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Chasing Madoff

Play trailer Poster for Chasing Madoff 2011 1h 31m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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48% Tomatometer 40 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Securities analyst Harry Markopolos and his team of investigators spend 10 years trying to blow the lid off Bernie Madoff's devastating Ponzi scheme.

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Chasing Madoff

Chasing Madoff

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Critics Consensus

Chasing Madoff admirably highlights Harry Markopolos' perilous crusade against one of history's biggest frauds, but the documentary's disinterest in Madoff himself makes it feel like only half the story.

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Critics Reviews

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Sara Michelle Fetters MovieFreak.com 01/27/2012
2/4
The heat is always on, the volume consistently turned all the way up, the whole thing a pile of more, more, more when a whole lot of less, less, less would have been far more effective. Go to Full Review
Tom Keogh Seattle Times 09/15/2011
3/4
Prosserman wisely skirts the esoterica of high finance, though he cleverly uses good visual devices to suggest the shocking scope of Madoff's crimes. Go to Full Review
Walter V. Addiego San Francisco Chronicle 09/08/2011
3/4
If you're wondering why so many people are cynical about Wall Street, the government and the system in general, "Chasing Madoff" tells you. Go to Full Review
Kelly Jane Torrance Washington Examiner 01/08/2019
3/5
Chasing Madoff is eye-opening. But it doesn't give us a look at what we'd all really like: Madoff's mind. Go to Full Review
Maria Garcia Cineaste Magazine 08/21/2018
Chasing Madoff takes ninety-one minutes and delivers nothing more than what it hopes to pass off as the story of an unsung, working-class hero. Go to Full Review
Laura Hiros Rincón de cine 03/17/2018
4/5
A moving documentary about the power of a handful of individuals and Adam Smith's fabulous theory about the invisible hand of the market, putting them in their place. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Ricky D @RT89406308 Apr 21 Could have been a great documentary, but it fabricated a false narrative about the daring of a whistleblower instead on the magnitude of the conspiracy. Markopolos is both the writer and hero of the story while constantly draping himself in false self-deprecation. “I’m not a hero,” he says many times, although he mugs for the camera at the congressional hearing and accepts the award for his tenacious pursuit to expose the truth. It got tiring hearing about his fear for his life, a subject for which no evidence was presented. Moreover, we never learned why the WSJ never published his story…or what support there was for a higher level of conspiracy. The documentary showed graphics of the many tentacles implying (or proving?) a conspiracy, but no names or organizations were directly implicated. I give this a one-star for writing and direction, three because of the subject matter. That being said, I’m obsessed with the Madoff scandal and, if you are too, it’s worth stomaching Markopolos self-aggrandizement to learn more about the story. See more 06/29/2017 A bit repetitive in order to reach it's length, but a powerful indictment of our watchdog agencies. See more 04/02/2016 Will not bore you with boring finance talk but also sheds little light in how Madoff pulled it off. Harry Marcopolos' frustration over not being believed is understandable. His fear of car bombs and assassination attempts seems paranoid, the film shows no evidence anyone was even aware he was a man on a mission. See more 10/16/2014 this is quite remarkable, the fact that this guy stole so much and conned so many people who knew banking incredible. See more 08/17/2014 A nervously gripping documentary. Some of the negative comments from other critics duly point out that the film does not entirely focus on Bernie Madoff, this ignores the fact - which should be obvious from the title - that the film is supposed to be focused on the whistleblowers and their story, in particular, chief whistleblower Harry Markopolos, who felt his decade long pursuit of Madoff put his and his family's lives in constant jeopardy. That the SEC could consistently ignore the well substantiated claims made by Markolopolos and colleagues, not to mention the mere handful of prosecutions that came about, absolutely beggars belief. See more 08/16/2014 It's a fascinating story that could have been better told if Markopolos had not narrated the story himself. It's okay that they made him the central character but it would have been a better documentary if more had been told about Madoff and the individual feeder funds, as well as the miserable failures working at the SEC. There really should be more investigations carried out on the SEC and the criminals that surrounded Madoff. I finished the film having a lot of empathy for Markopolos, he's clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (for obvious reasons), he had been through so much. See more Read all reviews
Chasing Madoff

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Movie Info

Synopsis Securities analyst Harry Markopolos and his team of investigators spend 10 years trying to blow the lid off Bernie Madoff's devastating Ponzi scheme.
Director
Jeff Prosserman
Producer
Jeff Prosserman
Screenwriter
Jeff Prosserman
Distributor
Cohen Media Group
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 26, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 21, 2017
Runtime
1h 31m
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