My favorite WWII movie

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2013)

Yes that may be an overstatement and I haven't seen Schindler's List yet. But still this is my favorite WWII even after seeing Saving Private Ryan.
The movie does an excellent job of portraying the very talented Jewish piano player, Wladyslaw Szpilman. He starts out as a nice and honorable piano player for the local radio. But as the Nazis invade Poland his live gets more and more difficult. After numerous changes including armbands declaring their Jewish, confining them to a very small area, basically starving them.
He does what he can to survive and eventually get's taken away from his family which brings out this whole spree of bad luck for him. He works hard labor building a wall and gets beaten there. He gets outside of the dreaded wall and gets moved into an apartment. Complications eventually force him to move to a different one. Then the uprising of the Jews begins and he is forced to live in an abandoned hospital then in a destroyed town. He there meets a kind Nazi General who helps him. Until the Russians come in.
I think it's important to note Wladysaw's evolution in the movie. He starts out as, like I said before, an honorable guy. Then he starts becoming, as the Nazi's start cracking down, instead of a nice guy he becomes this food scrounging guy who has a limp and is desperate for anything. It's kind of comical and very sad at the end he has this can of vegetables that he carries around because its his only source of food. He holds it in a way which makes it seem like it's his baby.
In conclusion, the directing, acting, lighting, visuals, everything about this movie is great it explores the struggle to survive and the cruelty of man towards a certain race all because of a scapegoat. It is currently my favorite WWII and goes up there with the great WWII movies like, Saving Private Ryan.