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| The Counterfeiters [2007] | ![The Counterfeiters [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CxYH3q5VL._SL160_.jpg)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 306
Category: DVD
Actors: August Diehl, Dolores Chapli, Devid Strieso, Karl Markovic, Martin Brambach
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Publisher: Metrodome Distribution
Studio: Metrodome Distribution
Manufacturer: Metrodome Distribution
Label: Metrodome Distribution
Format: Pal
Language: German (Unknown)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Media: DVD
Running Time: 95 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.7
EAN: 5055002553639
ASIN: B0012RCM1U
Release Date: March 17, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Not for nothing did Stefan Ruzowitzky's powerful film The Counterfeiters walk away with the Best Foreign Picture Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards. And like the previous year's winner of the prize--the equally superb The Lives Of Others--there are some tough decisions for certain German citizens at the heart of it. The Counterfeiters, though, is set in West Germany in 1936. It tells the true story of history's biggest ever counterfeiting operation, set up by the Nazis. The mission? To forge foreign currency. And the king of counterfeiters proves to be Salomon Soroswitch, also known as Sally, who ultimately has to face the dilemma of what to do when he realises that his work is helping to fuel war. There are so many reasons to commend The Counterfeiters that it's tricky to know where to start. The cast, for instance, is uniformly excellent, and you could rightly wonder why Oscar overlooked both August Diehl and Karl Markovics for nominations. What's more, it's also stunningly, and very intelligently, directed, ratcheting up at times the kind of tension that hundreds of films try and fail to match every year. Married up to a script of three dimensional characters and historical reverence, it's a quite brilliant package, and one that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. The Counterfeiters is a very different film to The Lives Of Others, but both expertly reflect the dilemmas that individuals had to face in different parts of Germany, albeit some four or five decades apart. Both are exceptional pieces of cinema, though, and for the purposes of this particular review, The Counterfeiters deserves its Oscar, deserves its worldwide praise, and deserves to be part of your DVD collection. Don't miss it. --Jon Foster
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Worthy of our attention May 10, 2008
This Holocaust film falls short of the power of Schlinder's List, but it is an interesting story with credible acting and an intelligent script. The concentration guards looked authentic and the main protagonist (excellently played by Karl Markovics) is a reassuringly flawed character, rather than a predictable inscrutable hero.
It is hard to avoid comparing this Germanic film with other recent gems such as Downfall and The Lives of Others, which I felt were better. Nevertheless, it is a worthy attempt at reminding us of the ghastly evil that was Nazi Germany and no doubt deserved its Oscar.
 Unrealistic March 25, 2008
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
The film fictionalises Operation Bernhard. A plan hatched by the Nazis was to destabilise the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England currency. The movie is based on a memoir written by Adolf Burger a Jewish Slovak typographer interned for forging baptismal certificates.
I have found the film is in part badly acted and seems unrealistic - despite the theme it deals with. I must concur with some criticism it has drawn from reviewers in other countries. One should not overlook its shortcomings from an acting and editing point, just because it deals with an aspect of the Holocaust. Particularly irritating was the intrusive music which did not suit the action, and which detracted rather than enhanced the plot.
Pounds March 3, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The New Germany and Austria by extension have been in the process, these past several years, of divesting themselves of National Guilt in regards to the atrocities of World War 2: "Sophie Scholl," "Downfall" and also the superb "Lives of Others" (though set in post WWII East Berlin, it reeks of submission and totalitarianism) speak to the redemptive qualities of confession and penance.
And now we have "The Counterfeiters," the story of Solomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a Russian-born Jew who spends his life forging documents thereby attaining the reputation of a master counterfeiter. Ultimately he is arrested and sent to a Camp at which he is given the assignment of forging the British Pound note for The Third Reich. This is 1945 and the disastrous German War effort is in dire need of cash to carry on its war effort.
"Counterfeiters" is all about survival and to what means we, as human beings will do to comply in order to live: anything pretty much sums it up and anything pretty much is the reality of our collective desire to live despite the cicumstances.
Director Stefan Ruzowitzky is walking a slippery slope here as the counterfeiting was done in the Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen and the technicians involved were almost all Jews, "The Counterfeiters" raises some provocative moral dilemmas.
Also, the Sorowitsch of Markovics is no paragon of honor. Instead he is a squirrelly, only thinking for himself, con man. He's happy to do what the Nazi's ask of him in order to get the perks of his "exalted position" in Sachsenhausen: clean clothes, good food, soft bedding, and weekly hot showers. "The Counterfeiters" begins with a post war sequence of Sorowitsch spending thousands of counterfeit British Pounds in Monte Carlo: gambling, grooming himself, dining, dating...basically enjoying the fruits of his labors and those of his fellow counterfeiters.
Sorowitsch is one who feels that: "Only by surviving can we defeat them."
"The Counterfeiters" is a difficult film to like but ultimately it speaks to something in all of us: the drive, the desperate need to survive despite the circumstances in which we might find ourselves. Sorowitsch is flawed, a nasty piece of work actually but he's intelligent, crafty and grudgingly and ultimately deserving of our respect.
 counterfeiters February 27, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The counterfeiters is a truly mesmerizing movie with an utterly compelling performance from Karl Markovics who plays the main character 'Sally' an artist turned counterfeiter par excellance.
When he is arrested by the Berlin police Sally finds himself in a concentration camp to survive he must adapt to his surroundings and he uses his artistic skills as a means of survival by painting portraits of the prison guards. Soon he is moved onto another camp and finds himself face to face with the man who put him in the concentration camp only now he wants Sally to work on a project to counterfeit the British pound in an attempt to flood the British currency market and ruin the economy.
The washed out colours and grainy film add to the archive feel of the film utterly compelling.
This Is Not Your Average Holocaust Movie. February 3, 2008
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
I sincerely hope and pray that this astonishing movie wins an Oscar at this year's awards ceremony. "The Counterfeiters" is a remarkable achievement by director Stefan Ruzowitzky and all involved. So why, as far as I can gather, does this film seem to have passed some folk by? For, quite frankly,this is not a film that one SHOULD see, it is a film that one NEEDS to see!
So what makes "The Counterfeiters" such a stupendous movie? Well... I'm not about to reel off the SYNOPSIS, as Amazon have delivered the goods there! However, here are some reasons as to why this movie is, I believe, an undisputed masterpiece:-
1. The stark images within "The Counterfeiters" are often captured on hand-held cameras, adding to the realism of the movie, and plunging the viewer head-first in to the horror of the concentration camps. It makes for a very dizzying, gut-wrenching visual experience.
2. The two lead actors, August Diehl and Karl Markovics, perform out of their skins as the two lead characters with opposing ideals. We feel we can empathise with these characters. We share their dilemma. We as viewers are sucked in to the moral whirlpool that they inhabit.
3. "The Counterfeiters" is suffused with a real nail-biting tension and has the vice-like grip of a first-rate thriller. (Also, lest we forget, this movie is based on true incidents. This makes the drama all the more remarkable.)
4. One of the things that really thrills me about "The Counterfeiters" is that it expertly presents a story rarely told - "Operation Bernhard" - The Nazis' insane plot to flood the British and US economies with counterfeit notes.
5. Needless to say, this movie is highly emotionally charged, often to the point of being deeply, deeply painful. I went to see "The Counterfeiters" in my local movie theatre twice. At each viewing, there were many audience members openly weeping. We have shockingly offhand, violent scenes here that are as impactful as the best in the genre ("Come and See", "Schindler's List", "The Pianist"...)
...And, so...in summation, I would declare "The Counterfeiters" as an utterly magnificent film. A masterpiece, no less. As I stated previously, it is not a film that SHOULD be seen, it is a film that NEEDS to be seen.
Basically, in 2007 I saw two particular movies that simply stood head and shoulders above the rest. The first movie was "The Lives Of Others". The second was "The Counterfeiters". Both are cinematic experiences that I will never, ever forget.
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