Review of The Pianist (2002) by Garrett C — 07 Dec 2011

In my honest opinion, The Pianist is a far better film than Schindler's List. The story is of a man who survives against the odds. With this entire family dead he has nothing to live for, except music.

This is already making the film more relatable than Schindler. We can understand more the man who fights for his life rather than a Nazi who doesn't really change until after 2 1/2 hours. The film in my opinion also seems more real than Schindler, possibly due to the fact that Polanski himself is a survivor and knows what's historically accurate and what's not.

The film also portrays the Holocaust less black and white (literally) with good and bad Nazis, good and bad Jews, good and bad Poles, etc. The camera work never calls unwanted attention to itself and only tells us the story.

There are some genius shots though, like Szpilman walking down the road of destroyed furniture or hiding under the stage in the club. I think Polanski's emotions on set may have a made a difference versus Spielberg's extreme emotional feeling on set of Schindler.

Polanski was able to make the movie without sitting in his directors chair crying his eyes out which may have made him more able to make rational decisions on how the film should be made. Polanski makes an all around masterful film, and God only knows why the heck the Academy was stupid enough to give Best Picture to Chicago.