Don't waste your time on this movie

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2003)

Against my own principle, never to see an Oscar winning movie, I rented "The Pianist" because I myself play the piano pretty well and wanted to see some good virtuoso playing. What a disappointment. There was almost no piano playing, only the usual nonsense of how nastily the Germans behaved to humble, talented Jews. The entire movie was so "outre" that I actually laughed when a German officer pulled out his Luger and shot a Jewess to death for asking "Where are we going?" How ridiculous can this myth of the Jew suffering at the hands of persecutors become? Polanski is merely cashing in on this formula of the suffering Jew to get an Oscar, following the footsteps of Spielberg, Benigni and others of this ilk, milking the story of the Holocaust for all it's worth. As for the piano playing, forget it. There was an emasculated rendering of Chopin's Ballade in G minor and a couple of sentimental piano pieces. I play much better stuff than this. My rating for the movie is a -10 out of +10. Don't waste your time and money on this claptrap.