Rating: 
Summary: The underground hit of 2002 (and 2003)!
Review: "The Pianist" follows one man's struggle to make a better life for himself and his family in the dark and dangerous surroundings of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Wladyslaw Szpillman, a Jewish man of Polish descent, tries desperately to make a better life for himself and his family, when all of a sudden, Adolf Hitler's army of German Nazis invade Poland, on a mission to rid the world of thousands more Jews. As the film progresses, this is successfully done through means of merciless killings and by starvation. To keep Warsaw's Jewish populace in their hip pocket, the German army build a fortified wall to keep the Jews from fleeing the city, resulting in the Warsaw ghetto. The dramatics displayed during this Polish "holocaust", which took place between 1939-1945 (according to the film), display the exact same type of discrimination experienced by various groups of African-(American) peoples - previously accomplished through slavery in the 18th century, as well as through the discriminatory events leading up to the civil rights movements of the 1950's and the 1960's. As the terrifyingly chilling events unfold throughout this movie, the one question that will most likely go through the viewer's mind is "Why?" - as the heinous acts of manslaugter involving the German forces harming the Jewish people has definitely got to be the sickest act of inhumanity in all of history. As far as the physical aspect of this film is concerned, it should be noted that painstakingly great detail was given to the wartorn and bloody aftermath scenes in the streets of Warsaw. Add to this great acting, courtesy of "The Pianist"'s stellar cast. No director can make all this happen quite like Roman Polanski, who's been involved in the making of some immaculately spectacular films throughout his long career. There is not one boring moment in this excellent piece of cinematography, making "The Pianist" an underground runaway hit of 2003, as well as a must see movie! This is one title you'll definitely want to add to your VHS or DVD library in the very near future!
Rating:
Summary: very moving film
Review: This is one of the more moving films I've seen in a while. It's based on the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a Polish Jew pianist during world war two. The film opens with the main character playing the piano at a radio station as one can hear the bombs dropping outside. Szpilman tries his best not to be distracted and does a good job until he's forced to stop playing and evacuate the building along with the rest of the staff. Much of the film focuses on how him and his family and all of the other Jews struggle to survive. Unlike mostly everyone else depicted in the film, there seems to be something special about Szpilman. Although he does break down at one point, he mostly holds his head up high thinking that he will live to see a better day. One of the most poingnant scences of the film is when an entire row of city buildings is shown reduced to piles of bricks and rubble. It makes one wonder how anyone could survive through something like that.Szpilman used the piano to reach his plateau in life and it's what gave him a reason for living at least accordiing to this film. No matter what situation he found himself in, he always practiced the piano even when he couldn't strike the keys. This is a very inspirational and uplifting film but has some ugly scenes of people getting killed, suicide and extreme destitution.
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Summary: Music is the Human Language of the Soul
Review: Today, sadly, in our scientific and sterile approach to life, we often attempt to connect and relate the human being to the animal kingdom. This experiment is a false and dangerous road. They are two very different entities. The Nazi Germans succesfully convinced tha masses (over 200 million supporters throughout the world) that a Jew is a sub-human, less than an animal. Throughout Europe the Jews were, unilaterally, deprived of their membership in the human race. No voice, no religion, no words, no hope, and no song. They were hoarded, robbed, and immorally butchered. Man, woman and child. No picture can replay the factual horror. The Jews were known as a people of family, of values, of morals and of traditions based on the Bible. The Germans removed from them their history, their past and forced them to become slaves of the so-called civilized world. The Germans tattoo'd their human skin and burned the skeletons of those "used up" and he ordered them murderd. In this film, we see how one human, born a Jew, watches his own family enslaved, escaping by his personal belief, in music, in his piano, and thereby sustains himself in the face of the surrounding horrible consequnces and certain death. For the Germans, Western classical music is seen as still being a vocabulary of their human race, a trace of their humanity, that somehow serves as a frail but evident bridge between their animal hatred, their evil, and the ultimate good, found in the universal lnaguage of the innocent, music. The film is an excellent portrayal of this concept and how music can and did evoke a human emotion, a sane response, from certain individual guardians of the fires of Hell. Animals do not play the piano. In this film Mr. Polanski has also, unconsciouly, touched on the continuing theme throughout history. How incomplete and too often, unsuccesful, is the Jewish family and its individual Jewish member, as a moral and good Jew, in being an accepted part of the non Jewish society. Too often the music is raised to a higher podium that the human being. This film speaks on behalf of the many millions, most who cannot and will never speak or sing. May their souls in Heaven pray for each of us, in these times where Evil is again challenging mankind and our civilzation.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost....
Review: Great cinematography, great musical score, very good acting....but the story just didn't have enough momentum or direction. We've seen the horrors of the holocaust enough times now that, although still disturbing, aren't enough to carry a picture on their own. I've said all along that there is no need to make another holocaust movie after Schindler's List. That was the perfect movie on the subject in my opinion. The Pianist started off in the same manner that most movies of this genre do, by showing the brutal degradation of the Jews by the Germans as they occupy Poland. However, once the main character Brody is separated from his family, the story begins to stand still. We see him go from hobble to hobble trying to survive, but we don't really get involved with any other characters at this point. In addition, he doesn't have a true "goal" other than to be quiet, hide and survive. For me, the story began to pick up again when he met the sympathetic German soldier. I was immediately interested in the outcome of their meeting since it could have introduced a plethora of precarious and emotional scenes. However, I was only to be dissapointed when it was cut so short by the Russian victory. Also the scene with Brody coming out into the street with the German officer's jacket was a bit hard to swallow, along with the 10 missed shots by the Russians. It may have been true, but it just felt contrived to me.
Rating:
Summary: The Pianist deserves it all
Review: This film moved me to tears. The only other holocaust film I've seen that is as well-made as this one is "Schindler's List". I truly hope the Academy honors this film with Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. It deserves to win in all its' nominated categories.
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Summary: Oscar in the low tide...
Review: Last year was an average year for movies, and the inclusion of Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" among the five Oscar contenders is proof of that. Even if you rate it categorically, as a Holocaust movie, it is average. In more general terms, as a story of one man's triumphant survival against impossible odds, it barely rates above the forgettable "Cast Away" from a few years ago. Adrien Brody may be the only reason to see the movie; he is an interesting actor and a relatively new face on the scene. The most remarkable thing about the story is that it is a true one; that anyone was moments away from being boarded on a train to a concentration camp and escaped is amazing; that he hid out the duration of the war in empty apartments and bombed out buildings seems improbable, and yet it happened. If the events depicted are accurate, much of his survival was due to his talent and notoriety as a pianist; the love of music between captive and captor becomes a common language that transcends political and racial hatreds. The movie is decent, but not one of the year's best. I think "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "About Schmidt" were both better, and have stayed with me a lot longer.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tough Subject... Requires a Higher Message
Review: No doubt, the direction and attention to detail is superb. Polanski leads us through the life of the pianist, as he survives through the Nazi persecutions and atrocies. The desperation within the Warsaw ghetto is numbing, and you really feel the hopelessness and despair that people go through. Sprinkled in are acts of courageousness and goodness. For each demon there is an angel, and this is probably where the strength of the movie is. Despite the terror and the hopelessness, comes on occassion an act of goodness by good people. Yes, the circumstances were desperate, but life is all about hope isn't it? Another holocost survivor, Viktor Frankl, wrote a book called the"Man's Search For Meaning". Frankl says Man searches for meaning within himself, you cannot avoid pain and suffering, you can only control your attitude towards the suffering, to give the suffering some meaning to you. This is exactly what the pianist had to do, faced with insurmountable odds to survive, against not only Nazis, but also hunger, sickness, fear, cold, and psychological pain, he had to survive. However, a film about a Tough Subject needs a Higher Message, and this is where the film loss a star. Many of the scenes although tough to watch, but nevertheless, is nothing new. The audience already knows about the atrocities, the brutality, the desperation. What was the higher message? As I was watching, I kept waiting for the director's message, was it survival against all odds? The brutality of man against fellow man? Or was it the kindness of individuals during desperate times? Or the will of one man's survival? Or all of these? Anyways, a tough movie about a very tough time in our history. We all need to watch this movie to remind us what Man is capable of and to REMEMBER.
Rating: 
Summary: The Pianist
Review: This is, by far, the worst movie I have seen in ages. I hate passive protagonists and, frankly, since Schindler's List, no one has shown me anything new about the Holocaust.
What we have here is a case of the Emperor having no clothes. Everyone is doing backflips because it's Polanski. No. It is heavy-handed, tedious, unrelenting and boring.
When a protagonist is passive it is not possible to connect with him on an emotional level.
By the end, frankly, my dear, I didn't give a damn what happened to him.
Rating:
Summary: Surely one of the greatest motion pictures in years
Review: Where to begin? It is now two weeks since I saw this film, and most of the themes and images portrayed in Roman Polanski's cinematic masterpeice remain as clear as day in my memory. Often shocking in it's portrayal of Nazi brutality, The Pianist follows the true survival story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew during the second world war, who against all the odds, survives life in the Jewish ghetto and subsequent atrocities carried out by the Nazis. While the first hour of the film is very much an ensemble peice, the remianing picture is carried almost solely on the shoulders of actor Adrien Brody, in what has to be one of the best performances by an actor I have ever seen in my life. The Pianist is from the beginning a picture of stark contrasts; the opening shot of Szpilman playing the piano, perhaps the orchestras most pristine, intricate instruement is contrasted just seconds later by the sheer brute destruction of war. It's the profession of a pianist which in large part makes this tale of survival so compelling; someone who has until this point lead a fairly previlaged, cultured lifestyle is forced to survive on so little. The images of Nazis torturing and killing inncoent Jews is itself contrasted by the Jews who co-opperated with Nazi occupation and the Nazi who helps Szpilman survive towards the end of the film - making the point that good and evil aren't always as clearly defined as the ebony and ivory piano keys. Though the film is indeed often shocking in it's portrayal of Nazi brutality, that isn't to say the viewer is manipulated, far from it. The Pianist is seemingly a holocaust movie constructed without sentimentality and compassion primarily in mind, instead Polanski has contructed a story so transparent in production and structure, that the viewer must instead feel these emotions often unaided by swelling violin strings (for a movie with music as one of it's core images, The Pianist has a blissfully simplistic soudtrack)-at which point empathy and compassion for the stories central character and themes becomes all the more profound. Szpilman is not portrayed as a triumphant hero (a hollywood ideal out of reach to the average viewer) he is portrayed as a survivor, nothing more nothing less, and this in turn only increases the viewers admiration of the human spirit Szpilman embodies. Again Brody must again be praised for the ability to carry a character through such changes in situations and mindset, and Polanski for the ability to treat the subject matter so responsible, clearly no one else could have made this picture. It's a rare event indeed when directing and acting come together so perfectly.
The film is littered with unforgettable moments which heighten the stmosphere of the period portrayed: Szpilman's hands hovering over the piano while hearing the music in his head, walking directly towards the camera-crying, surrounded by murder, and the agonising scene where Szpilman walks out to greet a group of Polish survivors in a Nazi coat-for a short time you will think it's all over. Alas there is a rousing finale which makes all you have witnessed previously all the more remarkable. I have never seen a cinema sit so still until the very last of the credits. On a purely critical note the film is not perfect; there is a noticable lull in the middle of the film due to the lack of dialogue, though it could easily be argued this is only meant to heighten the intensity and lonelieness of Szpilman's situation. It frankly digusts me that some critics and industry-watchers have labelled this "Another holocaust movie." Such blatant dis-regard for histories troubles is the very definition of ignorance. Are these the same people who so feverently oppose a war with Iraq? Sometimes I wonder. Overall, The Pianist is a monuemental testament to the evil humanity is capable of, and the spirit which overcomes it.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Movie of 2002.
Review: It's hardly surprising that Roman Polanski would film "The Pianist" and even less surprising that it's the best and most skillfully crafted movie of 2002. Polanski himself is a Holocaust survivor and suffered the loss of his mother who died in the gas chambers. This firsthand experience, along with his talent as a superb filmmaker, enables Polanski to direct this film so brilliantly while snubbing Hollywood conventions. This is easily his third masterpiece, following "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) and "Chinatown" (1974). 29-year-old Adrien Brody is near-miraculous as Wladyslaw Szpilman, the pianist who, through luck and God-given perseverance, survives the Holocaust in the Warsaw ghetto. This isn't a showoffy performance that begs for an Oscar (though it deserves one); like the movie itself, it's quietly elegant and beautifully understated. And while we never actually see the concentration camps, Polanski paints an all-too-vivid picture of one of the most shameful atrocities in history. We witness starvation, senseless killings, and other forms of unfiltered brutality that aren't for the squeamish. But "The Pianist" isn't really about Holocaust but rather about the will and tenacity of the human spirit against frightening odds. Sure, it's a topic that's been covered before, but never in a movie as unforgettable as this. Some films do little more than occupy 2 hours of your time, while others leave an imprint on your soul and may even change the way you view life. At this point, I don't need to tell you which of these two categories "The Pianist" falls into.
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