The Pianist is a film rich with details about a pianist's life to overcome the Holocaust, and to return to the thing he most loves. The Piano. Wladyslaw Szpilman is a Polish Jew, who was caught in the middle of World War II. He started out as a piano player over the radio, before the radio station got bombed. Then, as time progressed, he learned and knew he would, literally, need to fight for his life. So, after a friend helped him escape the cattle cars, he went to get a job. His job then was not playing pianos, but ultimately aiding the rebellion of Warsaw Jews, by tossing guns over the walls of the ghetto. After the rebellion failed, he felt he had no hope left, but to survive. He survived over a period of more than 3 years, finally, getting a chance at life and the Piano he so much adored.
What surprised me about the pianist is that it does not have the true one-sidedness that other Holocaust films have. It doesn't have the always joyfulness and sacrifice of “It's A Beautiful Life”. But, it lacks the seriousness of the times in “Schindler's List”. It shows the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman, in a dark, smooth setting. It does have violent settings. Like, the scene where he witnesses a burning man fall from a window. But, the story gets more heart wrenching as the movie continues. The landlord, suspecting he is a Jew, then forces him out of his home. Adrian Brody plays the main character well. His actions and feelings blend in with the everyday survival life his character has to live, in order to survive. At some points in the movie, I was poised on my seat, waiting to see if he would survive, unlike the rest of his family, or die.
However, I thought that this film could have had more time to explain more about the character's life and what his attitude was. The only things this film really stressed was that he was a family person and loved to play the piano. Also, the film could've brought us into what Szpilman was really thinking. I didn't do this; therefore, we had to guess what was really going through Szpilman's mind. Overall, this is a great movie showing the experience of one Holocaust survivor, and his return to the Piano in order to cope with his losses.
