If the great master, Charles Dickens, were alive I do not think even he could ascribe an appellation to a person that would fittingly characterize the very essence of the anti-hero as does the name Madoff. Yes, Bernie Madoff, the man who single handedly pulled off the greatest Ponzi schemes in human history and fraudulently MADE OFF with so many innocents' money which he laundered to the tune of 65 Billion, yes, with a "B" bucks.
Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner pulled off, I think, one of the greatest acting efforts of their careers. Their portrayals of a man and his wife were picture perfect. I urge you if you have not seen "Madoff" look it up on the ABC web site or search your cable network to see if it will be broadcast again. Understatedly, it is a docudrama fit for our time.
I kept wishing there were a film group dedicated to the analysis of this portrayal of Madoff because there are so many topics of human nature including greed, narcissism and the intrinsic sickness of anarchistic capitalism gone wild that are worthy of discussion. Moreover, there are other films such as Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Match Point," The Coen Brothers "A Serious Man" "Wall Street" and yes, even Holocaust films that speak to the moral lengths and extremes a person can and will go to serve his own ends or conversely to protect others even at his own expense.
The story of "Madoff" is so complex that it speaks to not only his life but to all of our lives albeit to our nation's life as well. It should give us pause to ask is this the nation we truly want to be. Or is there another way where as Martin Luther King said "... justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner pulled off, I think, one of the greatest acting efforts of their careers. Their portrayals of a man and his wife were picture perfect. I urge you if you have not seen "Madoff" look it up on the ABC web site or search your cable network to see if it will be broadcast again. Understatedly, it is a docudrama fit for our time.
I kept wishing there were a film group dedicated to the analysis of this portrayal of Madoff because there are so many topics of human nature including greed, narcissism and the intrinsic sickness of anarchistic capitalism gone wild that are worthy of discussion. Moreover, there are other films such as Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Match Point," The Coen Brothers "A Serious Man" "Wall Street" and yes, even Holocaust films that speak to the moral lengths and extremes a person can and will go to serve his own ends or conversely to protect others even at his own expense.
The story of "Madoff" is so complex that it speaks to not only his life but to all of our lives albeit to our nation's life as well. It should give us pause to ask is this the nation we truly want to be. Or is there another way where as Martin Luther King said "... justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."