Rating: 
Summary: A horrifying look at reality.
Review: When the Nazis invade Warsaw all Jews are subject to their cruelty. Half of them are forced to leave to concentration camps, and the others do labour.When Wladyslaw Szpilman's family is sent to the concentration camps he is spares. Now he only has one thing to live for: music. In Warsaw he must survive and hide from the Nazis with only one reason to go on, his love for the piano. He makes a daring escape when the Russians invade. This story is true, and completey acurate, so acurate it's scary.
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd half is truly boring
Review: This movie is realy, really boring in the second half. You may not like Speilberg but Schindler's List is such a better movie than this. I had absolutely none of the obligatory 'guilt' and 'pity' for the character in the movie. He was poorly realized, insipid and usless, and basically spent the second half of the movie sitting around in rooms making absolutely no attempt to help himself. And to me that made him loathsome, especially when others were bravely fighting and dying in the Ghetto, fighting the germans. Our hero was crawling around trying to preserve his own skin. I find this most disgraceful. While beautifully filmed and really engrossing at times, the main character just isn't a character you can believe in or want to triumph. He is just pitiful, not pitiable. For this reason I give this movie 2 stars. I could not summon anything approaching empathy with him. He seemed more of a device than a character: designed to pull on the right heart strings by personalizing the Holocaust. No. it just doesn't work for me. It doesn't resonate with the truth suffering of those who went through it. Schindler's List (even Holocaust, the mini-series, or Escape from Sobibor) is a 'significantly' better movie than this. Perhaps I missed the point, but this movie doesn't seem to have one. Just a series of happenings strung together in a semi-cohesive manner, centered around a very ego-centric man.
Rating: 
Summary: Very important story...
Review: Very important story based on an autobiography book by Wladyslaw Szpilman, Polish Jewish great pianist who survived the Nazi rape of Poland in WW-II. Great and very talented director Roman Polanski who for the second time in his career went in the undermined world to make a point, to tell the real story which have been told before.
Nazi march thru Poland, placed Jews in Ghettos and than shipped them to concentrating camps. To burn them, to gas them, to kill them. Wladyslaw Szpilman ( best role by Adrien Brody ) was lucky to get away and hide to survive. Five stars! A million Oscars! No! Why?
After first 30 minutes of the film, I lost any interest in main character. Even Polanski admitted that this was not much to go with. This is not the story of someone who sacrificed something for better. It is a story of a chicken which never crossed the road. But I have to admit director's talent. The way how he showed his personal point of view on the main character: by making him watch in hiding the others, the ones who chose not to hide but to fight. The ones who didn't care about their little lives but cared about real freedom... the ones who won the war.
At the end the story of the German officer got my attention but it died without deep look into it.
I would of give this fine film A- grade, but I watched not well known "The Truce" few month before "The Pianist" came out. Compare to that film? Solid 4 stars, not an inch more.
"Vlad"
Rating: 
Summary: Don't toss your money on this one!
Review: We purchased the DVD based on the many claims that the movie
was a terrific addition to the world of entertainment. Yet we
were very disappointed with this predictable piece of pseudo-drama. There were a few highlights giving credit to
why Adrien Brody is off to a great career. But the story and
picture quality...not worth a third of the money. Skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not to be missed.
Review: I was so deeply moved by this film. The whole cast, especially Brody,was excellent! It is not to be missed by anyone.
Ellen Faull
Rating:
Summary: it is not "schindler's list"
Review: To be honest, I had second thoughts about writing a review considering how many there are here. However, after skimming through a few, I realize that many people could be discouraged from seeing this film simply because they figure "It's another Holocaust movie. I've already seen 'Schindler's List'." Of course, the basic similarities between "The Pianist" and "Schindler's List" are easy to see. Films about the Holocaust, images of Nazi violence, images about starvation and survival all are common in both films. However, I would say the similarities end there. Simply put, this film is objective, realistic. It's aim is to lay out the facts of this "ordinary survivor" and let the viewer decide what emotions to feel. There is no single musical theme that pulls at your emotions and tells you to "feel sad now", as more Hollywood movies such as "Schindler's List" do. Music is used sparingly for key moments in the film, which makes scenes more poignant. The pace of the film is fairly slow, some might say monotonous. "Schindler's List" has more emotional highs and lows and you feel carried through the scenes. However, I've come to appreciate Polanski's choice to keep emotions level. Brody's scenes of solitude feel empty, blank, and often void of emotion, as they should be. While the plot seems slow or empty, the costumes, sets, camera work and acting are rich in detail. Adrien Brody was made for this role. There is hunger, loneliness and depression in his eyes. His fingertips grasp to touch the fine fabric of Dorota's table cover to remember what it was like before the war. These little movements are often overlooked since many of us are used to large, flashy special effects of today's movies. I believe a film like this deserves to be watched a few times to appreciate in it's entirety. The DVD contains a behind-the-scenes diddy that is worth watching too. You see the extent of detail Polanski put into the scenes.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Movie
Review: This movie has permenantly changed my perspective on the Holocaust. Rather than just reading it out of a history book, I feel seeing the horror this way is much more effective. It brings you into one man's perspective rather than just a generic viewpoint. This makes the experience much more powerful. I believe this movie should not have been nominated over Far From Heaven or Road To Perdition for Best Picture, but I do believe that it deserved Best Director and Adapted Screenplay Oscars. Unfortunately, Adrien Brody did win for his performance in the film over Daniel Day-Lewis who played Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York. I must agree that Brody was spectacular, but not as great as Day-Lewis. I must warn you, although the subject matter is self-explanatory, that the movie is quite violent. Although you do not see any of the death-camp scenes, there is still much horror going on within Warsaw. Don't expect it to be any less violent than it is. Roman Polanski was a great director for this movie. Apparantly, Polanski lived through those times and knows first hand how it feels to have been there at that time. He was the cause of this movie's greatness. Bottom Line: I believe everyone should see this film at least once in there life, and it is definately one of the top ten of this year. (I give it an A)
Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Review: It's simply disgusting that I had to wait until this movie came out on DVD to watch it considering that the local movie theaters didn't have this movie (even after winning 3 Oscars!)
I've always been a sucker for things having to do with the ghettos during WW2 and this movie immediately appealed to me on that level, but what left me speechless was Adrien Brody's performance.
I've been a fan of his for years, but his performance in this movie was without a doubt his best. He captured the spirit of Wladyslaw Szpilman and I admire the lengths he was willing to go to in order to experience what Szpilman experienced in terms of isolation and starvation.
This movie affected me in a way I never expected it to. There were moments when I completely forgot that this was a true story and that Szpilman survived. To be honest, I was screaming for him to hurry up and run out of the room when the Germans were blow-torching the buildings. My heart broke on a few occasions with this movie, but the scene that got to me the most was when he told his sister that he wished he knew her better.
Roman Polanski has created his masterpiece. I'll admit, the movie does drag on in some scenes, but overall, this was a story about one mans will to survive. Afterall, survival was Szpilman's ultimate masterpiece.
I would also recommend checking out the book the movie is based on. This is a rare instance where I found the movie to be better, but it is a worthy read. Plus, the reader gets an interesting insight into Wilm Hosenfeld - the officer who aided in helping Szpilman.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable story
Review: I am a history buff. I will admit that up front, so when I heard they were making a movie about the Warsaw Ghetto during WW2 I nearly jumped out of my seat. The movie begins with Adrien Brody playing the piano. Right then you are rivited, because it is awesome. If you are familiar with the story of the Warsaw ghetto, you would know that the Germans came into Poland, and literally walled up the city, and housed 500,000 people in hellish conditions. Throughout the movie, you see Brody's charatcter endure horrible things at the hands of the Germans, all the while you know that he is one of the greatest pianists in history. After spending almost the whole war in running from the Germans and the concentration camps, near the end of the movie, while hiding in a house, Brody's character befriends a German officer who takes pity on him and brings him food and other amenities. After the war ends, he continues playing the piano on a grand scale, and lives all the way until his death a few years ago in 2000. What makes this story so great is that it is true, it really happened. All the way through the story, you watch and think "this really happened to someone." It is a very sobering experience to watch this movie. If anyone has seen Schindler's List, you will understand. I strongly recommend this movie to people who want to appreciate the efforts of people involved in WW2.
Rating:
Summary: A Brutally Honest Film
Review: I didn't get a chance to watch this incredible film in the theatres, but after seeing it, I should have made an effort. The Pianist is one of those rare films to come out that really examines the many human emotions that we come through each day, and what better way to have an emotionally-character driven film than with the backgrounds of the Holocaust. The Pianist is about Wladyslaw Szpilman (played wonderfully by Adrien Brody), who along with his 2 sisters, his brother and his elderly parents, live in Warsaw, at the time of WW2. They are all sent to labor and live treachrously, day and night. Until, one day, Szpilman is pulled away, from the crowd, while the rest of his family is taken to the death camps, along with the many groups of people. The rest of the film deals with Szpilman's suffering and his determination to survive through the War. Being a student and watching this film right after finishing my course of History and the World War's, it gave me a new outlook and understanding, since this was the first War film that I understood completely. The dates and the portrayal of the experiences that happened at those times were right on the money. It was also surprising to see that this film was brutally violent. I knew that when I was going to watch this film, it was going to be honest, at portaying not only the experiences but also the violence, but I didn't have an idea of what level. It was raw and real which gave a sense of me being in there with them through those horrific times. Director Roman Polanski who (if I'm not mistaken) experienced the War, did an Amazing job in his direction. He was true and didn't want to hide anything. Adrien Brody is Great, with his Oscar win truly deserving and the Adaptation of the Screenplay, by Ronald Harwood, was prestine, given that the memoir written by Wladyslaw Szpilman was written more like a journal, therefore having to write in the dialogue with what was going on in Szpilman's experience though the War. Based on a true story, The Pianist, is truely a film to be experienced.
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