Passafist Dissects The Pianist using Castaway

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 2003)

Hollywood Sucks! I have just witnessed a cinematic masterpiece, a film that is about characters and events, that's lyrical and beautiful and all I can think of after it is how much of a tool Tom Hanks is. Why is it that after experiencing Roman Polanski's THE PIANIST I can only think of Robert Zemeckis's CAST AWAY? It's a really an eerie feeling, but go with me for a little while. Maybe my ranting will begin to make sense.
THE PIANIST is the powerful and lyrical life story of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrian Brody, Summer of Sam), a Jew living in Poland during World War II. It follows him from a peaceful life as a piano player on polish radio, to the ghetto's of Warsaw, to hiding in empty apartments, and all the while dreaming of life as it once was. CASTAWAY is the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks, The Money Pit) a FedEx employee that gets trapped on a deserted island and in the end talks to volleyball.
How are these two stories similar? They're both about men trying to make through unbelievable circumstances and how they must do it alone. One takes the Hollywood approach, where everything is ambiguously tied up at the end. The other takes a more lyrical approach, where a man returns to what he does best. The Pianist takes the lyrical approach and in the end is more successful a story.
Brody is fantastic. For much of the film he's teetering on that thin line between madness and sanity. Nothing more telling than the scene, in which, Szpilman, whom hasn't eaten in days, finds an unopened jar of pickles. In his attempt to open that jar he is confronted by his worst fear, a German guard standing before him. In a Hollywood film, this scene would be about Szpilman breaking free and running away. But in the PIANST it about him longing for that can of pickles. When he picks it up off the floor he holds onto it for dear life. If his life is not taken by the guard he's got to eat so he's not letting go. It's a small moment that is really powerful.
I contrast that with Tom Hanks teetering on that thin line as well. He has a friend, he talks to a volleyball. But this relationship is far different. This relationship is about giving the actor something to talk to. The most dramatic moment in this film is when he losses the Volleyball. Problem is the film suggests that the volleyball is a character and not a need, like food. This moment is so huge it spoils what should be a moment of discovery for the character. The moment when he can go on without his crutch, but all the audience cares about is a stupid volleyball.
The final moments in THE PIANIST are also small but have strong impact. Moments before the credits roll we see Szpilmann sitting in an open field, wondering what to do next. It then cuts to him doing what he's always done. He's beaten those who have tried to keep him down. It's encouraging but the music doesn't have to swell, and the violins don't have to play. It's a small intimate moment. The scene does not force emotion, but there is much there. It plays with life the way life really is, when the battle is over, we may have changed but we still sometimes go back to what we are good at. He one tha battle and he can play again.
CASTAWAY puts the hero right in the middle of a literal crossroads. What should he do next? The camera circles around him, and he walks down a road. But while Both moments are very similar, this moment is over sentimental. It forces emotions and it fails to move you, you don't really care what road he choses. It kind of diminishes his battle. He has nowhere to go and I'm sure none of us want to follow.
In film sometimes plot is inconsequential. I would have loved to have been trapped on an island with Wladyslaw Szpilman as much as I didn't care about Chuck Noland on an island, and well he'd probably wind up gassed in a polish concentration camp had he come up in that time. That's what is great about Brody's performance, he is in every scene of this movie, and fills the screen with a character of depth and strength. Hanks fills the screen with a character of no depth and mostly surface strength.
It's amazing that I could compare two completely opposite films and explain how one fails and the other one works. But I have found a new film I can call a favorite and another film I can never rent again. One is powerful, the other dull and yet they have two characters that can be very similar.
Do yourself a favor and rent THE PIANST, you won't be disappointed.