Clueless Polanski's Holocaust Cliche

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2003)

This movie has been made before (Shindler's List) and was a lot better that time. Polanski might never have seen a holocaust movie before because he treats every scene of Nazi brutality as if it's something new and shocking rather than something that's been filmed one hundred times already.

His action sequences are some of the worst ever and his special effects laughable. Every "uprising" scene is obviously shot on the same section of street, every "burning building" is the obviously the same set, and every random death scene is just that--a random death scene. No reason to be there, has nothing to do with the story, it's just thrown in there for background, even though the background is totally obvious. Lots of people have talked about Polanski's "personal touch" but this movie is impersonal holocaust porn. When things get boring, Polanski tosses in a "people getting shot/burnt/shipped off" scene although they have no connection to the story.
Polanski has nothing to say. The Pianist is indistinguishable from a dozen other movies about the fate of the Warsaw Jews except by its relative technical ineptitude and overlong running time. Whatever "power" this film has is derived exclusively from its subject matter and not its artistic presentation.
There's a good 20min movie in here somewhere. The rest is pointless filler, done far better by a half dozen other directors.
RstJ