A Jewish musician trying to survive the German occupation of Warsaw

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2015)

Released in 2002, "The Pianist" is Roman Polanski's account of the real-life Hebrew pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) whose family was banished to the Warsaw ghetto with thousands of other Jews after the German invasion. Szpilman is separated from his family members when they're carted off to be slaughtered and does whatever he must to survive until the Allies defeat Germany. He's dependent on others while hiding out and, like they say, sometimes help comes from the most unexpected sources.
Like 1993's "Schindler's List," "The Pianist" is a thoroughly realistic WWII drama that addresses the Holocaust with flashes of violence and atrocities, only marred by the stereotypical boorish depiction of practically every member of the Wehrmacht. Needless to say, you have to be in the right mode for a movie like this and you have to be willing to invest a solid hour before things get interesting; by the final hour you'll be hooked until the end; that is, unless you have ADHD and consume only cartoony "blockbusters."
Some have complained that Szpilman's a lousy protagonist for this type of movie because he never does anything heroic and essentially waits it out. Answer: That's why it's called "The Pianist" and not "The Warrior Jew" or "Rambo 5: Kraut Killer." He was a simple musician who did what he could to survive, but that's not all he does; he also smuggles weapons into the ghetto, which are used later in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. When he eventually hides out in various apartments he doesn't have a weapon. What's he supposed to do, run into the streets and take on German soldiers by himself with a club or a kitchen knife? Even going out with a machine gun would've been foolish and suicidal. Szpilman's a survivor who does some minor heroic things. For those who demand a more standout hero, look no further than Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann); he's the hero of the story.
The movie effectively shows the pianist's view of the war, which is the window through which the viewer observes the historical events. "Schindler's List" shows the Holocaust through the eyes of a Gentile who observes the machinery of the Holocaust from the top and views both Nazis and Jews from a position of safety. Oskar Schindler naturally had a more panoramic, birds-eye view of the Holocaust whereas "The Pianist" shows the Holocaust through the eyes of a Jew who observes the machinery of the Holocaust from the bottom and sees both Nazis and Jews from a position of danger. The former is a better film for understanding the machinery of the Holocaust while "The Pianist" is a better film to watch if you want to know what it was like to experience the Holocaust first hand as an ordinary Jew.
The movie runs 2½ hours and was shot in Poland (including Warsaw where the events in the movie take place) and Germany.
GRADE: B+