Too much of a bad thing? Read, I'll explain...

Rating: 7/10 (24 August 2003)

I liked this movie. It was good but, it could have been great (ie Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful) The reason it was not, I felt, was it was excessive. After seeing that many innocent jews executed, killed in battle, or beaten on the street, one just becomes desensitized to it. By the end of the film, I don't believe I felt, or was capable of feeling, anything. I guess the fault lies not entirely with the film. I suppose with the excess of violence this generation is exposed to everyday, Polanski probably felt he needed that much killing in plain sight to tap our emotions. Yet past movies depicting the holocaust have done a much finer job of imprinting how terrible a tragedy it was, and that's why they are great.
But maybe I am wrong - Maybe Polanski was not trying to make a great (in the sense I've been using the word) film, but a simpler story about one man's amazing survival. That is what he has done with The Pianist.