Gives the disgusting message: "It's okay to abuse women"

Rating: 2/10 (15 April 1999)

"The Piano" gives the message: it's okay to abuse women because they will end up falling in love with you anyway. There have been famous trials where the keepers of "sex slaves" have held their defense as being that their captors fell in love with them, so what they did was justified. This is the same message that is given by "The Piano". In the film, we are supposed to believe that a woman is "forced" to marry a man that she doesn't care for, as if she had no choice; thus, women are portrayed as animals rather than humans - having no free will. Like the movie "Radio Flyer" which had abused children overcome their victimization through fantasy, "The Piano" has the woman take out her frustrations by playing her piano. She insists that it be taken to her new home - a remote location. Her will seems to be strong here, even though we are to believe that her will was not there when "forced" into marriage. Incidentally, she is mute but obviously not deaf. She further "escapes" being with her husband by taking piano lessons from a man that begins molesting her - played by one actor who could pull this off (Harvey Keitel). We are given a very clear message that she cannot stand this - which seems right. But, suddenly, she falls in love with him. He is slimy and sleezy. Her husband finds out, but, surprisingly, he doesn't seem to mind - he hides in the piano to watch their goings on. But then he forbids her to see him. She writes him a brief love-note which her husband intercepts and reacts violently to this. Hmmm...he didn't mind watching them in the act, but when he finds out that she writes him a love note, he goes mad? Strange. I won't give away how the story ends; you are probably sick to your stomach already. No film could paint such a degrading view of women. The film is pro macho man and anti-woman. Its only redeeming value is the beautiful music and symbolism of the piano which seems to be the source of all the evil. (2 out of 10)