Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Survival Story
Review: The Pianist is a heart-wrenching and intimate story of Wladyslaw Szpilman's intense struggle to survive the Nazi invasion of Poland at the outset of WWII. Based on a true story set in 1939, Szpilman was a famous Pianist in Warsaw, and of course, a Polish Jew. Wladyslaw Szpilman was born in 1911 in Sosnowiec, Poland. He studied Piano as a young boy and in 1931, continued his development at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He composed several pieces for piano and orchestra, and quickly began to be considered a promising composer and virtuoso, becoming very popular in his homeland as a result of his work. As a young man, Szpilman began working for the Polish state radio station and it is there that the story begins. The camera begins to roll and we see the employees of the radio station acting out their daily routines with an aura of unsuspecting calm. Suddenly, as Szpilman is performing, the sounds of bombs crashing to the ground can be heard in the distance. Before long, the distant sounds become a shocking reality as the building begins to shake and debris begins falling on Szpilman and his piano. The air raids had begun. Warsaw, the capitol of Poland, was one of the first targets of the German Luftwaffe. Shortly thereafter, the Nazis marched inside the city and by December 1st, 1939, and Warsaw Jews soon find themselves forced to wear distinguishing armbands with the Star of David on them. Tolerance of all things Jewish disappeared completely and thus began the brutal campaign to subject the Jewish population to unimaginable terror: all property and funds were confiscated; food was rationed to inhumane levels; all sidewalks, benches, buses, and parks were forbidden to anyone Jewish. Surprisingly, Szpilman seems to take a nonchalant attitude toward the events transpiring before his eyes at first; but that attitude does not last very long. Feeling like a hunted animal, Szpilman is then reduced to live with a fight-or-flight mentality and paranoia. He becomes completely detached from all things superficial and is forced to rely on the most basic survival instincts and stoic reserves. Should he by chance encounter any type of pleasure at all, the moment is relished with extreme passion. Reduced to existing simply as a hunter/gatherer, his only concern is making it through the day without dying; and Polanski capitalizes on this desperation to captivate you. For example, in a scene where Szpilman is hiding in an apartment filled with pro-Nazi, non-Jewish tenants, we see Szpilman sit at a piano. For his own safety, he is to remain as silent as possible; but then, we see him in a head-and-shoulders shot, shoulders moving. You hear piano music and gasp as we fear his love and longing for music is about to give him away; and then we see his hands moving in the air just above the keyboard and realize, with both relief and a stitch of regret, that the music is only in Szpilman's head. Another example is a scene in the movie where a German commander stops a group of Jews going to work, with whom Szpilman is among, and randomly asks several of them to lie down. While the others stand in horror watching, the German shoots them all in the head except for the last one because his magazine is then empty. Unlike the German soldier in Schindler's List who ends up letting the person live under a similar circumstance because his gun jams, Polanski's soldier reloads the gun and shoots the man. The camera captures these horrific events intrepidly, far detached from them. Yet this detachment is a benefit to the film because it adds to the ghastly, ruthless realism of the story. Then there are scenes that are so callous they take you by surprise. Such as when a Nazi tells an elderly man in a wheelchair to stand up and the man doesn't respond. Shockingly, the Nazi picks up the wheelchair and throws the man off a balcony. The film's best scene, in my opinion, is a scene that occurs when Szpilman encounters a Nazi officer in an abandoned house. Devoid of sentimentality, beautifully directed, it is simply a mosaic of shots of Szpilman playing Chopin on the piano and the officer watching. Yet it is also a scene that ironically symbolizes and encapsulates Szpilman's experience itself. The German officer is not an enemy or a ruthless brute, but a human being, who by circumstance, is in the position to save or kill Szpilman, who by circumstance, is completely helpless. Szpilman's character is brilliantly played by Adrian Brody, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for this film. It must be difficult to command the screen when your character often must be acquiescent, deliberately trying not to draw attention to himself in order to keep from falling into Nazi hands; but Brody pulls it off. It helps that Brody has utterly mastered the art of acting with his eyes. Additionally, his body language speaks volumes, and these nonverbal cues are crucial to filling in the emotional cracks; especially in scenes where Szpilman, alone and in hiding, can't speak or even move around much for fear of giving himself away. Roman Polanski produced and directed the film, and like Brody, also won an Oscar for this film for Best Director. The Pianist is an extraordinary milestone for Polanski, who himself survived the Nazi Holocaust. I suspect it is because of this fact that Polanski's film, for me, has an edge over several other holocaust films. The directing in this film is fearless, honest and it does not settle for easy answers; rather, it shows us a true story without adjudicating any of the characters or the situation within which they coexist. It simply unfolds and it is in this simplicity that lies its impact. Wladyslaw Szpilman survived this historic tragedy by the grace of the Almighty, joining His presence in the year 2000.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but you've seen it before
Review: This is a beautifully tragic movie about the Holocaust, but ultimately, you've seen it dozens of times before in dozens of other Holocaust films. There is nothing new or illuminating here.
Rating:
Summary: The other side of war
Review: This movie is an excellent war movie in a different way then you would expect. It is a war movie from a different perspective. What happens to the main character is a perfect example of what can happen to a person who is on the sidelines of a war, someone who is not involved in the fighting but becomes very much involved in the horrors of what war can bring. The acting of Adrien Brody was superb. To pull off the part of going from a clean cut pianist in a higher class society to a sickly scavenger searching for food and water shows the skills and determination of being an excellent actor. The cinematography was also outstanding. The realism of the Jewish holocaust is captured in a truthful yet disturbing way. This movie brought me to the times of Poland during WWII and I felt what it would be like to be there. That's what an excellent movie is all about.
Rating:
Summary: mesmerizing
Review: The whole time my wife amd I watched this film, we couldn't leave it for a minute. Aside from the incredible acting, the film showed disturbingly clear how a whole sect of the human race could be isolated and left open for violation. It was so slow and subtle, that people didn't realize what was happening before it was too big to stop. I have also watched Schindler's List which was more disturbing as a whole, but much more stark in it's telling. This movie is on a more intimate level and I consider it to be one of the best I've ever seen. Warning- there are some extremely disturbing scenes in this movie-stark, and brutal that will stay with you. And one note to the person from New York that wrote-BORING-, did you know that this was a true story? That the effort by people to hide the pianist was because he was considered a national treasure? Or are you really that narrow-minded that nobody suffers like us? Buy this movie? Most definitely!!!
Rating:
Summary: Ordinary everyday nightmare
Review: This is what is wildly mindblowing about this movie: Showing the most, just mind snapping human behavior, in such an ordinary sleepy bystanderish type way. No filmmaking dramatization is required because you can't even believe what these people are doing to their own kind. Very focused, intimate, personal view.
Rating:
Summary: Moving beyond words, and destined to be a classic.
Review: This is an excellent portrayal of the horrors of WWII, seen from the perspective of one victim. The tragedy and triumph of one man is masterfully acted by Brody, who deservedly won the oscar for his performance. Fantastic, gripping, heartwrenching movie that is entirely worthwhile in our time of frequently mindless entertainment. Highly recommended for adults and mature teens. Keep your younger kids unexposed to this, as they may not be able to process the intense and complex emotions aroused by the picture.
Rating:
Summary: Real life,death and absolution mimicked at the movies
Review: Can someone explain to me how the little entertainment "Chicago" beat out this film for best film of 2002 as judged by the Motion Picutre Academy? What a travesty! Here is a monumental re-telling of a true story, a once in a decade film and surely the best World War II story since "The English Patient" and better than that flick! Adrien Brody at least won the Oscar for best actor. Maybe he deserved that but this film surely deserved best movie. It is probably the best film of the new century.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst attributes of human beings.
Review: B O R I N G! This movie shows the worst qualities of any people on the face of the Earth. A whole race of people goes to their certain death without raising the slightest bit of resistance. The story lacks a hero. It is about a field mouse that hides and scrounges for food in war torn Warsaw. Meanwhile a small group of resistance fighters take on the Germans in what ever way they can with absolutely no support from our less than adequate field-mouse-like main character. He doesn't give a Darn about anyone but himself. Not his family, nor his fellow Jews. The only hero in the movie was a German officer who gave food to his pet mouse for performing tricks. Jews of today take no guff from anyone and must be profoundly embarrassed by this movie about sheep being led to slaughter. While it's good to make new generations aware of genocide, the Holocaust was sixty years ago. Get over it already. It will never happen to the Jews again. Although very recently genocide was perpetrated on the Kurds in Iraq. Due to the injustices bestowed on Jews, the movie makes a blatant attempt to blame America for not declaring war on Germany in order to save them. Maybe we should've taken Iraq when the Kurd genocide began. As an American, I cannot stomach this lack of backbone. Think of 9-1-1. Think of the first three flights going down at almost the same time. Everyone was told to stay calm and the hijacking will take its course without further incident. Think of flight 93 learning of the other three crashes. Think of the true American heroes on that flight who decided that it was better to die than to allow terrorists to kill other innocent people. I rest my case. This movie shows the worst attributes of human beings. Worth watching, not worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful movie about a dark period in history.
Review: Based on a true story, this film illustrates the horror of war and the holocaust. Yet it does so in a beautiful way--the cinematography, the direction, and the casting is perfection. I don't really know what else to say about this film, except that it is a must see.
Rating: 
Summary: A story of survival?
Review: This is no story of survival. Its a story of cowardice! This guy is so dumb, he can't see the handwriting on the wall and while other jews are fighting for THEIR survival he's hiding behind garbage cans. Oh, I forgot, he doesn't have to fight, he's an artist.
| 
