See the Pianist - Especially Now

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2004)

A movie about the atrocities committed during WWII could not be more timely to watch than now, at a time when George Bush is comparing the "War on Terrorism" to WWII - odd since depending on what your politics are you might think that lately the US is acting more like the Nazis in this film than the rescuing Russians, with the common people of Afghanistan, Iraq and the US, like the Pianist, being caught in between as the inadvertent, non-politicized victims of the ideological/political war between the government of fascists and fundamentalists. Roman Polanski does a tremendous job of portraying the brutality and ugliness of war, and the beauty of human individuality when mercy, kindness, and love are demonstrated in the face of it. If all the political leaders with their agendas today were forced to sit in a room and watch this together, I wonder what they would say afterwards about it. Polanski had made a movie that will haunt those who see it forever -- a cinematic revelation that wisely reminds us--"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." It makes me hope that if perhaps if more love, kindness, mercy and understanding were demonstrated in politics today, we might be able to get further toward global peace. Using words like "Axis of Evil" on our side, and the terms fanatical fundamentalists use to describe us, only fan the flames of hatred - it does not help to put them out.