Rating: 
Summary: Unexpectedly monotonous
Review: This book should never have been made into a movie; the narration of the horros experienced by Wladyslaw Szpilman during the Nazi occupation of Poland was published soon after the war ended, and it constituted a powerful and frequently introspective story; I have not read the book, but the critique it has received from Amazon readers is uniformly good (nothing less than four or five star ratings). The truth is that some books simply cannot be transformed into successful motion pictures, and this apparently is one of them. It is an account of how events descended upon a man who remained a passive receiver of uncountable pain and horror; and how, in the end, he prevailed.The ingredients that went into making this movie are all superb and beyond negative criticisms: the script is masterful and Roman Polanski directs with precision and meticulous concern for detail and nuance. Adrian Brody's performance reflecting his physical decay over time, and his increasing anguish, is certainly a tour de force of extraordinary acting. The film's theme of hope and of survival cannot be faulted. And so, why does the final product miss its goal, and become (dare I say it?) tedious? The clue, in Roman Polanski's own words, is this: "The events [Szpilman] describes are not written like a novel, they are written like a journal, and are therefore unfilmable." Exactly. This film consciously attempts to resemble the newsreels of the day; and like newsreels (in general) it provides the visuals and the immediacy of action without furnishing the transformations that lead to truly great art. When my mind started wondering about what kind of lighting was it that made Mr. Brody's ample nose become translucent, and was this being done on purpose, the movie had obviously lost my attention.
Rating: 
Summary: I want my [money] back for the rental fee! ZERO RATING.
Review: A classical pianist surving the Nazi atrocities through the spirit of music-sounds like a great dramatic plot right? Well, it was miserable. Brody should be forced to give back the Oscar, Polanski should stick to flicks like The Ninth Gate, and we ALL knew how horrible the Nazi's were, shooting people in the head and just plain evil, no need to go over it and over it for 2 and a half hours here????!!!!! Brody's entire family is wiped out and you see him staggering down the streets weeping like Deniro in a comical way, as in Analyze This: the worst acting I've seen in a lond time, Brody's speech was better. If you want a killer flick about classical music and struggle, check out Immortal beloved, Amadeus, etc. Stay away from this one. And the DVD bonus features stunk on here also. Very dull. ZERO RATING FROM SCRAGGY'S TOMB OF DVD'S, USA.
Rating: 
Summary: a masterwork by Roman Polanski
Review: This is a stunning portrait of how one Polish Jew survived the Nazi Holocaust. This is the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a concert pianist living in Warsaw. This movie was directed by Roman Polanski (Chinatown). The film opens in Warsaw before any Jews had been put into the ghettos. Szpilman was playing the piano for Warsaw radio. A bomb is heard in the distance. He keeps playing. Another bomb hits, but closer. He is still playing. When a bomb finally blows in the windows and knocks Szpilman across the room, he is forced to acknowledge what is going on. He is cut, but unhurt. He returns home to learn that the Nazis require that all Jews in Warsaw must relocate to a ghetto. After some arguing, the family relocates to the Warsaw Ghetto. This is a movie about the survival of one man during one of the most important and terrible times of the twentieth century. The film never loses the focus of keeping the camera on Szpilman. There is so much more going on than what we see on screen, but in the context of the film, those other things are not important. This is a singular story and it is beautiful and haunting. There are moments of absolute beauty and wonder, and there are moments that are excruciating to watch. We know this is a true story, based on a memoir by Szpilman, but we don't know the details of his experience. The Pianist is a masterpiece by Roman Polanski and it rightfully deserved all of the accolades that it received.
Rating:
Summary: Survival Story
Review: Roman Polanski's The Pianist is the real life story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a Polish Jew who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland. Adrien Brody plays Szpilman and he gives a star-making performance. Szpilman is a concert pianist who plays on Polish radio and as the film begins he is playing on the radio when the area of Warsaw the station is in is bombed. The Szpilman family is defiant at first towards the news of the German occupation, but then like all Jewish families, they are forced to follow the strict rules the Nazis set forth regarding Jews. They are made to move from their spacious and homey apartment into a [cramped], run down space in the designated Jewish ghetto. The family struggles for money, but Wladyslaw is still able to play piano in a Jewish restaurant for meager earnings. Eventually the family is in line to be sent to a concentration camp, but through sheer fate, Wladyslaw is pulled from the line boarding the train and is spared certain death. He then spends time working a slave laborer building the wall separating the Jewish section of Warsaw from the rest of the city. Again, he escapes through the gracious help of others and through the underground resistance is kept hid in an apartment away from detection. Although free from the ghetto, he is a prisoner in the apartment and at the mercy of others. He is facing starvation when he is forced to flee the apartment when it is bombed. He hides out in a hospital for a while and eventually ends up in the bombed out ruins of Warsaw. It is while he is hiding in the ruins that he again faces almost certain death when he is discovered by a German officer, Captain Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann). Hosenfeld speaks with him and asks what Szpilman's profession was and Szpilman replies he is a pianist. There happens to be a piano in the house and Hosenfeld makes Szpilman play. Szpilman plays a gorgeous piece and Hosenfeld is moved to spare Szpilman's life. He brings him food and when the Germans are retreating from the Russians, Hosenfeld gives Szpilman his coat to keep warm. It is the exchange between Hosenfeld and Szpilman that is the heart of the film and shows that despite the horror of war and the atrocities of the Nazis, that the true spirit of humanity can still shine through. Ironically, Szpilman survived the war and went on to continue his career as a pianist and Hosenfeld ended up a prisoner in a Russian war camp where he died several years after the war ended. Mr. Brody is incredible in his part. His facial expressions convey the sense of fear and hopelessness that Szpilman must have felt through his tragic journey. Never once does go over the top, it a truly genuine performance. Mr. Polanski also does a brilliant job of directing. He details the senseless brutality and omnipresence of the German occupation of Poland, but never sinks into gratuitous violence. The film was nominated for seven academy awards including Best Picture. Both Mr. Brody and Mr. Polanski scored unexpected, but richly deserved Oscars for Best Actor and Best Director respectively and Ronald Harwood won the film's third Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best movie ever
Review: I was half expecting this movie to be boring because I didn't think I would like this type of film. Instead, I would say it is without a doubt the best movie I have ever seen. I have never felt so much watching a movie. Adrien Brody and Roman Polanski were hands down the most deserving for the Oscar. I don't see how anyone could not love this film.
Rating:
Summary: The Holocaust . . . again.
Review: Let's face it, Polanski made some concessions with his *The Pianist*. It was a story he wanted to tell, but in order to get it told he had to make it user-friendly -- as in, *Schindler's List*-user-friendly. (Trivia note: Polanski was offered the director's seat for *List* before Spielberg was considered.) Don't misunderstand me: Polanski shouldn't be BLAMED for trying to reach as wide an audience as possible for this important story. I'll go even farther and suggest that the Holocaust is probably an inappropriate topic for a filmmaker to attempt an "art-house" movie: the striving for artistic expression would doubtless come across as ghastly exploitation, given the subject matter and the feelings of the human beings still alive to testify to it. Therefore, *The Pianist* becomes a slick commercial entertainment, complete with action scenes. That's just the way it had to be. But, having said that, I'll risk seeming the philistine by suggesting that if I want slick commercial entertainment, I'll take the same director's *The Ninth Gate* any day of the week. Mr. Polanski's personal experiences in the Warsaw ghetto have influenced any number of his past masterpieces such as *Repulsion* and *The Tenant*, and -- when you think about it -- even schlock like *Rosemary's Baby*: all of these films are basically about a hero's (or heroine's) attempt to escape or overcome an environment of evil that is real or perceived. Is it any wonder that this director is famous for horror films? With *The Pianist*, he attempts to come full circle, perhaps using the life of brilliant pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman as a conduit for autobiography. The film has its moments: the abrupt separation of Szpilman from his family; observing the Ghetto Revolt from Szpilman's safe-house; escaping from another safe-house during an assault by the German Army on a neighborhood teeming with Polish insurgents; and Szpilman stumbling in microscopic isolation through the devastated, shelled-out remains of what had once been a proud city. On the other hand, there are cringe-worthy moments such as when Szpilman's brother quotes from Shakespeare's *Merchant of Venice* that he inexplicably carries around: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? etc." (This is what I meant by Polanski making concessions to popular expectations.) All in all, I recommend the film. I liked the film. But we've seen much of this material in other movies. Perhaps Polanski was too close to this story. Perhaps an artist needs distance from the undying demon that is the Holocaust to attain the sublimity of original vision. However -- and if I may repeat myself -- the Holocaust may not be a subject for Art to grapple with, anyway. If the subject matter doesn't permit the seeking of artistry, perhaps we should treat it in strictly documentary form. You decide.
Rating:
Summary: Such a beautiful movie
Review: I think the movie is taken place in Poland, 1940-1943, during world war two. The movie is about the Jews and were they were taken, and how the pianist got through it. [like the pianist was jewish, but I do not remember his name] ItÂ's also based on a true story.
I coul not be able to see it again, because of all the really hard parts in the movie, but even though, it was really well done.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Chicago, robbed of Best Picture
Review: The Pianist is a dark, grim movie that displays the horrors of the Holocaust and holds nothing back. This is how it should be. The brutal truths of illness, lonliness, suicide combine in what is ultimately the tale of a musician. Yes, he was a Jew, but first and formost he was a pianist. This is a movie that everyone should see and belongs in every DVD collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Polanskis list
Review: One cant help when watching this film if Roman Planski wasnt doing some hidden statement of his own, the brilliant pianist forced to etch out a living apart from the place he knows and loves. Polanski driven from Hollywood forced to Europe. not able to give the world his great gift of film making. Seriosly, it is good to see him score a hit, even though it will no doubt recall Shindlers list to many viewers, the core of the film is the story of one mans survival against all odds.The gritty often graphic film, stirs our emotions as Schindlers did, and once again causes us to hate the inhumanity of that time period, but how many films do we have to see on it to do that. This is an amazing film on its own merit and not everyone will appreciate that. Welcome back Roman.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes survival comes down to just being very lucky...
Review: I full appreciate and endorse the idea that there will be one film in your experience that brings home the horrors of the Holocaust for you, and after that point nothing else has quite the same effect. This is true for me and actually came when I was editing out commercials of the television mini-series "Holocaust," which had none of the graphic depictions found in theatrical films such as "Schnidler's List" and "The Pianist," or even later television efforts such as "War and Remembrance." But just because the full horror truly overwhelms you that first time and never with quite the same force again, does not mean other similar tales are not worth the telling. I know I will never see a film that conveys the horror of war more than the opening sequences of "Saving Private Ryan," but that does not stop me from seeing more movies about World War II. "The Pianist" is an atypical story of a European Jew during this period because the title character, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody is his Oscar winning performance), survives the Holocaust. There is a memorable shot of Szpilman walking down the street of the Warsaw ghetto after the deportation of the Jews and the streets are littered with their possessions. Hundreds of characters in the film, thousands from the ghetto, millions throughout Europe were exterminated by the Nazis. Szpilman is the exception, not the rule. The horror of his survival is that is so random and very little of what Szpilman does contributes to his being alive at the end of the film. The explanation, such director Roman Polanski provides in this film, is that Szpilman has value as a classical pianist, a cultural icon of sorts to the people of Warsaw, whether they are Jewish or not. That is the key factor in the decisions, often impromptu ones, that save Szpilman's life. But there is also the factor of luck, whether it is both German and Russian soldiers being poor shots, or simply where you stand in line. You can see where the story would resonate with Polanski, who was pushed through the fence of the concentration camp by his father, who also survived. In many ways "The Pianist" is a fitting counterpart to "Schindler's List" as a different sort of survivor's tale. In Steven Spielberg's film the story is heroic because of the effort to fight the system and the odds (Oskar Schindler ended a lot high on the list of AFI's Heroes this week than Moses). But there is little of the hero in Szpilman. Instead he is a witness, who often has to do nothing more than look out the window to see both the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the turning tide of the war. He is a mute witness as well, as much by temperament as by his vocation, although there is only one piano piece in the entire film where we sense that he is articulating his feelings rather than playing what he has been told to play. But Brody plays many scenes without ever uttering a word and despite the title very few scenes have music if his character is not the one playing it. 'The Pianist' falls between triumph and tragedy, which may well prove unsettling to many viewers who want the security of provided by such categorization. I have seen comparisons to the second half of this film with 'Castaway,' and while I understand the comparison it falls through simply because Szpilman is a less than active agent in his own survival too many times. But that is just another small reminder that 'The Pianist' is history and not fiction and that the greatest horror is not the we are the victims of a grand design but rather of the arbitrariness of the fickle finger of fate.
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