The Counterfeiters
- Mike Gunn
- Mar 10, 2008
- Series: Film
"Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade All the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!" William Wallace
"Counterfeiters" really wasn't a movie like Braveheart, but it was a movie about courage, and I believe about life and surviving. The movie is set in Germany during Hitler's Third Reich. Karl Markovic was a man trying to exist as a Jew in Hitler's hellhole. He begins the film as a self-centered, womanizing counterfeiter who gets caught for his crime and thrown into one of Germany's infamous concentration camps. And as anyone could imagine the conditions were horrible, but it became the context for his motto, "One adapts or one dies." The movie forces you to experience the result of this slogan, and to live the horrific events with the characters, which makes for a powerfully eerie movie.
Early in Markovic's imprisonment he is transferred to another prison to use his expertise as a counterfeiter. The prison is run by the man who arrested him, and was since promoted to this position. The new prison is like a country club for those that are willing to cooperate with the Nazi regime and make counterfeit pounds and dollars to help with the German war effort. The new commandant (Friedrich Herzog) is a businessman more concerned with promotion and comfort than he is the Nazi war machine, but he needs that machine for his comfort. He also knows he needs Markovic's expertise and treats him well. Markovic agrees to work with Herzog as long as he can get him medicine to help his ailing friend's Tuberculosis. Herzog complies only to kill the ailing friend later because of the chance that it could spread to the entire camp, which would kill off his efforts to further the Nazi efforts, and get him in good with Hitler.
In spite of the fact that death was all around Markovic, he continued to do his work in order to survive, and to help his fellow workers survive. The movie revealed Markovic's slow redemption from a self-centered egotist, to a man that was truly concerned about the people around him. He began to take the blame for mistakes of others knowing that the commandant needed him, and would not kill him, as he would with the others. This slow metamorphosis was often confronted by the morally upstanding Adolph Burger who was imprisoned for protesting the Nazi regime. His wife was also imprisoned and killed, and he refused to be part of the Nazi war effort by sabotaging the work they were doing. This caused great tension between Burger, Markovic and the rest of the inmates, but Markovic consistently protected Burger from both the Germans and his own people in spite of the fact that he vehemently disagreed with Burger as to what was best for their people.
This lent to many interesting questions and scenarios as to what our lives are for, and what constitutes survival. Burger was an advocate of force and change, while Markovic was a representation of the status quo trying to survive in a world of confusion. His world was defeated, and change appeared impossible. The only hope was to survive in the midst of the horror. Burger's is summed up in his conversation with Markovic when he says, "No one is willing to die for principle; that's why the Nazi system works!" Both men had a similar goal. Both men desired to help their fellow men. Both had vastly different methods that clashed and caused tension. This is not unlike many of us trying to survive in a world that doesn't make sense, and feeling hopeless to change it. Do we act out in rage and violence or do we acquiesce and live within it? Or is there another way?
Whatever the solution this movie does a remarkable job of displaying the human condition. Every character in this movie is tainted. Even the moral Burger struggles to strike a balance in this movie.
This movie is about surviving and adaptation, interestingly two elements found in Darwin's theory of evolution, and two elements that can make for a dastardly way of living. This movie depicts surviving as meaningful, only when there is a purposed existence in the end. These men resorted to their base animal nature when purpose and dignity was taken from them, and then resorted back to civility when they were given dignity and a job. As William Wallace reminds us, "Every man dies, not every man really lives." Life is more than existence and human life is more than the will to survive and adapt. Those are much needed aspects when life has meaning.
In the end, the remaining prisoners are released as the allies defeat Germany, and Karl Markovic is last seen recklessly gambling thousands of dollars away (Counterfeit money he had made in the concentration camp) as a symbolic throwing away of the blood money, which represents his guilt for his complicity in the furthering of the Nazi war machine.
The last scene sees Markovic sitting on a beach in Monte Carlo, completely broke and by now, a changed man. He's still a womanizer, but his guilt will haunt him for the decisions he has made, in spite of the fact that many of his decisions saved many people including himself. As the tagline to the movies says, "It takes a clever man to make money. It takes a genius to survive." Survive he did, with a memory that he will take to his grave. What would you do to survive? What would you compromise for comfort?
This movie would not be appropriate for children. There is brief nudity, course language, adult content, and a realistic picture of the horror of the human heart when it is left to it's own.
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