The Pianist
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Movie Reviews of The Pianist
Movie Review: Should be entitled, "The Cowardly Musician" - This is NOT heroic film making!
Summary: 1 Stars
I am not deep into what directors do or have done in their past, I don't give a tinker's dam about how critically acclaimed someone's previous work has been. "The Pianist" is a movie that made me mad as hell at the main character. If you want to watch a movie about a guy who stands by and does nothing but serve himself throughout the Holocaust, let's his entire family be sent away to camps and hides at every chance, this is your movie. I find nothing redeeming in this movie or in the person of its main character. I was left with the overall impression that his will to save his own skin at all costs was his primary function during the war years - the movie does illustrate that quite well. Instead of participating in the Warsaw Uprising, the brave piano player hides. When the one German officer in the world who's kind to him and saves his life toward the end of an agonizingly long movie, how does he repay the kindness? By letting that German officer die in a Soviet labor camp without lifting a finger to help him - some hero. The movie is very well made, but it's one that left me angry rather than sympathetic. Schindler's List is a far better movie of personal triumph and real heroism in the face of the Holocaust. As a history enthusiast and not an Academy Awards movie critic, this movie disgusted me. Why waste time with such a pathetic character as this when there are many genuinely inspiring tales which could've been told? Movie Review: Everyone should see this movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Pianist" is incredibly moving. This movie is historically accurate, and the plot is easy to follow. It shows what it was like for the Jews and those that helped them during the Nazis' reign of terror in Europe. All of the actors are amazing, especially Adrien Brody. A phenomenal soundtrack is the icing on the cake. "The Pianist" is a a true masterpiece.Movie Review: The Unimaginal
Summary: 5 Stars
Having seen many war films, this film "The Pianist" has been the best portraid I have seen, especially as it is a personal account of one person's struggle through the terrible time in the Warshaw Ghetto being a sole survivor.
I myself have lived in Germany at the time and had been arrested by the Gestapo. I know only too well the horrific treatment Jews and people, who were against Nazism, have received. The courage of the Pianist was something extraordenary. I recommend the film to be seen by every one. It gives a true picture of the whole era.
Movie Review: polanski does it again...
Summary: 5 Stars
not only has he made another unbelievably excellent holocaust film, but he it bears his indefinably quirky stamp. While the basics of the film have been covered in the reviews, what struck me was that this protagonist is not some superhuman hero type, but merely a highly talented man trying to survive - he avoids fighting, relies on his elite contacts, and ventures out only when he can't avoid it. Lots of his time is spent in solitude, waiting fearfully and introspecting. This made him a kind of everyman, with whom I for one could identify far more than some otherwordly figure like Martin Gray, whose story of survivaly is as intimidating as it is fantastic. This film reveals how most of us would have gone about trying to survive: it required pluck and courage, but also luck and avoidance of danger. The acting is also perfect.
Also, the extra of Polanski speaking aobut his childhood - and how he survived a near-identical situation, is incredibly moving and fascinating. This film is perhaps his most important, for himself. One wonders what his career would have been like had he stayed in Hollywood. I must say that, given the repertoire of films he has done since then, such as this or Tess, his first-rate talent was not diminished.
Warmly recommended. This is one of the first films I will show to my children when they are ready to learn about the holocaust.
Movie Review: Szpilman survived because Poles risked their lives
Summary: 5 Stars
and lives of their families to help him. The same
is true of practically every Polish Jew that survived
Nazi occupation of Poland. However inadequate those
efforts might have been they remain a testimony that
in in the darkest of times there are people who will
defend what they consider decent and human - at all cost.
I am very grateful that Polanski broke from Hollywood
blueprint of portraying Poles as spineless collaborators
of Nazis and presented more balanced point of view.
And put "Warsaw Uprising" back on the map - most sources
only talk about uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in Apr 1943
and never mention the "gentile" uprising that lasted from
Aug to Oct of 1944. 260,000 people were killed during that
struggle - by comparison total war US casualties were 418,500.
But enough history lessons.
The Pianist is excellent in its super-realistic portrayal
of survival told from a first person perspective. Polanski
does not sentimentalize the subject - it is heart-wrenching
to watch slow downward spiral where in the end NOTHING else
really matter but survival. When Dorota is praising Jews
that died in the Ghetto Uprising becuase at least they "died
with dignity" and Szpilman says it was all useless you can
see the man for whom word "dignity" was temporarily lost.
Perhaps when he accepted help from Jewish policemen that pushed
him aside while forcing rest of his family onto a train to
Treblinka death camp. Perhaps when he was beggin Nazi
construction foreman that was sadistically whipping him
to spare his life.
Among hellish horror of death and destruction that surrounded
him - especially after he understood that his whole family was
exterminated in Treblinka it was that vision of inner beauty
of music that carried Szpilman through.
That and help from few courageous people.