WWII drama doesn't hold up to American movies.
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The Nazis easily and consistently take home the gold in history's Olympics of Evil. Others-notably American slave traders, Pol Pot and the Backstreet Boys-have made noble efforts, but their wickedness simply hasn't stood the test of time. And there are fresh Nazi horrors to uncover with each new investigation. Last year's documentary,
The Rape of Europa
, shows how the Nazis carried out history's grandest art plundering. And now, the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Austria's
The Counterfeiters
, a darkly depressing and yet strangely entertaining tale, takes as its narrative center the largest counterfeiting operation of all time: the Nazi's "Operation Bernhard," in which millions of British pounds were forged in a plan to finance the Nazi war effort and, simultaneously, destabilize the British economy through inflation.
The film is quite good, though it must be said that in stark contrast to last year's Academy Awards-when Foreign Language winner
The Lives of Others
was vastly superior to every American film vying for Best Picture-
The Counterfeiters
is not as good as the films that competed for Best Picture this year. This fact is as much a testament to the strength of American cinema in 2007 as it is to the somewhat biased tastes of Academy members, who tend to lavish praise on anything set during World War II.
The Counterfeiters
' thematic territory is fascinating, and it's told with strong narrative drive. But as a cinematic project it's neither particularly original nor astounding.
The Counterfeiters
' protagonist is Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a Russian-born Jew whose life of gambling, women and painting-all financed by ***image2***his expert counterfeiting operation-is interrupted when he is arrested by a Nazi agent named Herzog (Devid Striesow) and sent to prison. He survives by painting portraits for his Nazi prison guards but, as the war breaks out, Sorowitsch is transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, under Herzog's command, Sorowitsch manages the massive counterfeiting operation. Cries of anguish float in from beyond the fence where the counterfeiters are enclosed (and where they are given soft beds and even a ping-pong table). Their guilt is palpable.
Markovics conveys the internal conflict that tears at him with subtlety and skill. And there are a lot of conflicts to tear at him. Sorowitsch is in a position where his success could save his own skin and the lives of the people he's working with-but win the war for the Nazis.
Due to the storytelling strengths of writer-director Stefan Ruzowitzky, these conflicted allegiances and complicated moral conundrums are carried to the audience. So deeply ingrained is the instinct to identify with a protagonist's success that one is excited, momentarily, when Sorowitsch's fake pounds pass off. The conflicts aren't just seen, they are experienced.
Sorowitsch's moral awakening comes in the form of idealist Adolf Burger-who survives, to this day, in real life-and who wrote the book upon which Sorowitsch's script is based. As the film progresses, and the focus of "Operation Bernhard" turns to cracking the American dollar, Burger's heroic defiance pushes Sorowitsch into a dangerous position. But it inspires him too.
It will do the same for audiences-along with inspiring some good "what would I have done" introspection and "what would you have done" conversations. One might feel a bit funny about a film based on a memoirist who remembers himself as the solitary uncompromised idealist. One might also feel uncomfortable with how nakedly entertaining
The Counterfeiters
is. But
The Counterfeiters
engages and it's a very well-told story that brings to light yet another example on that long list of Nazi atrocities.
