Madoff - Der 50-Milliarden Dollar Betrug

An interesting story based on Bernie Madoff the so called wizard of Wall Street, well played by the entire cast, and informative of what people are willing to do acquiring your money, Madoff may have started out simply trying to impress his friends and family as they stated he had it all before the Ponzi affair, so either he did it and it spun out of control or he became wrapped up in the illusion of his vain wizardry, maybe both, in either case its sad people become so wrapped up and taken so easily by money, never satisfied with what they got, and need something to fill their void of unhappiness, don't pity the poor man, pity the fool, and delusional wizards, the domino effect of the fallout was a atrocity to all the victims, hopefully a lesson to save others in the Madoff's of the future.

Bernie Madoff (Richard Dreyfuss) was a trusted member of Wall Street and the chairman of Nasdaq. It shocked almost everyone when he's revealed to have run a giant Ponzi scheme. His wife Ruth (Blythe Danner) is clueless to the scheme and even his extra-marital affairs. He even cheats money out of his secretary Eleanor Squillari (Erin Cummings). His brother Peter (Peter Scolari) is troubled about his role as Chief Compliance Officer. His older son Mark is angry that he's not allowed to be involved in the company investments. His younger son Andrew also works for him and gets sick. Harry Markopolos (Frank Whaley) warned the SEC over and over again about the possible fraud at Madoff to no avail.

This two part network TV mini-series 2 x 2 hours is a bit too extended. As a drama, this would work much better compressed in half. The most important moment for me is back in the '29 when a young Madoff covered his client's losses. It explained how he started and the essence of what he's about. He's a confidence man. I don't need any more reveals about Madoff. That scene is eureka to Madoff and a perfect explanation of his character. The Harry Markopolos part provides some fun tension but that also gets played out. The rest about Bernie is a bit repetitive. I do not bemoan the secretary wanting a scene showing her being taken by Madoff. However, these self-serving scenes do pile up. The middle is a bit extended. Through it all, there is Dreyfuss doing great work.

"Madoff" is the story of sociopath Bernie Madoff, a story we all know too well. It's worth watching for the performances.

It stars Richard Dreyfuss as Madoff. He's terrific, and I imagine very much like the real man. The two-parter follows the story of the Ponzi scheme, the effect on Bernie's family, and Madoff's inner dialogue, done as a narration.

Other actors in this excellent cast include Blythe Danner, Tom Lipinski, Peter Scolari, Danny Deferrari, Frank Whaley, and Erin Cummings.

Though the first part is all over the place, with dizzying camera work and disjunctive scenes; the second part is much better.

The film does a great job of showing what happens when people -- like, for instance, the SEC -- turn a blind eye to something because they believe someone to be respectable. It took securities investigator Harry Markopolos 10 minutes to figure out that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, and six hours to figure out how he was doing it. But no one listened - and that's the title of his book.

It also demonstrates how Madoff saw himself as a victim, the "fall guy," finding it outrageous that he was being blamed.

Standout in the cast, besides Dreyfuss, is Peter Scolari as Peter Madoff - a brilliant, emotional performance; Tom Lipinski and Danny Deferrari as his sons, who found out the trading division they ran was just a front and turned him in; Blythe Danner as Ruth Madoff, who stood by him and tried to get her sons to sign a bond for his bail (they refused); and Michael Rispoli, who worked side by side with Bernie.

I saw "Enron: The Smartest Guy in the Room" and also a documentary about Madoff, and saw the SEC meeting where a Judge slammed the SEC, asking them "what the hell" they thought they were doing, ignoring countless letters of complaint about Madoff, and the fact that somehow they didn't know he wasn't a registered agent. Not that he needed to be one - the only investments he ever made were in his own bank account, to the tune of $50 billion.

For Bernie's investors, half of them as of this date have been completely repaid, with more money being returned all the time. Irving Picard has been diligent in going after Bernie's money - but mind you, he formed foundations and gave millions to charities, and those charities wound up having to return the money.

It's an awful story, but it's hard to have pity for Madoff. It's hard to feel sorry for his investors, because it was greed that brought them to him in the first place, the carrot of big money.

The ones to pity are the members of Madoff's family: his two sons, now both deceased, his son Andrew telling a newspaper that his father's disgrace "killed my brother (suicide) and it's killing me slowly (lmantle cell lymphoma)." The family has a genetic predisposition to cancer; leukemia killed his nephew Roger.

In one of the saddest moments of the film, Madoff presents his brother Peter (Scolari), Roger's father, with a new car shortly after Roger's death. Peter of course works in Madoff's firm and knows Bernie's methods aren't above board, but he doesn't know details. Peter gets into the car and sobs, "Roger, he's been paying me off for years, hasn't he?"

"Nobody wants the magic trick explained," Madoff tells his wife. And he was right. Nobody wants the magic trick explained as long as the checks are good and the money keeps rolling in.

I was so pleased to hear that the A List actor Richard Dreyfuss (American Graffiti, Jaws, and The Goodbye Girl) signed on to play the U.S.A.'s biggest investment fraudster, the Ponzi scheme master, Bernie Madoff. From the beginning of the biographical film, Richard Dreyfuss narrates the Bernie Madoff biography and he walks us through his "modus operandi" how he conned so many smart and wealthy investors starting in 1960 when his accountant father-in-law introduces a young Bernie Madoff to his own circle of clients, as well as many elderly people who entrusted Bernie Madoff with their life savings.

Bernie's method of convincing investors to continue investing with him was to tell his clients that he was prepared to immediately cut them a cheque for their entire investment plus interest but then they would not be allowed to invest with him again. Madoff had his brother, wife and sons working in his firm and as the story progresses we really are left to wonder whether or not they knew anything about the Ponzi scheme, or did they just believe in Bernie Madoff the investment guru, who was their husband, father or brother.

Also agreeing to play in this non-sanctioned autobiography film "Madoff" are Blythe Danner as Bernie's wife, Peter Scolari as Bernie's brother Peter, Michael Rispoli as the behind the scenes book fixer, Charles Grodin as Carl Shapiro, Frank Whaley as a competitive broker named Harry Markopolos who figures out Bernie's secret method which is simply a fraud. Richard Dreyfuss's real life son Ben Dreyfuss plays the younger Bernie Madoff which makes it easier to believe the evolution of Bernie Madoff over the decades.

Slowly the film peels away each layer of skin one by one, on this onion and we get to see the real Bernie Madoff as the scammer that he really is and then how the S.E.C. (Securities and Exchange Commissions) closes in on him to eventually stop the bleeding and the U.S.A.'s biggest Ponzi scheme. Since the film was originally released as a two part story and it was deluged with commercial breaks I look forward to purchasing the DVD version and watching the film the way it should be seen, without any commercial breaks.

It is an excellent film with great insight into how easily thousands of investors were scammed for decades as long as the return on investments continued to be high and as Bernie would say "we need to continue to grow and find new investors". I give the film two thumbs up. Definitely worth investing your movie viewing time in, but not your money with Bernie Madoff who will remain in prison for his 150 year sentence.

This is by far the best production, documentaries included, of the Madoff story. The script was excellent. The information and plot are easy to follow without being weighed down by boring financial specifics. The major players are represented well and the acting is superb. Dreyfuss, Danner, and Rispoli make De Niro, Pfeiffer, and Azaria look like amateurs! I enjoyed the miniseries so much that I wish there were more episodes!