Rating: 
Summary: A Stunning Achievement
Review: The depiction of the brutality of the Nazis toward the Jewish population of Poland is heartbreaking and unforgettable. This film captures the range of emotions that a family experience as they subjected to the gradual increase in persecution that ultimately leads to Treblinka.
Adrien Brody is a marvelous actor and is perfectly cast as Spilmann the famous pianist who is the only member of his family to survive. Spilmann's Survival depends on the kindnes of others who take great risks to protect him. Thes heroic acts are contrasted with the forementioned brutality of Germans to great effect in the film. A final act of redemptive kindness by a german officer near the end of the war brings the absurdity of the circumstances we have just witnessed into full relief.Based on Spillman's memoirs , the film is very accurate relative to the book. The cinematography is astounding, particularly the transformation of Warsaw to a spectoral ruin where Spillman struggles to survive. The movie is well acted, well written and shocking in it's realism. IT will leave you numb if you haven't seen it yet.
Rating:
Summary: Enduring effect..!!
Review: The movie is based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's real life experience in the midst of torment of World War II. The movie shows The Pianist(Adrien Brody),a jew forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto after escaping the deportation. The suffering and loneliness of an emotionally devastated, strong minded,but weak otherwise personage. In the midst of this, his fingers always keep on moving on a virtual piano, the only support in his (not-so)surving days until a German officer(Thomas Kretschmann) comes to his rescue.
The director(Roman Polanski) has excelled in remaining as close as possible to reality without being too loud abt it. This is one of those movies which makes one speechless after watching it. Definitely a movie which cannot be easily forgotten!!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful And Full Of Emotion
Review: I'm not into heavy dramas, but this film is so genuinely affecting and powerful, I found it simply impossible not to be moved. Even with the myriad of Holocaust movies made, this one stands in solitude as one of the most powerful and unforgettable. Maybe its Adrien Brody's subtley brilliant performance, or the perfectionist direction that somehow elevates the whole thing to world-class standards. Myabe its the fact that this film focuses solely on this one man's experience, as opposed to a mass film. Perhaps its this, that so directly tranports you into the heart and soul of this man and this film, and makes you feel and experience these indescribably harrowing events that took place during the holocaust.Or maybe its the fact that the film takes its time to build up to its wrenchingly potent conclusion-oh God, what a climax.All I can say, is that you absolutelt must, must, must see it. NOW.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: The Pianist is one of those movies you can watch over and over again with the same feelings each time. It is a movie where everything is interesting because there is a sense of despair and you don't know what will happen. The Pianist basically centers around a man escaping a ghetto. This man, a pianist, travels from house to house in search of a place to hide. The movie has a great pace to it. Just when you start getting bored of a house, a new interesting scene takes place. I've seen this movie several times and it never fails to be breath-taking. The one thing going through my mind is, "Why didn't any of the Jews fight back?" Well, this movie will likely have you wondering what you would do in the pianist's situation. To receive 4 stars from critics a movie has to be either the best picture of the year or extremely good. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers both received 3 stars. Terminator 2 recieved 3 stars. I am not surprised to see that The Pianist receieved 4 stars as it is probably one of the best movies of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolute Masterpiece
Review: When I finished watching this movie I was pretty much speechless. This is a movie that, I think, everyone should see. In some ways, it's similar to Schindler's List but The Pianist follows one person as opposed to a large segment of people. At times, it's a difficult movie to watch because of the atrocities that occured. I found myself comparing The Pianist to Schindler's List quite a bit. In the end though, I prefer The Pianist because it seemed more real. It must have been awful to feel so alone in the world after being split up from your family and not knowing what will happen to you or them.
The movie is about a man, Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished piano player in all of Poland. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the Germans. By the start of the 1940s, Szpilman sees his world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his family deported to a death camp, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor Compound. At last deciding to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw City Revolt in 1945. This is truly a movie that must be seen.
Rating:
Summary: IS THE H ERO THE PROBLEM?
Review: Why is this film a very, very good movie, an excellent one, rather than a great movie? It probably is a great movie, but the viewer is frustrated by the gutless main character. He reacts only after being acted upon. How very odd. But, let's face it, how very realistic. We have no Schindler here. Nevertheless, Polanski more than deserved the Academy Award for the film's direction, as well as the other awards he received. It seems in fact, while viewing it, that one is not watching acting or directing, but as if one is watching the real thing. It is as close as most of us will come (unless at some point someone makes a better film of the subject matter) to the the war years in Poland and their horrors. The film was an education to me. It had not one dishonest moment. Yes, the hero is disappointing. Sort of milquetoast. But the film should not be missed because we don't have a true hero here.
Rating: 
Summary: Thin story elevated by excellent production
Review: "The Pianist" follows the misadventures of Wlad Szpilman, a piano-playing Polish Jew who must endure the horrors of Holocaust. Already an adult by the beginning of the war, he suffers the growing indignities heaped upon the Jews - from Jim Crow style segregation to internment in the notorious Warsaw Ghetto. As a concert pianist, Szpilman enjoyed the friendship of non-jewish Poles before the war. Once the war began, he managed to hold onto enough of them to successfully escape the ghetto and elude the Nazis or Nazi-backed Poles. The final half of the flick has Szpilman moving from one safe-house to another as the enemy goes from containing the jews, to crushing the Warsaw uprising, to crushing other resistance forces. The story moves slowly as the horrors of war and its deprivations slowly erode Szpilman's life. I wanted to like this flick, especially given its apparent devotion to the hero's POV. The production values are incredible, and some of the sequences are just fantastic (especially the scene which touched off the ghetto uprising). So why isn't this a classic flick? Let's blame the player. Though Brody gives a good performance, he's hamstrung by the emptiness of his role - once he escapes, Szpilman is reduced to living on the generosity and pluck of others. I don't want to get into the whole "should he have fled or fought" debate, but Szpilman doesn't really do anything other than lay low. This restricts the directions the story can take to two - document only what Szpilman sees, which would tell a good story but essentially nullify him as a main character; or, keep the focus on Szpilman himself - marooning the story on a guy who - deprivations aside - remains isolated from the horrors occurring around him. "The Pianist" opts for the 2nd approach, quickly morphing into a Holocaust film which has little to do with the Holocaust. Arguably, Anne Frank was also holed up in a temporary asylum - why should her story be treated differently merely because she was a more sympathetic character? (She was a kid, and everybody knows that her story was NOT one of survival.) The difference between the two is that, Anne Frank's story redeems humanity in an inhumane time - the interaction between Anne and her fellow refugees framing a debate about whether all people are good, and that finally being captured by the Nazis ironically liberates her from a dehumanizing experience surviving in ceaseless terror. The opposite is so in "Pianist" - depriving Szpilman of much interaction to reveal his feelings (his Polish saviors are sympathetic strangers - connected to him by mutual acquaintances; we learn very little about them or how they made the superhuman decision to stand up to both Nazis and similarly minded Poles). Excellent production only highlights the sense that "The Pianist" is telling the wrong story - never letting you forget the possibility that a more deserving story was unfolding across the street, down the block or over the wall from Szpilman's safe-house. The script makes a further mistake in that it loses Szpilman's character completely - who he is and why we should care if he survives when others don't. The error is compounded when the script hints at an ulterior motive for the generosity of at least some of Szpilman's Polish saviors (who found that many Warsaw Jews were willing to part with some of their won possessions to pay for Szpilman's safety). The film surprisingly redeems itself near its end when Szpilman receives help from an ironic direction. A Wehrmacht (German Army) officer discovers Szpilman, but protects him - not only feeding the refugee but giving him his first crack at the ivories in years. We're supposed to be cheered that the survival of the artist bodes well for the hero's humanity. It's a moment the film crafts and then destroys. By the end of the film, Szpilman has survived, looking more polished than you'd expect for the horrors he had endured. Tuxedoed, and at the center of a concerto, he bears no scars of the horrors he's seen, nothing to indicate the enormity of the miracle of his survival.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: Very touching and at the same time disturbing imagery. I cried at the end of this movie, not because it was so sad, but because for once a movie was made about the Holocaust that has a happy (or perhaps bitter-sweet is a better term) ending. The
only thing I could possibly suggest to make the movie even better is for everyone who enjoyed it to also read the book- Szpilman may have been a musician but the imagery in the book is very articulate and extremely well-written, and at the end they even printed entries from Hosenfeld's diary- the German soldier who helped him survive. Theses entries give a lot more insight into the mentality of Captain Hosenfeld, which I think the movie barely scratched the surface of.
Yes, Szpilman ran, and yes, he hid instead of fought. But he also survived, and I do believe that no one in their right mind can mock him for hiding unless they've been in the same state of circumstance and fear, unless they've lost everything they've ever held dear to them -as Szpilman did- but at the same time realized that yes, life is precious, and gone through any means possible to preserve and reconstruct their life after they've lost everything.
I only hope that after all he has been through in his life, the soul of Wladyslaw Szpilman has been reunited with the rest of his family in heaven and is now resting in peace.
Rating: 
Summary: Cowardly
Review: To the Michigan reviewer. What the heck does this mean? "Or are you really that narrow-minded that nobody suffers like us?" I have No Clue as to what you are talking about. Be concise. The movie is well acted & directed. The fact that the story is true sickens me. If I find the movie boring due to the pianist's lack of backbone, that is my right. I do not hold well with spineless acquiescence nor willfull brutality. The mere fact that you enjoyed it seems to vilify your own sense of right and wrong. The entire movie imputes flight rather than fight. Wrong, wrong, wrong! National treasure? National coward!
Rating:
Summary: Great Job, Adrien!
Review: Summary: Famed Polish concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) struggles to survive the onslaught of Nazi tyranny during World War II in this autobiographical film. Already lauded at the time for his talents as a musician, Szpilman spent those years holed up in Warsaw, subsisting on scraps of food and barely able to stay alive. Grace comes in the form of a second chance -- at music, at freedom, at life. My comments: Everyone knows by now that Mr. Brody won an Oscar for his starring role. I think it was well deserved...it was rumored Adrian actually got rid of his apartment, sold his car, and didn't watch television, in order to prepare for the role. And he dropped around 30 pounds as well. This movie is about the Holocaust, BUT it takes a different approach than most Holocaust films... It's a little slow at times, but the movie will stir up some emotions. There are very violent & sad images in the film, and I almost cried during some parts. The fact that this was based on a TRUE story makes it even more amazing...watch out for Thomas Kretschmann, the actor who played the Nazi Captain who helped Szpilman while he was in hiding...the few scenes between those two were the most surprisingly beautiful, & emotional parts of the whole movie.
THE SOUNDTRACK WAS LOVELY: the piano playing was amazingly splendid.
Overall, excellent film about history, music, love, loss, and the will to live...the way Adrien Brody portrayed different emotions on screen, you forget he is acting. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.
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