Chasing Madoff

I very much liked this documentary. All the pieces were there. The backstory of the guys involved, relevant clips and commentary, human interest. But we get it...you own guns and were afraid for your life. Wayyyy overdid it, especially considering for the most part nobody was even after you. The number of times you simulate loading a firearm for no reason just weighs down all the content. Sucks me right out of it. There is so much there and yet the constant backtracking to how heavily armed you were just creates a major distraction from what you accomplished.

Could have used a bit more on Madoff's background. Probably could have replaced most of the above issue with that.

I am obsessed with the Madoff story. Great hearing it from the story of the whistleblower.

My only problem with it is that the writer and protagonist of the story, Markopolos, persistently invents a threat to his life for which others saw no basis, and he constantly paints himself as a non-hero while describing his Herculean efforts.

It is definitely the best indictment of the SEC and shows Markopolis' incredible tenacity, and is a great watch. But the writer can't be the hero off the story and call himself a no -hero. Just let someone else write the script.

I admire Markopols greatly and can't imagine how frustrated he must have been. If there really was some threat to his life, it should have been demonstrated in some way. It just takes away from the story of the Madoff and his victims.

I don't understand the low marks for this film. It's a lively, fascinating telling of the Madoff tale, or rather, the two Madoff tales -- one about what he did and how he got caught, the other about how the people he did it to tried to protect him.

It's refreshing to see everyday people working in finance, and even more impressive to see them exercising values like sacrifice, courage, and the rule of law. Maybe the film is 10 minutes too long, but that's a small price to pay for this story.

If you're looking for an action film, rent 'Let the Bullets Fly.' If you're looking for an entertaining overview of the largest financial fraud in history, and its relevance for the rest of us, this is your documentary.

I've watched the De Niro and Dreyfuss movies a couple of times each and like them. As entertainment, Dreyfuss is better, but both are well made films, well directed, well acted. They hit the right notes for movie buffs.

But both of those movies miss the point. The point isn't that Bernie Madoff was a swindler. That's a boring story. Madoff started out selling penny stocks and in the end he was never much more than a penny-stock putz. Sure he may have been chairman of NASDAQ at one point, but if you're under the impression that putzes aren't running the world, well, God bless you.

No the permanently interesting story of the Madoff scandal is the same as the story of the Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos scandal: how they got away with it, how the people who should have known better, didn't, in fact, the folks who should have known better actively enabled the fraudsters. This movie gets that part of the story right: It's a story about the SEC. It should be clear now that the people in Washington and elsewhere who are supposed to be protecting the American people, aren't. They aren't even trying hard. And when they fail, OTHER PEOPLE's lives are destroyed but they keep getting promoted, or they move to even better-paying jobs outside government.

Warning: Watch this film after watching The Big Short and you may be inclined to cash in your retirement funds and put the money into something safe and solid like Bitcoin. (Just kidding.)

I'm not a cynic. This is just how it is, and this movie certainly demonstrates that.

Now about the other aspects of this movie: It should have been a one-hour show. Too much about Markopolos' anxieties about the danger he might be in. I'm willing to say that he was not being unreasonable. But in retrospect, he was NOT killed or assaulted, and that part of the story -- the personal and emotional effect of being a Cassandra -- is real, but can't be appreciated by any of us.

Markopolos is right: He's NOT a hero. He was a Cassandra. And Cassandra wasn't a hero. She was a prophet that no one listened to.

Read the other reviews. There, you will find two schools of thought; those who rate this documentary ***very*** highly and those who rate is ***very*** poorly. What's going on ? This is, I believe, a microcosm of the United States today where simplistic ideology rules Washington. On one hand, you will find those who argue that more regulation is needed and, on the other hand, those who argue that less regulation is the cure because the bureaucrats in Washington are unable to regulate competently. The facts are that if your local firemen are incompetent, the solution is NOT to eliminate fire-fighters, as some right-wingers argue, but to insure that they are competent. The solution is also NOT to increase the number of firemen, as some left-wingers argue. Essentially, this documentary argues not from the viewpoint of Bernie Madoff's evil, but from the viewpoint of the incompetence of Washington bureaucrats. THAT is the truth.