The Pianist DVD > Reviews

Advantages: Moving, complex, intelligent, beautifully directed
Disadvantages: Harrowing - but this subject matter needs to be

In the 1930s, Wladyslaw Szpilman was known as the most accomplished piano player in Poland, and possibly in Europe. He was also a Jew. After the war he wrote a book documenting his personal ordeal after the German invasion of Warsaw in September 1939 until the liberation by the Russians in 1945. In "The Pianist" Roman Polanski takes Szpilman's true story and commits it to film. The film won 3 Oscars (Direction - Roman Polanski, Best leading actor ... Read review

Advantages: incredibly moving, superbly acted
Disadvantages: very disturbing

...piece of art, or should the subject matter override all other considerations? I studied Holocaust literature and film at university, and this was a debate we often had. We came to no conclusions. So please excuse me if I seem to come from what to you is an insignificant arty-farty perspective, or if, on the other hand, you think I let the subject take over and cloud my judgement. I find myself in something of a quandary. The Pianist begins in war-time ... Read review

Advantages: Superbly filmed, excellent performance by Brody
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little too long

'I'd like to see The Pianist,' suggested Mrs P on Sunday evening. 'why don't you slip it in?' Resisting the overwhelming temptation to drag this review down to de basement of smutty innuendo, I bit my lip and hunted down the DVD. THE PIANIST is a film I'd been looking forward to watching for some time, and thanks to British TV's complete lack of worthwhile viewing on a Sunday night, I had the opportunity. I mean, after you've watched 'Last of ... Read review

Advantages: Great acting, great direction
Disadvantages: Too real, too brutal

This is one of the most powerful war movie I’ve ever seen. It is powerful not because of extraordinary special effects, not because of exhilarating battles, but because it just tells the history as it was: brutal, murderous, unbelievable cruel. The movie narrates the story of a very talented polish pianist, his name being Wladyslaw Szpilman, in Warsaw, before the World War II, during the German regime and it stops just after the Russian liberation ... Read review

Advantages: Beautiful, realistic, excellent acting, inspiring direction.
Disadvantages: Upsetting, graphic violence - but necessary, considering the subject matter.

...start to review one of the most amazing films I have ever seen? When I first heard about The Pianist, I knew immediately that it was something I would have to see. I read a lot about World War II, my main interests being Hiroshima, the Holocaust and Anne Frank. So the subject area of the movie was enough to attract my attention. For once, I didn’t care who acted in it. I hired this out on DVD for my birthday, but watched it the day after. ... Read review

Advantages: Very emotional and powerful, great acting
Disadvantages: Drags towards the end

The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski, tells the true story of a Polish, Jewish pianist, named Wladyslaw Szpilman. He lives in Warsaw with his mother and father and three siblings, but after Germany invades Poland in 1939, they find themselves forced into the Warsaw Jewish ghetto by the Nazi police who control the city. After a couple of years of living in dreadful conditions, the rest of his family are herded onto a train along with thousands of ... Read review

Advantages: Great performances, fantastic direction,emotionally intense
Disadvantages: Not meant for sensitive people,some of the scenes are too shocking

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. Pastor Martin Niemöller One of the memorable poems composed in honor of the Holocaust. As ... Read review

Advantages: Makes you appreciate your freedom
Disadvantages: Harrowing

If you believe that the cinema exists purely to entertain, don’t go to see The Pianist. If, on the other hand, you believe it should inform and educate then this film does both of those things and, in my opinion, it is an absolute masterpiece. Roman Polanski’s harrowing tale of the Holocaust is based on the true life story of Polish concert pianist, Wladsyslaw Szpilman, a part for which the virtually unknown Adrien Brodie quite fittingly won this ... Read review

Advantages: Roman Polanski as director,quarantee for a great film
Disadvantages: Very cruel

...one. THE MOVIE 1st of September 1939. The Germans are invading Poland. The famous Polish-Jew pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, works in the National Radio of Warsaw, which is destroyed by a German bomb, while he was playing a melody of Sopen. Things changed in Warsaw very dramatically and very soon Szpilman, along with his family, are closed in a ghetto in Warsaw. Very soon after, the Germans were sending people from the Jewish community to ... Read review

Advantages: Historic, emotionally charged, true story
Disadvantages: Very Emotional

The Pianist is similar in context and emotional strength to Schindler's List. It portrays the true horror and darkness held and influenced by the Nazi authorities in Warsaw throughout the Second World War. Roman Polanski directs this masterpiece of historic values and fact based portrayal of the life of Polish Jew Wladyslaw Szpilman. A romanticized pianist whose love for music and the piano is shattered by the invasion of the Nazi's in his home ... Read review

Advantages: An amzing overview of the nazi persecution
Disadvantages: True to life is quite desturbing

...that shows Nazi persecutions of the Jews from mainly the perspective of a talented Jewish pianist and composer Wladyyslaw Szpilman, it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including best picture and winner of 3 . This film is very educational and shows every step in which the Nazi's took to eradicate the Jewish people. It starts of with the little things such as Jews having to were stars on there arms and are not aloud in certain places such as the ... Read review

Advantages: Very moving, sickening and well written and acted film
Disadvantages: Probably overshadowed by 'Schindler's List'

...in this harrowing drama about the holocaust in Poland, perhaps the new 'Schindler's List'. Brody plays Wladyslaw Szpilman, an excellent Jewish pianist living in Warsaw at the time of the outbreak of World War Two. The Nazis come in to take over the country and soon impose the restrictions on Jewish lifestyle that history will not, nor should it ever, let us forget. Szpilman's family are moved to the ghetto and live in poverty under the disgusting ... Read review