Review of The Counterfeiters (2007) by Stefano L — 10 Sep 2010
This is a story about a Jewish German Counterfeiters and a German officer who before the war was in charge of apprehending counterfeiters. Making characters in a holocaust story addressable is near impossible.
The only two that come before this is Benigni?s Life is Beautiful and Schindler?s list. Salomon the counterfeiter, Jewish by heritage alone is a wiseguy in the German underground. He knows the police are on to him and spend one night to many in the arms of a beautiful woman.
He arrested as a counterfeiter but thrown in a concentration camp because of his heritage. He survives the camp using his artistic skills to paint heroic pictures of German officers in turn for food and favorable treatment.
He is found out by Adolf Berger who was the Head of the German anti-counterfeiting police and is now a officer in the German military. He like Schindler is basically a war profiteer, except in this case there is no question he?s a bad guy who has no ulterior motive than to line his own pockets.
He is tasked by the Reichstag with counterfeiting the Pounds and Dollar to flood the economies of the allies. The only thing keeping this from being 5 stars are a lot of the supporting characters in the concentration camp are cliché?s.
Not like Werner Klemperer is going to pop his head out and yell ?Hogan? but not that far away. In the same camp other prisoners are undergoing horrible experimentation and the guards play music loudly to cover their screams.
Prisoners are summarily executed for getting sick?. To say this movie is gritty is an understatement. It should be listed under Wikipedia as the definition.
This review of The Counterfeiters (2007) was written by Stefano L on 10 Sep 2010.
The Counterfeiters has generally received very positive reviews.
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