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The Counterfeiters

(2008, Rated R, Drama, Starring Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 15, age appropriate for kids over 16; suggested age 16.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0

  • Common Sense says

    Bleak, mature film about WWII concentration camp.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 16 and Up

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    The hero is a criminal (a counterfeiter), who seems relatively moral compared to the Nazis, who are generally terrible: cheats, bullies, snobs, torturers, and killers.

  • Violence:

    Most of the film is set in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where violence is always threatened. Specific instances include beating, slapping, kicking, slamming heads against walls, whipping, throttling, shooting (bloody spatter, exploding head). Several scenes show a young prisoner suffering from tuberculosis (pale, deathly, coughing). A Nazi guard maliciously pees on a prisoner, who in turn smashes a sink in frustration. Almost all prisoners show effects of abuses, including bruises and bloody cuts.

  • Sex:

    Kissing leads to a passionate embrace on bed (nipples visible beneath woman's sheer bra); post-sex, she wears a slip and takes money he's left on the dresser (though she insists, "I'm not a..."). In another scene, kissing leads to sex (off-screen); post-sex scene shows woman naked on bed, her bottom and back visible; later, she drops a sheet to seduce her partner again, and you see her naked from the back, with breasts in outline, as well as a drawing of her naked. Some cleavage shots.

  • Language:

    Several uses of "f--k," plus other profanity, like "s--t," "hell," "arsehole," and "bastard" (all in subtitles). Repeated use of "Jew" as a derogatory term.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Frequent cigarette smoking, especially by the hero. Drinking in a gambling lounge and in a flashback bar scene. When a prisoner makes a secret deal with a guard to get TB medication, bottles are visible.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About The Counterfeiters

Parents need to know that this subtitled drama, which is based on a true story, deals with mature themes and includes difficult images of cruelty and murder in a World War II concentration camp. Violence includes beating, fighting, and shooting, with visible blood, bruises, and other signs of brutality. Prisoners are starved, and guards are nasty. Two brief scenes show naked or almost naked women (from the backs). Language includes "f--k," "s--t," and derogatory uses of "Jew."

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the impossible choices faced by prisoners in concentration camps -- particularly as portrayed in the movies. What kinds of compromises are they forced to make to stay alive? How does this affect them? How does the strong material in the film make you feel? Do you believe the atrocities depicted here can happen again? Why or why not? Families can also discuss how the movie compares different kinds of criminality. How do Solly's crimes compare to the Nazis'? What makes some crimes worse than others?
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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Adult Reviewer
    huanlee1978
    I rate this title on for age 3 and give it 1.0

    i cried

    good movie

    This review...

    Helped me decide | Had useful details | Read my mind
    Flag as inappropriate

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