The Pianist (Full Screen Edition)
by Roman Polanski
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Actor: Adrien Brody, Emilia Fox, Frank Finlay, Michal Zebrowski, Thomas KretschmannDirector: Roman Polanski
Brand: BRODY,ADRIEN
Producer: Alain Sarde
Producer: Daniel Champagnon
Producer: Gene Gutowski
Producer: Henning Molfenter
Producer: Lew Rywin
Writer: Ronald Harwood
Writer: Wladyslaw Szpilman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Live, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Pianist (Full Screen Edition)
DVD Review: A Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
What a relief it was to realize that great movies are still being made! This movie is the best Holocaust movie I've ever seen and it will certainly invite comparisons to "Schindler's List". Both movies are epic in scope and bring the reality of the Holocaust to life in human terms. However, "Schindler's List" was made, I felt, as a tribute to the risks that an ordinary man took and the difference that it made in the lives of many people. It gave us an uplifting message in a sea of depravity. It did it well and it stands on its' own merits. "The Pianist", if I'm interpreting it correctly, is about the survival of one man who witnessed the whole scope of the Nazi Occupation of Warsaw. Through his eyes we see the fall of Warsaw, the implementation of the "Jewish Laws", the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto, the forced exodus of the Jews to the concentration camps, the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, the Warsaw Uprising, and the fall of the German Army to the invading Russian Army. So many aspects of so many things are brought in subtle and in boldly stated scenes. It is amazing how much is said in this 2 1/2 hour movie. For example, there was one brief scene where a Jewish policeman makes a comment to a German soldier while hundreds of Jews are being loaded on the railroad cars for shipment to Treblinka. I couldn't hear what was said and I was going to replay it to see if I could pick it out better. However, I realized that I had already gotten the point; the Jewish cop had sunk so low that he was trading "shop talk" humor with his own oppressor while his people were being led to the slaughterhouse. The acting is superb throughout the movie. The cinematography is outstanding. Everything comes together in such an excellent manner. Roman Polanski certainly deserved his Oscar and I will leave it at that. There is much in this movie that earned its' R rating. However, that is because it boldly attempts to bring us face to face with the horror of the Holocaust. I have seen an endless number of movies that have been R rated for no valid artistic reason except that they are full of unnecessary vulger obscenities and sexual explicity. It's becoming a near impossibility to find a movie that my son and I can watch together. I can watch this movie with my son and explain to him how anger, fear and prejudice can, if left unchecked, lead to the unthinkable becoming reality. A number of people ridiculed the criticism of the uncut showing of "Schindler's List" on TV. How can people object to 4 letter words and ignore the greater obscenity of the murders of so many innocent people, they asked. But by eliminating the unnecessary use of profanity and sexual explicitness, we are able to focus on the real profanity and obscenity of what is happening in front of us. Apparently it takes Roman Polanski to show this to Hollywood.
A final note about the movie has to do with its' ending. I discovered some years ago that Holocaust literature, by its' nature, is not given to happy endings. The story of survival is, to many, a happy ending of sorts but most stories of the Holocaust leave a person feeling empty. This is true in "The Pianist" as well. There is an interesting twist that, in any other movie, would lead to a positive statement. We are lead down this path in anticipation of such an ending only to encounter a sudden dead end. In analyzing our disappointment, we get a glimmer of the sense of meaninglessness that the Holocaust brought to its victims. It is a statement consistent with Polanski excellent portrayal of the Holocaust.
Description of The Pianist (Full Screen Edition)
Tells the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and talented musician who escapes after his family is rounded up for deportation by the Nazis, to live in the ruins of Warsaw.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 17-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD
Winner of the prestigious Golden Palm award at the 2002 Cannes film festival, The Pianist is the film that Roman Polanski was born to direct. A childhood survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Polanski was uniquely suited to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Unlike any previous dramatization of the Nazi holocaust, The Pianist steadfastly maintains its protagonist's singular point of view, allowing Polanski to create an intimate odyssey on an epic wartime scale, drawing a direct parallel between Szpilman's tenacious, primitive existence and the wholesale destruction of the city he refuses to abandon. Uncompromising in its physical and emotional authenticity, The Pianist strikes an ultimate note of hope and soulful purity. As with Schindler's List, it's one of the greatest films ever made about humanity's darkest chapter. --Jeff Shannon
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