Review: The Pianist

The Pianist Directed by Roman Polanski, tells the story of a Polish Jew, a classical musician, who survived the Holocaust through bravery and plain old good luck.
The film is based on the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman (the Pianist), who was working at his job for a  Warsaw radio station when the first German bombs fell (which is the first scene in the movie). Szpilman's family was prosperous and financially secure, and his immediate reaction was, "I'm not going anywhere." As the film begins we watch as the Nazi grip tightens. His family takes heart from reports that England and France have declared war so they believe surely the Nazis will soon be defeated and life will return to normal.

The Pianist is in my top twenty greatest films of all time, and I would put it in my top three war movies, next to Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's list. This movie doesn't go into detail of a concentration camp as does Schindler's List nor does it go into the battle field like saving private Ryan does. It goes into the life a Polish Jew trying to avoid capture of Nazi occupied Poland. Roman Polanski shows us what it was like to live more like 'survive' in the Jewish Ghetto during World War II. There are a lot of reasons why I love this film, the first being the amazing acting that is shown. Adrian Brody stars as Wladyslaw Szpilman and actually won the Best Actor at the Academy Awards and I believe he was the youngest in history to receive the award.

With great acting you need great directing and I think Roman Polanski did a superb job envisioning this movie. Polanski shows Szpilman as a survivor not as a fighter or a hero, as a man who does all he can to save himself from death. I read that Polanski himself was also greatly effected by the Holocaust. His mother like Szpilman's was also killed in the gas chambers, and I can only imagine how hard this movie must have been for Roman to create. To conclude this movie is a must watch, its acting, directing and envisioning brings the audience to the front steps of WWII, and shows us an unique window into the life of a Jew that is trying to survive in the memory of his family.