatment, Sorowitsch, along with the other hand-picked specialists, must counterfeit bank notes to fund the Nazi War effort. If he does as they say, he lives another day. If he rebels, he faces the same fate as the rest of the camp's prisoners. But if he lives, will he be able to live with himself?

Amazon.com:
A deft blend of suspense and docudrama, Stefan Ruzowitzky's sixth feature focuses on history's largest counterfeiting operation. Before World War II breaks out, Salomon Sorowitsch (the compact yet steely Karl Markovics), a Russian-born Jew, lives the good life in Berlin. He forges documents, like passports and banknotes, and sketches beautiful women to the romantic strains of tango records. Sorowitsch's dolce vita comes to an end when he's sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. Once Reich officials decide to deploy imprisoned printers, craftsmen, and bank officials to counterfeit foreign currency, they draft Sorowitsch for 'Operation Bernhard' and ship him to Sachsenhausen. Though he and his colleagues receive preferential treatment, the threat of execution hangs over their heads at all times. First, they master the pound; then they tackle the American dollar. At this point, communist co-worker Adolf Burger (The Ninth Day's excellent August Diehl) suggests sabotage. As he explains, they're extending the conflict and increasing the death toll, but the entire team will suffer if they fail, even their SS supervisor, Freidrich Herzog (Downfall's Devid Striesow), whose career depends on it. As Jews, however, they stand to lose more than their jobs. Based on Burger's book The Devil's Workshop, Austria's Ruzowitzky (Anatomy) sheds a compassionate light on the guilt and complicity of survivors. Though The Counterfeiters plays more like a prison camp movie than a Holocaust drama--Stalag 17 comes to mind--that doesn't make it any less significant, just less wrenching than some of its counterparts. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Better than expected
Found this movie for $5 at the video store--a 'gem' at that price. The story of the Nazis forcing ... Read More


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Too grainy & shaking
The story is interesting and the presentation is fine, but for two things that it is worth only 3 ... Read More


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Excellent movie about an interesting true story.
This is a pretty interesting movie. It is based on a true story. At times, especially at the beginning, ... Read More


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - A Compelling Story, Strangely Told
The German-Austrian film The Counterfeiters is based on a remarkable true story. Late in World War Two the ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - an amazing more or less true story
Until watching this movie, I had no idea that the largest counterfeiting operation of all time was carried ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.