Customer Reviews

Pianist, the

5 star:		(142)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Even though barely deserving a rebuttal, some of the reviews here are so beyond asinine that I cannot restrain myself, particularly with regard to those reviewers who had the gall to call Mr. Szpilman a coward. Mr. Szpilman risked immediate death every time he helped to smuggle a weapon or ammunition into the ghetto. The ghetto uprising itself was essentially a suicide mission, and everyone involved probably knew that. So Mr. Szpilman was a coward because he wanted to live, then? How dare you. While I don't believe that any work of art should be above criticism no matter what its subject matter, I have not read a single negative review here that has any remotely intelligent criticism of this film whatsoever. They pretty much describe it as "boring" or "another Holocaust movie." Schmucks. One reviewer couldn't even remember the protagonist's name, yet had no shortage of would-be scathing things to say about the movie. Almost as absurd are the unfavorable comparisons to "Schindler's List." Yes, Oskar Schindler was a great man, but the very straightforward good vs. evil nature of the subject matter must have appealed to Steven Spielberg's very American sensibilities. "The Pianist," on the other hand, boldly treads a ground that is decidedly messier, morally less clear-cut, and I think that only a man like Roman Polanski, who understands the particular time and place where these events transpired, could have made this film. And Adrien Brody fully deserved the Academy Award for this performance. And, yes, he does spend a good deal of time searching like a "rat" for food. What do these buffoons think it means to survive in such an environment? Idiots. Anyhow, this film is a masterpiece, an artistic triumph of the highest rank. The naysayers have not been able to level a single legitimate criticism against it.

The movie "The Pianist" is a moving and beautiful piece that truly deserves better treatment than this unfortunate 'cash grab' by TVA Films. The video maxes out at 1080i (yes, you read that correctly - not (P)rogressive) and the sound is (shudder) only Dolby Digital - not DolbyTrueHD or DTS Master HD. Fans of this movie will need to track down the older HD-DVD copy (if you still have an HD-DVD player that is) to view this movie in true HD video and sound quality. The packaging also seems sub-par with no actual Blue-Ray logo on the plastic (like every other BD disc out there) and the "1080p" gold logo is used on the back (and that is simply inaccurate). The disc, quite frankly, seems more like a bootleg than an actual new release BD. Upconvert your DVD copy of "The Pianist" and save your money. Truly unforgiveable, TVA Films. This film gets 2 stars not for the actual disc itself, but simply due to the high quality of the story and film making effort.

At first I did not want to see this movie, mainly because of the cliche that there are no real good holocaust movies. "Sophie's Choice" was a snooze and too long, "Life is Beautiful" got me rooting for the Nazi's to put old Roberto out of his misery & "Shindler's List" was an abysmal piece of dreck. But with that in mind- this is, after all Roman Polanski- a good if not great director who knows how to tell a story and well. Is this as good as his earlier masterpieces "Repulsion" & "Chinatown"? Well, yes and no. This film works because it is not drenched in sentiment & the characters are real people & not cliches. It also works by focusing on one man's struggle & that fact that he had a love for music- which helped to keep his mind intact (& therby make him more unique). Therefore you begin to care about the characters- & the film moves as in a point by point basis. There are no forced emotions- everything is as is and Polanski leaves it up to the audience to feel the way they want. Also- this film does not label the characters as all "good" or all "bad". There are good Jews and bad Jews. Good Poles and bad Poles. Good Germans and bad Germans, unlike Oscar Schindler who is either ALL bad & then changes to become ALL good. Let us remind ourselves that Hitler and these Nazi's were people just like you and me- who laughed and cried and felt, which is what makes them all the more SCARIER- that they too could be ANY one of us. Kinda freaky if you really think about it. So kick back and give 2 1/2 hrs of your time to learn and enjoy & probably feel depressed at the end.

I didn't enjoy it yes it was well made but it is very overhyped and isn't anything to rave about , Not really worth your time unless you love long dull films.

this is an absolutely brilliant movie set during World War 2.it stars
Adrian Brody as Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman,whose only escape
from the wartime hell is playing the piano.the screenplay is written by
Ronald Harwood,based on the book by the real life Wladyslaw
Szpilman,and is directed by Roman Polanski.the movie is touching and
heartwarming,and also heartbreaking at times.it can be depressing,but
is is also an inspiration.one man survives hell through music.but more
than that that,others too are uplifted and have hope,all because of one
humble pianist.Brody is brilliant ,as always,inhabiting his
character,as he always does.i don't think he's made a bad movie yet.or
at least,he's always been great in every film,even if the film itself
isn't.in this case,though,the film is brilliant. and say what you want
about Polanski,he knows how to direct a movie(we won't count
"Rosemary's Baby").if this film doesn't have an impact on you,i'd be
surprised. 5/5

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but the word 'cowardly' grates on my nerves when describing the action or inaction of the central character. Unless one is in the same situation, how can we know how we'll react? It's unfathomable. We must remember that the persecution, confinement, and ultimate genocide of the Jews in Europe was a process that took many years. The Jews were systematically disenfranchised and dehumanized. Watching the mini-series Holocaust hits this truth home - and there is a scene in Holocaust near the end where the main character and his friend walk resignedly off to the gas chambers...We wonder how, we wonder how 2 armed soldiers could lead twenty men shambling to their deaths....We also wonder how Jews can serve the Nazis in positions of authority over their own people. People survive in different ways. People also, after years of dehumanization, realize the futility of their own actions. When the load becomes too heavy, even death can be a relief. Different people, different situations, different responses....

As far as the character in this movie, and his lack of resistance, we are omniscient observers. We know how long the war will last and how it will all turn out. We know how many Jews are ultimately slaughtered. We understand the motivation of the 3rd Reich. The character doesn't! But he is plucked out of that line and given a chance. He survives by waiting. How do we honestly know if we'd do anything different? One could say that his inaction makes him a hero because he must be warring within himself. The gentle artistic man faced with a world of unimaginable ugliness.

This movie is a treasure.

For the record, let me comment on Dennis Littrell on his same review of this film. I find his opening statement repulsive, as he used the persecution of Jews during WW II as an excuse to justify Zionist persecution against the Palestinians here. Littrell is solely wrong if he thinks The Pianist is a film of Jewish supremacy overcoming all odds. Adrian Brody commented that in Szpilman's book (which this film is based), he narrates his experiences in an objective view. There were not just evil Nazis running around persecuting Poles and Jews, but there good Poles and bad Poles, good Jews and bad Jews and even good Germans among Nazi ranks. Even Polanski allows this in his film, where poor and suffering Jews complain of rich and influential Jews doing nothing to allevate their suffering. You can see the extreme contrast of rich and poor gap where you see the Jews in the restaurant where Szpilman plays the piano and the streets where you can see corpses lying on street, victims of starvation.

In the beginning of the film, the Germans have invaded Poland and the Szpilman family are adjusting their lives to the new ruling of the Nazi Germans. They find their living conditions deteriorate as they are hustled away from their comfortable home to Ghetto and finally to the "melting pot". We see two brothers conflicting with each other as Hendrik, Szpilman's brother did not like the way he supposedly grovel to the authorities and using his privilage as a famous pianist which many Jews may envy. Even Hendrik was ungrateful when his brother freed him from prison. "Are you mad?" Szpilman asked. Hendrik's reply was "That is also my business."

Szpilman's influence was so great that he was spared when his family was sent off to the gas chambers. He lost every one of his family and when he goes back to the Ghetto where virtually all Jews were wiped out, here is a man completely devastated. We see the second half of the movie being akin to The Fugitive where he wriggles away from the claws of ever-suspecting Nazis.

When caught by Captain Wilm Hosenfeld and asked to play the piano, he plays the piano for the first time in a few years he had to be in silence for fear of alerting those around him (in apartment where he lives, he cannot play the piano as to alert everybody around him that there is a hiding Jew). This is one of the most redemptive scenes in the history of film, Szpilman plays the Chopin's Ballade reflecting the ordeal he went through. It is akin to Furtwangler conducting the great Beethoven Ninth in 1942 with battlefield sounds heard from distant.

At this age, where we cannot foretell the conclusion to the Middle East conflict and Americans squandering up their operation in Iraq, the pathetic music of MTV is contrary to music in Szpilman's time. Great music can only be created with great suffering. Gustav Mahler said that if his life flows like a calm meadow, he would not have the ability to compose anything. The classical music age has lost it's Szpilmans, Furtwanglers, Menuhins and the like. When another horrific World War comes, will there be another artist like Szpilman? Time can only tell.

So, a bunch of critics have found THE PIANIST boring and they attribute cowardice to the main character and the Polish Jews in general. Reading their reviews I failed to understand such shallow evaluations. This story is based on a real man's life, the Jew Wladyslaw Szpilman, who, like most Jews in Poland, had no means of defending themselves against the brutal Nazi behemoth. Protesting was tantamount to receiving a death sentence without even perfunctory justice. Most held on to the naïve hope that by obeying the occupiers they could survive the incredible hardship imposed on them. Calling these Jews cowards reveals fundamental ignorance about the facts of their situation. Concerning Szpilman, he became a lone fugitive because he was forcefully removed by the Jewish Ghetto police--supposedly as an act of selective kindness--as he was being herded with his parents and siblings to board the cattle cars heading for the death camps. From that point on he had no choice but to find aid and seek refuge as best he could. A coward would have given up or tried to collaborate with the enemy. He did neither.

Those who found the film to be boring must have missed the violence, the brutality, the cruelty, the tension, the agony, the fear, the conflict, the starvation, the disease, and, yes, the courage which was so plentifully and superbly acted out. The production has as faithfully as possible portrayed all the elements of the Jews' plight in Warsaw during the war. The director, Roman Polanski, was the best man for leading this project since he himself experienced ghettoization, flight from the Nazis and the loss of family members in the death camps. (The recent accusations levelled against him for sexual transgressions while he lived in the US should in fairness not influence how this movie is judged.)

The music is of course intimately apropos. When Szpilman had no reason to go on living the love he had for playing his music gave him the hope and courage to survive. As fate had it, a German officer with became his benefactor because he shared his love for music. This is a remarkable movie on so many points. It thoroughly deserved its three Academy Awards, especially the one for best actor played with remarkable sensitively by Adrien Brody.

The pianist is a film based on the life of Wladyslaw Sziplam, a Jewish pianist. It is set in
German labour camps and the Warsaw ghetto. The ghetto is populated by Jews who have been placed there by the Nazis during the Second World War. The ghetto is basically a prison, with no one being allowed to leave, and is surrounded by German guards. I found this film very sad at times and caught myself with tears in my eyes on more than one occasion. This film made me feel quite emotional.

It never ceases to amaze, sadden me and even
give up hope for mankind when human beings commit such atrocious, brutal, sadistic and inhuman acts such as those committed by the Nazis during the second world war.
Maybe the saddest thing of all is that such acts continue today in the 21st centaury, and that many countries ignore blatantly ignore what is going on around them because there is no political or financial gain to be had. That is of course unless oil is involved.

The only thing that gives me hope is the absolutely incredible strength, courage, tenacity, ingenuity and resilience demonstrated by mankind when faced with adversity. Adversity at times it seems, brings out the best in most people ( not all) in terms of caring and sharing.

If only we could all live in harmony and share.

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.