barbara_kelly The movie, as does the media, focuses only on Madoff and his investors and not all the businesses that got ruined because of investments. For example my husband and his co-workers worked at a Oppenheimer funds which had a Hedge Fund heavily invested in Madoff. He did nothing wrong, the company closed and most employees including my husband haven't been able to get a job for over 7 years!!!!!! But the SEC who were distracted by Madoff's history as an icon in the industry didn't do the most basic due diligence. The never checked his trading record, which was ZERO!!! The SEC employees still have jobs from this investigation and many got promotions, what the hell!!!!!!!!!!! The SEC was incompetent, and if they did their job correctly in the early phase of his scam, the depth of consequences wouldn't have been so disastrous. Also last time I checked when you are an auditor and you screw up like the SEC, you get FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!

edwagreen More screen time needed to be given to the victims in this tale of embezzlement via the Ponzi scheme method.Richard Dreyfuss give wonderful performances as Bernie and Ruthie Madoff. While they're living the life of glamor, there is something about them that even when the good times prevailed, they were down to earth. Danner often comes across of the Jewish wife seeking status with that drink in her hand.Madoff could have probably continued to get away with defrauding so many investors had it not been for the economic downturn of 2008.The first part of the show would have required a degree in advanced economics from the viewers. Quantitative analysis is not exactly the most exciting thing to show on screen.Other than those dedicated investors who lost their shirts from Bernie, the family suffered a great deal as well as shown.

MovieHoliks Wow; this is the closest thing I've seen to an ABC "movie of the week" in ages! I watched the first half of this two-part mini-series last night. The second half- "The Fall"- airs tonight. Oscar-winning screen legend, Richard Dreyfuss, plays the financial guru/con artist in this semi-biopic; but mostly covers the events leading up to, and tonight, following, his downfall. I saw a review online that said this movie almost makes you root for Bernie, and it does to an extent. It's actually quite humorous; although at times I get the feeling I'm laughing at parts that weren't meant to be funny-?? LOL Peter Scolari and Blythe Danner co-star.

Ed-Shullivan 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.