The Pianist (2002)
When speaking of holocaust movies, people usually refer to either The Pianist, or Schindler’s List. Some speaks of the two as if they’re the same - but they’re not ~ The Pianist is about a single man in his pathetic attempt at surviving the horrors of Third Reich, while Schindler’s is about a man saving a thousand men, women, and children.
While I was watching The Pianist, I asked myself, “was there anything about the man that distinguished himself above the rest to the point that he deserved saving?” After the movie, I realized that was an irrelevant question — all men deserved to live and he didn’t have to be special for others to care about him. Despite this realization, I found The Pianist to be painfully boring and long. His trials and tribulations, as horrific as they may have been - weren’t presented in a way that made the audience (me in particular) sympathized with him. I mean, the man was going through hell, yet he had unlimited supply of hair care products! Not only that, his physical appearance remained unchanged throughout his ordeal! WTF!
During the movie, I would feel my eyelids shutting slowly and my mind going blank… only to be jerked awake by gun blasts or loud noises. The cycle would repeat, and he was still crawling through places, and peeking through windows or holes to see others get killed. This must be what Ricky felt like as he watched the first part of Schindler’s - however, unlike Schindler’s, where the man changed for the good, and struggled to save every everyone, The Pianist trudges on, with the man dreaming about playing the piano and eating cucumbers. I suppose in the end, if he was even remotely likable, then the movie would’ve been a lot better for me. Hell, at the end of the movie, he went back to playing the piano, smiling all nice and sweet as if nothing wrong ever happened with his world in particular… the man just cared about himself. What about Majorek?! The Pianist didn’t care! He doesn’t care about anyone! So, I didn’t care about him either. I wish there were more parts edited out.
It’s really Roman Polanski’s fault for ruining Pianist… it’s a damn good thing he didn’t get to direct Schindler’s back in 1993 when it was offered to him. I know Polanski also survived the horrors of WWII, but that doesn’t mean he gets an automatic thumbs up. The Pianist really sucked balls, I would not like to watch it again.