One Scene Not To be Missed

Rating: Null/10 (22 April 2001)

There's a small scene is in this motion picture that, in a way,
actually speaks volumes about the film's subject matter. It occurs
during the aftermath of the Krakow Ghetto destruction, at night,
when the Nazis are digging out the people hiding in the buildings,
hoping to avoid death. One soldier sits down at an upright piano
and starts playing, surrounded by the sounds of gun fire and
people screaming and crying. Two more soldiers stop in the
doorway and banter lightly about whose music he's playing, Bach
or Mozart. I think Speilberg here is trying to emphasize the fact that, even a
supposedly "civilized" and "educated" group of people like the
Germans could be coerced and driven to cold-blooded murder. In
this case, a young German man who no doubt had classical piano
lessons as a child becomes part of a brutal killing machine. It's
small but chilling scene in a very powerful movie.