The Pawnbroker
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Movie Reviews of The Pawnbroker
Movie Review: "I do not believe in God, or art, or science, or newspapers, or politics, or philosophy."
Summary: 5 Stars
In Sidney Lumet's THE PAWNBROKER (1964), Rod Steiger gives one of the greatest acting performances in cinematic history.
At the story's outset, we see Sol Nazerman and family on an idyllic picnic. A lovely scene turns suddenly nightmarish when Nazis arrive to arrest them. This dream image crowds Sol's brain as the 25th anniversary of the terrible event approaches. With increasing frequency and unpredictability, Nazerman flashes back to witnessed or endured concentration camp horrors-- while they last these memories emotionally disable him.
When not tortured by thoughts of Auschwitz, misanthropic Harlem pawnbroker Nazerman endures poverty-stricken, drunk or drugged-out customers, a street gang that boosts stolen items, and his pushy Hispanic assistant, Jesus Ortiz (Jaime Sánchez), who calls Sol 'Teacher,' a term the former professor hates. Lastly, there's 'Rodriguez' (Brock Peters), a local crime boss using Sol's shop to launder cash obtained through his cathouse.
Sol's home life offers him little comfort. Second wife/ex-sister-in-law Tessie (Marketa Kimbrell) badgers him for enough money to take the family on an extended Continental tour. She fondly recalls Europe as having a "certain atmosphere," but Sol's bitter response is he remembers that "it stinks of death."
Tessie's elderly bed-ridden father, Baruch (played by director Lumet's dad) hates that Sol sleeps with his dead wife's sister, and his two teenaged kids are noisy, quarrelsome pains. Nazerman thus has no peace at home, or at work, or in the recesses of his own mind. A brief attempt to connect with social worker Marilyn Birchfield (Geraldine Fitzgerald) also fails.
Mobster Rodriguez threatens painful death if Sol doesn't sign some illicit papers. Meanwhile, Ortiz orchestrates a closing-time robbery with the gang of thugs. When the heist ends in tragic violence, an unimaginable act of self-inflicted pain is probably Sol's last tenous hold on sanity and life itself.
Steiger (as Sol) silently screaming in agony at this final straw that 'broke' him is something you will never forget. Zombie-like, he wanders from his still-open shop and shuffles past a crowd of onlookers, but where will the defeated Nazerman go, what will he do, and what does it matter to an unfortunate victim of the worst pain that life can inflict?
Steiger got a Best Actor nod here, but lost. Two years later he did win forIN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, but this award may actually have been recognition for "Pawnbroker," his very finest work.
Movie Review: Stark 60's urban drama
Summary: 5 Stars
Might be Rod Steiger's most morose and bleakiest role. As an Auschwitz survivor whose family were raped and tortured there, he feels a veritable menagerie of despair because of the guilt he feels for his inability to extricate them from the camp and for the guilt he feels because he somehow managed to make it out. His job as the titled pawnbroker does nothing but fuel more fire to his dire situation in life as he is cast amongst the severest cases of poverty in his store's Harlem neighborhood. Added to that, he has to front his store for a despicable vice lord (Brock Peters) so that he can at least make a modicum of income.
Sounds and is grim but is, to me, the quintessential groundbreaker of the ultra-realistic urban life dramas that were to unfold in the latter 60's and early 70's. Rod plays his part to perfection as a lifeless, embittered old man who has seen too much in one lifetime. The aforementioned Brock Peters along with Ray St. Jacques, Jaime Sanchez (his apprentice) and others flavor this dramatic pot even more so with their poignant portrayals of their respective characters, each of whom has fallen victim to the scourges of his ghetto habitat.
I shall not offer up where and how the redemptive transformation occurs in our principal, except to say watch the entire movie and see for yourself how it all unfolds. Truly, a time-tested masterpiece!
Movie Review: Steiger, Lumet & Q
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film in it's initial release. Lumet just received an Special Oscar, and this film should be at the top of his list of achievements. Steiger was never better, and Quincy Jones first film score was so very appropriate. The only Oscar recognition was for Rod Steiger's amazing performance, so complicated and profound...and so very complete. Missing of recognition was Jaime Sanchez' powerful supporting role, and that of the great Geraldine Fitzgerald, still magnificent after a long hiatus. Also, Brock Peters, after playing the sweet Tom Robinson in "To Kill a Mockingbird", shows great range as the bad guy.Steiger lost the Oscar to Lee Marvin in "Cat Ballou". Even though Marvin played dual roles, Jane Fonda was the center of that film. Steiger was in every frame of "The Pawnbroker". Makes you wonder about the credibility of the Academy, huh? And then there's Lumet, and those very complicated flashbacks of the Holocaust. Quite powerful. This is the first film score by the great Quincy Jones. It is so appropriate. (He was nominated the following year for "In Cold Blood"). Some say Steiger won the Oscar in '67 ("In the Heat of the Night") because he lost for this one. I think not. This was a period in Steiger's career when he was in touch with his material. Lumet, Jones and the late Steiger should be proud that this display of greatness is available for all to see.Movie Review: Life as punishment
Summary: 5 Stars
An amazing and hearbreaking story about German Jewsih immigrant Sol Nazerman, who lives in NYC and owns a pawnshop. Sol is a lonely man, unable to relate to other people's neediness for personal connection. He is so detached from the world that only random comments from his store customers or friends and family can stir angry replies from him. Sol believes that world is governed by greed, which he resents in spite of the fact that he has lots of money himself. It is also sad to see him in his shop, closed behind bars and locks. It is almost as if he is self-imposing the imprisonment on himself. A few friends and family and even his long time lover, are financially dependent on him. While he needs them to remind him of his past, he also resents them. Flashbacks from Sol's past are terribly hard to watch. We see WWII rob him of his children, parents and beautiful wife. The way they perish is of constant anguish to him and 25 years later, his emotional pain os so hard that he wants to die more than anything else. Sol rejects everything and everyone around him because he is either dead inside already, or he is afraid that if he gets close to people and sincerely starts caring about them, he will get hurt again. The fact that Sol keeps on living is punishment he can barely stand any more. For him, death is difficult to attain, but it is his utmost desire.Movie Review: Astounding performance
Summary: 5 Stars
Rod Steiger's performance in this film is the best of his career. Period. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, 1965, and should easily have won--although he did not. In this powerful film, he plays Sol Nazerman, a seedy denizen of New York's Lower East Side who makes his living as a pawnbroker. Into his store come lowlifes of all sorts--hookers, junkies, thieves. Nazerman is a survivor of the Holocaust and carries enormous psychic scars that refuse to stop tearing at his soul.As a vicious menacing crime figure, Brock Peters is also superb--the present-day reminder to Nazerman of how evil never dies. Other cast members include Geraldine Fitzgerald as a sympathetic caseworker and Jaime Sanchez as Nazerman's young Latino assistant who is of another generation and another culture, and cannot understand his boss' terrible anguish.
Director Sidney Lumet has done an outstanding job here conveying the lifelong suffering that horrific evil brings with it. This is not a graphic film, but one that delivers its message before the days of special effects via pure drama. It is a great thing to have this now available on DVD; this is a film that should be seen by those who treasure phenomenal acting and powerful emotion.
Very highly recommended; the best American film of 1965 and one of the best American films of the 20th century.