When space is bent in the gravitational field of a physical object, smaller objects are forced to be drawn into the region of this curvature. This physical pattern must also apply to economic and family life, and if Bernie Madoff was drawn into the “curvature area” of the American investment market, and his family and colleagues into the “gravitational field” of his (Bernie Madoff’s) will, then “to believe that loved ones did not recognize him as a criminal” is not at all difficult.
The question is, where did the missing billions go? Cash assets, in any equivalent, could not evaporate into oblivion, and if the stated value of $50 billion was neatly translated ' into the unseen regions of the globe' and the missing balance - in the "temporary equivalent" of a prison term, then nothing remains but to applaud standing up and shouting "bravo" to the fraudulent talent of Barney Madoff and the wisdom of American justice! Whether such talent could have manifested itself in a thorough trial in the dirty laundry of “private financial advice” – we do not know, but we can safely assume why such a stormy “fraudulent activity” was not noticed by the shale from the financial commissions, and not one of the Washington Cerberians dared to stick his nose behind the facade of a “model investment fund”.
It’s no good breaking the law without choosing a scapegoat in case of failure, and if Barney Medoff was the Wall Street scapegoat and the 2008 mortgage crisis was a failure, the conclusion is self-evident. However, when it seems necessary to be baptized, and we will not list the consequences of the children of investment cuisine. Barney Medoff (Robert De Niro) proved too unscrupulous to lie and pleaded guilty to all 11 counts, even forgetting to mention the "happy investors" who lined their pockets for 20 years, on the basis of the crafty speculation of "the largest pyramid in history." His grandfather is old – he still and probably considered himself in the right to deviate from any laws in the name of family safety and being driven into the framework of the “infallibility of the American economic system”, without any doubt, became the embodiment of “brotherly solidarity”. Wall Street. Of course, Barney Madoff deserved the good memory of his brother in the workshop, being a living testimony to the great love of life.
I really liked the movie. This is not a revelation, not a chronicle and not a biopic, but a benefit of two brilliant actors, Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. I pity the viewers who were deceived in their expectations, the rotten inside of Wall Street, the secrets of pyramid schemes, the laws of big business, the tragedy of too high the price of success – all this should be seen in other pictures.
And here we see two elderly people in a state of grief and collapse. Two young men, their sons, are in a state of grief, confusion, and confusion. Yes, they are largely to blame, but the director and actors are not engaged in moralizing. They show how these people deal with their grief. Not outstanding, but good text and virtuoso performance of actors – in my opinion, this is enough for a good movie. A little do not reach Nathan Darrow and Alessandro Nivola to their film parents, whose play is above all praise and much higher than the usual Hollywood level, so
Not a word about Bernie and the real thing. It is better to pay attention to the tape - it is worth it. I expected a mediocre American biopic like Lincoln'. However, something much more interesting and attractive came out. Barry Levinson has created some remarkable, and certainly noteworthy, portraits. They transcend history itself and are universal archetypal tiles. This means that the viewer will easily see in these people either himself or his loved ones, and therefore let the film close to his heart. You don't need more.
In close-up two detailed portraits. An older wife, mother, and woman. Unfortunately, she can’t see life without her husband. However, for all the emotional intimacy this lady is so far away from him intellectually. Her concern for the family is a reflection of her own selfishness, hiding her true passions, deep worthlessness and inertia.
And her husband turns out to be a nervous and restless person who managed to calm himself and his loved ones. He masterfully hid it even from himself, trying to be constantly confident, reliable and respectable. But so strong was the gap between who this man pretended to be and who he really was. Disruptions were inevitable with loved ones. And they regularly occurred exposing all the weaknesses of this difficult man, his callousness, purity and hypocrisy.
I have to say good things to the actors. They tried to do extraordinary work by taking their roles seriously. Both Michelle and Robert have created something that doesn't fit into their typical set of acting clichés. Sometimes it seemed to me that working on this film, they moved away from the pathos of world stars and did something new. It was not a brilliant breakthrough, but it was so organic that it allowed to brighten up quite sluggish and poorly structured film. For them, participation in the tape was a great achievement in their career.
Well, this topic offered Americans an opportunity to speculate on such a tender topic for them to achieve their personal career dreams. Subservience to wealth and respect for people who have achieved everything themselves & #39; have a downside. Instead of going into nominally dubious speculations about the conspiracy theories about Madoff, Levinson goes into a completely different plane. He notes the high degree of people's frustration at Madoff's exposure. And not so important for them was the criminal activity of this man, as that it was thanks to him that the American belief in success was debunked.
However, if we talk about the film itself, the sagging of the second half of the tape spoils a lot. The film seems to stop and scroll. Since then, as everything is clear and you can offer titles, more than 40 minutes of screen time passes. This is one of the film’s major failures. For all the good personal praise - this is not a masterpiece, but just a successful experiment.
7 out of 10
The most famous film by American director Barry Levinson is the film “Rain Man”. Everyone knows this movie and it’s really cool. Now before our attention is one of the latest works of Levinson television drama based on the true story of one of the largest fraudsters in the world.
We see the story of Bernie Madoff. This man is a businessman who made a lot of money out of nothing. Madoff built the world’s largest pyramid scheme under the guise of an investment fund. He lied every day in his life, lied to hundreds of people and even his closest ones.
Thanks to his fraud, hundreds, hundreds, thousands of people were bankrupt, lost all their property, some even committed suicide. He defeated not only strangers – fools who believed him and gave him their money, but also their children and wife. Their lives were cut short when a 150-year prison scam was revealed.
The film is important for two reasons. First, this story is real, it is not invented and taken from life, and personally I like to watch biopics. They carry something interesting with them, because it was not invented and actually was, and what could be more interesting than the truth? The second reason why this movie attracts attention is the actors.
The difficult role of a famous liar and fraudster went to Robert De Niro. He is a respected actor and everyone knows him. We grew up with his movies, and so when he’s in a new movie, it’s pretty clear there’s going to be something curious. No matter how much I praise this actor now, why his performance in this film was not inspired by me personally. He was nominated for a Golden Globe. Personally, I didn’t see anything special in his game. Maybe it’s the character, because this person is actually very nasty, has no conscience. De Niro tried to reveal it mentally, so that the viewer tried to understand and forgive this person, but still for some reason did not inspire.
Michelle Pfeiffer plays the role of Ruth’s wife. I’ve loved this actress since I was a kid and it’s always nice to see her play. In fact, this film was shot in a very cold, gloomy and damp atmosphere, so the attitude to the film was the same. It is difficult to pay attention to the acting of actors for all this fading of the film. The story itself is incredible and deserves public attention, but the movie itself and the way we were presented and disassembled, not particularly impressed.
The Liar, the Great and the Terrible is an American, television, biographical drama of 2017. This story is about a man who made a lot of money, but his whole life was built on lies, and in the end, how much rope does not count, everything turned out. The picture brings us closer to the truth about this crook, but the film is dry and I personally feel neutral about him. Thank you very much.
On a gloomy winter day in early December 2008, American businessman Bernard L. Madoff gathered his family and announced that his firm, which he had founded and headed for decades, was in fact a pyramid scheme. As resources run out, Bernie is tired and ready to surrender. Shocked by this news, the sons, in order to avoid accusations of complicity, actually denounce their father to the FBI, ahead of his public confession. Thus began the fall of a colossal financial empire, which led thousands of depositors to ruin, and Madoff himself to the dock. A man who was one of the pillars of Wall Street, who was one of the founders of the American stock exchange NASDAQ, turned out to be a fraud, a clever businessman who simply played on the trust of customers - and paid for it with a 150-year prison sentence.
The collapse of the largest pyramid scheme in history and the consequences of this scam for Madoff and his loved ones were thoroughly studied by journalist Diana Enriquez. Her book is based on Barry Levinson's film The Liar, the Great and the Terrible. Curiously, Enriquez herself played herself in the tape, reproducing scenes of her conversations with the imprisoned Madoff. The narrative thus has a nonlinear structure, representing a series of flashbacks interrupted by footage of interviews with the main character. The role of Bernie himself was brilliantly performed by Robert De Niro. His devoted wife Ruth was wonderfully played by Michelle Pfeiffer.
Enriquez’s participation, stickers with footage from real TV shows, titles with dates and places, individual camera and editing techniques (for example, an impressive shot in which Madoff’s profile is formed on a black background from thousands of photos of desperate and angry ruined depositors) sometimes give the picture some shade of documentary. What is important, despite the theme of the tape, the dialogue is not too full of complex financial terms. Periodically in the speech of the characters skip such concepts as “hedging” and “volatility”, but the essence of the film is not in them. Levinson, of course, pays due attention to explaining the principles on which Madoff’s scam was built, but the fate of specific people remains the main thing for him. The Liar is primarily a film about destruction. About how one step can destroy the arranged life of the whole family, turning to dust not only a million dollar fortune, but also built over the years relationships. At some point, Madoff himself even fades into the background, and the focus is on the drama of his wife and sons, who have become unwitting accomplices in the deception. The dramatic and even tragic consequences of the scam for Madoff’s own family form the main leitmotif of the last third of the film. Strikingly, Bernie himself, despite the guilty plea in court, refuses to consider himself a thief, believing that part of the responsibility should lie with his investors. They say, obsessed with the desire for easy profit, people did not delve into the essence of investments, and therefore, they have nothing to complain about now.
The historical accuracy of the events described, honed dialogues and brilliant play of the main roles creates the effect of complete authenticity, so that sometimes you forget that you are watching a feature film, and not a documentary reconstruction on a scientific and educational channel like National Geographic. Robert De Niro produces the best acting work in recent years, and his scenes with Michelle Pfeiffer make you recall the worn cliché about the “chemistry” between the actors and their characters (which is not surprising, given that this is their fourth film together). Unsurprisingly, The Liar received high marks from the American Television Academy, which nominated the film for an Emmy Award in four categories at once, including three acting categories. A little upset, perhaps, only the fact that the period described in the tape does not cover earlier episodes from the biography of Madoff and almost nothing about his youth and the formation of the business empire - and this with an impressive, more than two-hour timekeeping of the picture. However, the image of the main character already turned out to be very deep and detailed. And although Bernie can hardly be loved (even if you leave aside his financial shenanigans, in communicating with loved ones he was often an unpleasant type with a complex character), and he is hardly able to evoke sympathy, for some reason it is difficult to object when he describes himself only as a person who just always wanted to please people.
8 out of 10
The most obscure figure in the film about Madoff was Madoff himself. And it is all the more strange that the great Robert De Niro played this character. But perhaps that’s what Barry Levinson was trying to do: show that the man who created the world’s largest pyramid was a bubble. For everyone, including his wife and children.
This story, of course, deserved to be screened – at least as a red buoy for everyone who does not understand anything about securities and the game on the stock exchange, but very much wants to get involved in these money games in the hope of hitting a bigger jackpot. Don't break it! Because there’s no one on the stock exchanges who wants to enrich you – there are only those who aspire to the top of the world with its palaces, yachts, diamonds and lobsters for lunch. And these people climb to the top exclusively on the heads of all sorts of simpletons, who do not realize that if money arrives somewhere, then they must necessarily leak from somewhere.
Levinson very succinctly showed the apotheosis of the collapse of Madoff with flashbacks in the luxurious past, when for food he and his family routinely (as we are about chicken for soup) discussed the purchase of another house for several million dollars, and then, already in prison, listened to his wife’s complaints that she describes even worn combinations, and conducted dialogues with a psychologist who clearly tried to tap through his selfishness and lack of emotion. Unsuccessful, because in the film it seems that this goat never loved even his wife, although he says the opposite.
Surprisingly, in this movie almost nobody is sorry. Not Madoff and his family, not the people who lost all their savings. Except that the names of those who went bankrupt because of him and then committed suicide were scribbled in the heart. The point of no return always scares me. And the survivors are not sorry precisely because they chose not to think about where the profits they were counting on would come from. Madoff says in the film, “I warned them, ‘Don’t give me more than half my savings.’” But greed, they say, fertilizer for scammers. But in general, this guy from the subspecies of "spit in the eyes - all the dew of God." Apologizes to victims with empty fish eyes. In the same way, he hears indifferently about the death of one son, then another. The guys, of course, were guilty: of living in luxury, not bothering to find out where it came from, and then did not want to bear responsibility for it and did not unleash a wave of aggression in their address. Who would? But who said that carelessness and pampering should be punished so severely? That society had the right to eat them both? No, they're sorry. But how Probably like a dragonfly jumper who had fun and then cried and froze painfully. It seems to be business, and you want to warm up - it is also alive.
The film is viscous, not at all entertaining, but instructive. Plus there is Michelle Pfeiffer, noticeably aged (alas), but still incredible.
Do not lay up for yourself treasures in the land where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break up and steal, but store for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break up or steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.
? Matthew 6:19-21)
Money cannot lead a person to a bright future. The very history of their origin should suggest the idea of a lie. Paper cannot serve as a standard of goods and other material goods. And any money supply should not be subject to external speculation. Real money cannot become a fantasy overnight. They can't go up because it's not a commodity. But everything turned upside down in our world. Money has become more expensive than not only things, but also people.
People began to twist, lie to each other to get cherished papers. And the more they lie, the more paper they get. But the treasured wealth is not enough for everyone.
Bernie Madoff’s MMM-style pyramid represents our world. Not the one that was in the 90s and zeroes, but the one that was, is and will be. Before us is an interesting story in detail showing how money can lead to the complete collapse of life, take away loved ones, children, grandchildren, wife - all that is truly valuable in life.
I watched the movie and when I was sentenced to 150, you know what I was thinking? If a person does not serve time, and he cannot do this at all, he will remain guilty of his crimes. Without sincere repentance, another trial awaits him, the highest, final, without the right of appeal.
Biographical dramas are not always interesting. They are incomprehensible and even boring. But after watching this movie, I can’t say that.
Stories about fraudsters, financial scammers are not new and have always been a favorable ground for exciting films, where the viewer colorfully and in all details reveal the biography, character, motives and actions of the main character. Especially interesting when it comes to a real person who has realized his talents in the field of crime. Suffice it to recall such films as “Catch Me If You Can” by Steven Spielberg or “The Wolf of Wall Street” by Martin Scorsese. Did I expect something like this from Barry Levinson’s Liar, the Great and the Terrible? Maybe. But after about 30 minutes of the movie, I knew it wasn’t going to be that way. It's gonna be a different movie. Not worse, just different.
Bernard Madoff is a bigwig from Wall Street, the head of the NASDAQ stock exchange, one of the pillars of the financial oligarchy turns out to be a fraud and a thief on an especially large scale. How did that happen? How and when did he go down this criminal path? What moved him? These questions are immediately asked by the viewer and waiting for a detailed biopic “about the genius scammer of all time”, and not receiving it – disappointed. Should I have? After all, Levinson’s message was very different. And who cares how and when the fraudster became a scammer? They all start in the same way as they end. Their motives are often obvious: banal greed.
This is the story of Bernie Madoff’s free fall. There was a crisis in 2008 that caused the collapse of his so debugged pyramid scheme and at some point he decided he was tired and sent it all to hell. Figuratively speaking, I decided to throw a “swallow” from a cliff into the abyss. But he forgot that he was bound by a chain that would inevitably pull his family after him: his wife, sons, brother, all his relatives. The director shows us with almost documentary accuracy the process of this “free fall”, from which many viewers have the impression that they are watching a documentary. And it was right. It is right that there was a feeling of the gravity of the narrative, because this fall seems to be filmed in slow motion. It creates a sense of stupid despair, paralyzing consciousness. Madoff is already flying into the abyss, flying without doubt or regret, and at this moment an inexorable chain drags all members of his family to the same abyss one by one. And their fate is unenviable. Trampled reputation, ruined life, including physically.
What about Madoff? Does he repent? In words, yes. Does he accept responsibility for his crimes before the law? Technically, yes. But in doing so, I saw another person. Yes, he is a cynical businessman who loves money for money. But that's not the point. For this, he is ready to rob anyone, be it a billionaire or a disabled person with modest savings. He doesn't care. He will not suffer from remorse. He didn’t think he was doing anything wrong or immoral. Illegal, yes. But nothing more. He'll come up with an excuse for himself, as he did in prison. And he will do it with calm judgment, without experiencing any emotions and, of course, without considering himself a villain. Only mild fatigue with a shade of indifference will read on his face. How offended by his comparison with the maniac Ted Bundy! He was a murderer, he cut off the heads, took the lives of innocent people! How can you compare me here?, Madoff said. But the comparison is not accidental and quite direct. A maniac is distinguished from a normal person by a lack of understanding of the value of someone else’s life. So what makes Madoff better than Bundy? In his perverted mind, there is no such understanding a priori. His entire consciousness is subordinated to his inner self. He seriously believed that by lying to his family for years, he was protecting it, even though he was protecting himself. That by taking all the blame before the law, he'll get the family out of trouble, and then it'll go away. He sincerely believed that he gave his children everything and they are not in the right, “ungrateful”, from him to demand something more. It does not occur to him that he destroyed their lives completely and irrevocably, and he did so long before he went to jail, making them unconscious hostages of his giant scam.
That's how I personally took this Barry Levinson tape. He gave Bernard Madoff a very clear assessment, without going into the lengthy narrative of the whole life of this man. His approach was clear to me.
I love Robert de Niro. He's a brilliant actor. In recent years, he rarely pleases interesting roles, guided rather by fees, but here he pleased. At some point, I didn’t see him anymore, but I saw Bernie Madoff, especially since there is some resemblance. Not to mention the magnificent Michelle Pfeiffer, she was also on top. Together they made a great duet in this difficult picture.
8 out of 10
"Liar, Great and Terrible" boasts a stellar cast and a sensible approach to the story of one of the greatest fraud cases ever. However, neither the director Barry Levinson, nor the three declared screenwriters, nor the financial journalist Diana Enriquez, from whose book the film was made, did not take into account the main thing: even if Bernard “Bernie” Madoff came up with a brilliant scheme of lies and deception, he does not look really interesting person. At least in the movie.
The Wizard of Lies takes place after Bernie Madoff was arrested in 2008. When his sons Mark and Andrew, who work for the Madoff Corporation, discovered that Dad had written an unreasonable number of bonus checks in December, he admitted everything. The world of the sons collapsed: everything they thought about their father, about the family business, turned out to be a pretense. Realizing that when the information about the fraud becomes public, they will be accomplices in the case, the sons decide to turn their father in. So, from the first scenes, “Liar, Great and Terrible” looks like a promising story of a broken family.
The problem is that “Liar” then takes place almost like in a documentary. It is very difficult to perceive this - psychology is sucked out of the finger or it simply does not exist, we are not talking about drama. The plot is too linear, because in such a technique (blindly following the facts) there is no fantasy and scenario twists. Two-hour timekeeping also spoils the impression. I think a lot of the scenes got too much attention, and some, on the contrary, not enough (a strong scene in which Bernie brings her granddaughter to tears).
It was nice to see Robert De Niro’s real acting after a string of comedies. Watching how well De Niro portrays a constant justifying person is fascinating. Robert De Niro and the writers were not afraid to show Madoff a greedy wolf who kept his children in the dark and ruined their potential careers. In the film there is even a fleeting comparison of Madoff with a serial killer and it seems to be true: the fraudster really did not notice the value of human life. In addition, the businessman did not worry about the impact he had on the people around him and it is truly sad that only his own family could put an end to this. All this can be seen in the manic-depressive image created by Robert De Niro.
But what can you say about the liar in the end? This is a typical television drama, a vague script that can be a little tiresome. Little is known about Madoff's work in the office or about life outside Wall Street. In fact, apart from the piercing screaming sketches of arrogance and greed, nothing is shown. Why Levinson didn’t use his imagination to make a film that bears more resemblance to the financial report than to his earlier work (“The Fraud”) remains a mystery.
In 2008, brothers Andrew and Mark Madoff, businessmen from Wall Street, turned over their father, a large fraudster Bernard Madoff. They did it solely for their own safety after their father told them that all his activities were lies and cheating. On this and what happened next, Barry Levinson's drama "Liar, Great and Terrible."
Since the finale is predetermined at the very beginning, the director focuses solely on the agony of the Madoff family and stretches the chronicle for more than two hours. It would seem that during this time you can explore the inner world of Bernard Madoff to the bottom, make an excursion into his past, try to delve into the psychology of the adventurer, catch the moment of the birth of the idea of deceiving millions of people, feel the excitement of scrolling financial scams and with sweet trembling breathe the smell of the first dirty money. But the director draws a typical rich man from a second-rate film who humiliates relatives, snatches waiters, pats women and smokes cigars. One single time - under the influence of a killer dose of sleeping pills - the door to Madoff's soul is opened and immediately slams shut.
Despite the monotony of the film, it is impossible not to note the brilliant play of Michelle Pfeiffer.
"Liar, Great and Terrible" gives the impression of an impartial pseudo-documentary.
My favorite Barry Levinson made, in my opinion, a passing film. To allow me to make such a loud statement allows me the following:
1) The lead role of Robert De Niro. Hmm. De Niro is definitely a genius actor. But recently his work rarely pleases the viewer. After all, he starred, as he admitted in his interview, in those films where the fee is higher. And here it would seem: he got a really starring role with a decent fee! In this film, you can show the ambiguous character of your hero (swindler Bernie Madoff), and the difficult situation in which his prototype got into, and earn an extra million for the coffee chain owned by De Niro’s wife. But that wasn't it! The attempt to show the viewer a burned-out cynic from Wall Street, who will stop at nothing to close the financial hole in his pyramid, failed. De Niro looks "the same type." He just took all the emotion out of the role, thinking that’s what cynicism looks like. That's why De Niro's character looks like a man who isn't interested. But the actor and the dialogue in the film suggest otherwise: his character (Bernie Madoff) is just tired. Tired of lying, tired of hiding your scams. The hero could continue to create the appearance of well-being, but simply did not want to do it!
Playing a tired person is one thing, and playing a hero who is not interested is quite another! Hence, there is a bewilderment when you look at the acting of De Niro: where the script needs to show a man who is mortally tired, De Niro simply cuts out the “emotional” tumbler to a minimum and sits with an indifferent face. It's sad, you know? After all, the whole plot is tied to the character and motivation of the main character, which De Niro never revealed!
2) Script and timing. To begin with, from the point of view of the facts presented in the film, a lot is confirmed in open sources. The dates of the events and the fate of some heroes coincide. Everything else... The film is very smooth and... boring! It feels like watching a documentary. Everyday. Therefore, those plot twists that should be key in the film, or played unemotional, or the viewer to them do not lead. It seems that instead of the film you slipped a slice of documentary fragments, united by one plot. From this, intrigue disappears and by the second hour, any episode seems to be the final one. Watching the movie for more than 2 hours is really hard!
If you're too lazy to read the story of Bernie Madoff, watch the movie. If you want something more, see De Niro’s work of the late twentieth century!
Evaluation, alas,