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: 2789 Studio: Sony Pictures Theatrical Release Date: February 22, 2008
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, it seems to jump quickly over events. It takes a little to get into the flow of the movie and feel comfortable with who the characters are. The end of the movie is a bit abrupt also. You aren't quite sure what happened to some of the main characters between the last days of the war and the ending where the main character is in a Casino in Monaco. In spite of these drawbacks, this is an interesting movie that makes you want to go out and learn more about the events it was based on.
A Compelling Story, Strangely Told
The German-Austrian film The Counterfeiters is based on a remarkable true story. Late in World War Two the Nazis rounded up Jews who had been confined in various concentration camps and set up a large counterfeiting operation designed to undermine the British and U.S. economies. The Nazis found some 150 Jews with the necessary skills and put them together in a special section within the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, providing the latest money-making equipment, giving them plenty of food and comfortable accommodations. But the counterfeiters were constantly pressured to produce (at pain of death) and there were sadistic S.S. guards who cruelly reminded the counterfeiters that they were still in Hell.
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 out by prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp. They were assigned to forge pounds and dollars, in order to undermine the Allied economy and finance the Nazi war effort. They ended up printing over 100 million pounds sterling, which even the Bank of England could not distinguish from the genuine article. On the other hand, as a result of stalling tactics, they didn't crack the dollar until the war was almost over and it no longer made any difference.
This movie is a fictionalized version of this story. Prisoners with relevant skills are brought in to a special, top-secret area in a concentration camp, where in contrast to the appalling ... Read More
Riveting movie, but...........................
This was a riveting movie. The will to live and survive cast the tormnetors and the tormented in the same boat.
But the fragmented English subtiles spoils. Whoever did them did not know Englsh or was a sleep at the wheel. Many portions are without substitles. When they do appear, they are in bits and pieces, making them meaningless, ruining the enjoyment of the film.
Sellers should check out the DVD instead of making customers the quailty controllers.
Great Germanic Opus
The Counterfeiters is one very good film. It's even better when one considers it is based on a true event within Nazi Germany! Jewish counterfeiters and forgers who ran afoul of the law are in a prison camp and are recruited by the Third Reich to counterfeit American and British banknotes. How this is accomplished and why it ultimately fails is carried out in detail in this film.
The film is in German, with fairly large English sub-titles. Among the extras is a queston-and-answer period with the director, who speaks near-perfect English. There are few other extras. Beautifully photographed, it was the best foreign-language Oscar winner for 2007. Very highly recommended!