Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: After Adrien Brody's performance earned him an Oscar with such a short career I got curious about the movie. It had called my attention before when I saw the trailer, but seeing it just opened up a window that only "Shindler's List" had been able to before: that of the horrors of WWII, the terrible things that humankind is capable of and how determination, hope and holding on to something "larger" (in the case of Wladyslaw Szpilman, played by Brody, his love for music) can help anyone through anything. Portions of the brilliant book by Viktor Frankl came to mind, though concentration camps were not a part of Szpilman's fate.The movie is very strong and very effective at conveying the horrors that the Polish jews endured during the Nazi German occupation. Roman Polanski was most effective as producer and sitting in the director's chair, which -no surprise- earned him an Oscar as director this year. Brody's performance was extraordinary. As a whole, this movie has everything it takes to turn it into a classic and a continued wake-up call.
Rating:
Summary: The masterpiece that overwhelms anyone who loves movies
Review: I walked to this movie guarded with feeling: how you can tell the story which told so many times and in so many versions. Qickly I was absolutely was transformed with the moving feelings that film touches my heart and so excited with the tears coming that I see the film which will be a history of cimema. The director and actors are so extraordinary it is beyond believe.... The music is genius... Highly recomended
Rating:
Summary: Polanski's Paean to Poland
Review: After suffering through the excruciating experience of viewing "The Ninth Gate", I despaired that a once creative and vital director had lost his touch. "The Pianist" more than compensates for that chaotic, unintended farce. Polanski has let the world know loud (and I do mean that literally and figuratively) and clear that he still possesses the artistic goods. This is his first film since "Knife in the Water" to be set in his native Poland. His feeling for his native land rings forth in every frame. From the music of Chopin, to the scenes of the Warsaw trains on their way to Treblinka, packed to the absolute extreme with their human cargo, Polanski lets us experience, practically first hand, what it meant in the late 30s, early 40s, to be a Jew in Warsaw. It was precisely the wrong thing to be at precisely the wrong time in human history. Whereas the other great Holocost movie of recent years "Schindler's List" relies so heavily on visual representation (though it does have a moving soundtrack), Polanski combines brutal images with high decibal sound to stun and startle us into a deeper, more visceral understanding of what the title character, Wladyslaw Szpilman, experienced as a young artist in WWII Poland. During one scene, a bomb explodes so loudly that I actually thought for a few seconds that my hearing had been damaged, as a ringing noise on the soundtrack synchronizes with Szpilman's gesture as he winces and cups his ear with his hand . That's about as visceral as I want to go in a cinema experience. It's also one aspect that wont be as effective at home, unless one is blessed with a state of the art sound system. While this film is exceedingly stark, grim and shocking (you will understand from where the term "shock troops" derives), it also contains moments of great beauty and humanity. Even in moments of the most extreme deprivation and isolation, a human hand comes to Szpilman's assistance and helps him survive. Oscar awards were certainly deserved for both Polanski and Adrian Brody (Best Actor). It is essentially their film. Though the supporting roles are well played, Brody is in every scene of the film, so it is his to carry. It is a bravura performance. He never overacts or overreacts. He subtly displays the gradual despair and increasing horror as Warsaw crumbles around him. No matter how one feels about Polanski, personally, "The Pianist" proves that he remains among the top ten directors of his generation. This love letter to his native land is tinged with tears, a combination which renders it amazingly effective. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly moving film
Review: This is an incredible, unforgettable film. It is one of the most powerful and moving films that I have seen. Like a previous reviewer, I wept and wept..as did many others in the audience. I do not plan on seeing this movie again any time soon, but the images will stay with me for a very long time. It is truly sickening to see a little bit of how the Jews were treated during this time period, and reminds me of other similar periods and ethnic groups. Everyone should know at least this much, of the brutal histories that various people experienced. It is amazing to me that humans can treat other humans in this manner. This film was so moving. I cried after the movie on my way home, as I was cold and I kept thinking about how cold they must have been in the winters without much shelter. See this movie; its images will remain with you long afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: Another excellent job from Polanski
Review: I have watched this movie only once so far but the images from the movie have really stuck with me. Just when you think you've seen it all about The Holocaust, there's another, more horrible, story to shock and sicken people. Roman Polanski, who won the Oscar for Best Director, took Ron Harwood's adaptation of the late Wladyslaw Spzilman's book of the same name and delivered stunning visual testimony to a black period in human history, throwing in some of what he saw as a boy in the Krakow ghetto. There is no need to rehash the plot, as everyone is familiar with it. Bottom line: Polanski and star Adrien Brody deserved their Oscars (and the movie [should of received]Best Picture). Read the book, watch the movie, and you'll learn to appreciate things a little more than before.
Rating:
Summary: Roman Polanski's The Pianist: Survival of The Human Soul
Review: The Pianist is a film about the tenacity of the human spirit against extreme, inhumane adversity- in this case the shamefully senseless, brutal Nazi holocaust under Adolph Hitler that targeted the Jews in Europe during WW2, where inhumanity in the form of vicious anti-semitism and the iron fist of political repression was the order of the day, and where opponents of the regime and others were also hunted and tormented beyond any semblance of reason. Survival on the part of the pianist represents the survival of a culture, indeed of human culture itself, despite the horrors that the young, gifted Wladyslaw Szpilman witnesses and suffers at the hands of the Nazis and their occupation while the rest of his family, along with millions of others, suffer even worse fate: brutal demise in the Nazi death camps. Miraculously, our hero survives with his humanity intact, though it is tested almost to the breaking point by the occupying forces.
Polanski's legendary "black humor--" the cryptic sleight-of-hand that made previous horror films like Rosemary's Baby grotesquely amusing as well as terrifying-- is in this film deftly stripped by Polanski of all potentially mean, caricatural overtones to reveal only the stark, brutal absurdity of a real time and place in history that has truly gone stark-raving mad, a place and time where the mere sight of a German soldier's coat after the end of the occupation ignites the fears of the terrified, shell-shocked Polish townspeople before they realize its wearer is Polish; where a gentle, young piano player, who carries culture inside his very soul, is reduced to a frightened, hungry but incredibly human animal trying desperately to open a can of water with a fire poker in a shelled-out, abanonded apartment and explains to the German soldier that he was in former times a pianist. This esteemed musical artist has lost his entire family, most of his friends to the occupation and repression and much of his dignity, but his soul and his musical prowess remain intact. Somehow, there is still a piano, despite the wiping out of all other remnants of culture in occupied Poland during the war and holocaust. The human spirit survives in the form of Wladyslaw Szpilman who plays the piano. Polanski pays homage as well to the decency of those courageous people who helped hide the hunted, terrified, brutalized Jews, at tremendous risk, even peril, to their own lives, and to the uprisings on the part of the courageous Jewish people in the Warsaw Ghetto. While earlier Polanski films such as Rosemary's Baby portray the ultimate paranoia of an entire society given over to evil- one so pervasive that even the most innocent cannot totally escape and must ultimately succomb-- ironically, in this case, in order to retain the most primal vestige of her own humanity-- Polanski in The Pianist turns this around to portray instead, an evil regime that is incapable of accomplishing total enslavement of the heart and mind of one of its soldiers-- a shred of humanity ultimately shines through the darkness. As such, The Pianist represents hope, for humanity as a positive force rather than a purely destructive one. Polanski shows how human beings contain all the possibilites large and small for goodness as well as evil, but in this film, when all is said and done, it is the former that ultimately triumphs.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: This film was extremely well made in every aspect; acting, directing, and cinematography. It gives the viewer an unsentimental portrait of one man's struggle for survival in WWII. Adrien Brody gives a fantastic performance and his oscar was much deserved. On of the things that I felt was so great about this movie compared to other WWII movies, is the fact that it doesn't allow the viewer to hate the nazis or see them as something less than human. Some of the nazis were bad and some of the Jews in the ghetto were bad, but they were human. You can hate them yes, but you can also see that they too were human. This of course is rather frightening. Sorry if that made no sense wahtsoever. Anyway you should go see this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Never again ... never forget
Review: As an attorney, my passion is fighting discrimination. My senior attorney took our entire staff to view this motion picture, though she had already seen it. I had no idea what it was about. I wept, I think we all wept at one point or another. The graphic depiction of discrimination at its most heinous, and horrorific, before a backdrop of the epitome of art, culture, and humanity made for a heart-rending experience. Unfettered discrimination, and hatred led one of the most civilized, and accomplished cultures in all of history to the absolute depths of inhumanity. We must never forget, and we must never fail to rise and stand against discrimination where, and whenever it surfaces. Our obligation to the heroes who have gone before, and to the helpless millions who were victimized is to ensure that never again will any regime be allowed to wreak such havoc. Never again. This movie is an instant classic, an essential.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Movie of the Year
Review: Here's a smaller and lower profile film that not many people have noticed and not many theaters are featuring. However, despite all that, it rivals and surpasses many of the big budget films of this year (i.e. Gangs of New York, Chicago). Adrien Brody gives a heartbreaking performance as the pianist Spzilman, whose future was shattered when the Nazis entered Poland. This is the story of his anti-heroic journey through the horrors of the Holocaust. Spzilman is not a hero because he is featured as a man who is in strict denial and looking from the outside. Here, Roman Polanski makes his best film since Chinatown and deserves serious Oscar consideration. Adrien Brody may finally cross into stardom with his performance.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING
Review: Roman Polanski's haunting and brilliant film "The Pianist" has to be one of my very favorite films of 2002. I just saw it two days ago and I can see now why it won the Academy Awards for best adapted screenplay, director and, most of all, actor. As I walked out of the theatre with my mom all I could say was what an incredible piece of filmmaking it was and how it opened my eyes more about how awful and tragic this time in history was and how incredibly sad I am for the people who lost thier lives during the Holocaust and their families. I can honestly say that I have not been affected by a film so much since I saw "Schindler's List" a few years ago. That is how great this film is and I truly recommend it to anyone who is willing to see a magnificant film. Also, if anyone who hasn't seen the film yet is curious to see why Adrien Brody won the Oscar for this film, just go see it and you will know why. I admit that I was completely shocked that Daniel Day- Lewis or Jack Nicholson didn't win but now, after seeing the film, I'm not at all suprised. ADRIEN BRODY ROCKS! Roman Polanski deserved to win best director as well, and despite what he did in the past, he is a gifted and fantastic director. Go see it.
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