Sadly, I've seen this same story many times before

Rating: 4/10 (20 March 2020)

I'm just going to bite the bullet and say something that is potentially quite ugly and offensive, so I'll apologize in advance for how this makes me sound. I've seen enough of the Holocaust. I know it was probably the ugliest and most horrendous moments in humanity's history. I know that Nazis did unspeakably awful things to Jews. I know that life for anyone Jewish was unbearable, for however long they could keep their lives. But over the years I've seen so many films on the subject, my emotional reserves have been used up. I couldn't muster a tear for Wladyslaw Szpilman's struggle, and almost feel like I've become desensitized to scenes of Jews being carted off to concentration camps or shot in the streets. My brain still sees the horror and hates that this was reality, but my heart has been drowned in similar shots in countless movies to the point where it can't continue to break every time I see it. In fact, I just watched a couple of similar films based on the true stories of Jews fleeing the Holocaust within the last month, so perhaps it was just bad timing.
I think the other reason that The Pianist didn't connect with me as well as any number of similar stories is the passive role that Szpilman plays in his own story. In many ways he is merely an observer of what happens. His story is about fleeing, watching, and others helping him. Once his family is removed from the equation, we don't form much of a bond with anyone else we see suffering. I'm not suggesting he did anything wrong, in fact his story is quite impressive. However, when I've seen films about people inside the concentration camps, or forced to endure heinous acts of cruelty, it's hard to be as impacted by a guy who is hiding. I hope this doesn't make me sound too much like a monster, and I certainly didn't hate The Pianist. In fact, I was looking forward to hearing him play more, because the actual music was marvelous. It's impossible to be bored by a movie like this, because there's always some new horrible thing around the corner. I guess my standards for movies in this genre have just been raised too much, and it will take something truly original or outstanding to hit me with the power of Holocaust movies that came before.