I would recommend this movie to people who are interested in the holocaust, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everybody because the movie is too strong and traumatizing. It shows what really happened, but many scenes are very inappropriate for people to see.
The Pianist is a very good movie. It shows another point of view of the holocaust, in this case, the point of view of a Jew. The interesting aspect of this movie is that Wladeck Szpilman never went to the concentration camp. This story is different.
Wladeck Szpilman was a very good pianist that would play in the polish- radio. Unfortunately, Szpilman was a Jew and Poland was being invaded by Nazi power. It all began with the boycott against Jews. Even though Wladeck was with all his family, they were passing through a very difficult time with no money and a scarce diet of only potatoes and bread. When there was the new law that every Jew had to be marked with the Star of David, things started to get complicated. Jews were not able to walk on the sidewalk or enter restaurants or sit on benches. They couldn’t do anything. After Hitler decided to quicken things up, all the Jews were sent to a place only for Jews, these were the ghettos. Szpilman and his family had to leave all their belongings and live in an abandoned apartment. The ghetto walls were closed separating the Jews form the non- Jews. Many were dying of starvation or disease, but Wladeck continued playing the piano in a restaurant to lighten things up. The Nazi started persecuting Jews throughout the ghetto and killing them. There was news that the Jews were being moved to another place, a concentration camp. With fear of his family, Wladeck had to get a workers license for all the family. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Before getting into the train, a Nazi soldier pushed Wladeck away telling him he had saved his life, but Wladeck had been separated from his family. Wladeck had to start working with other Jews by undoing the ghetto wall. The Nazis with fear of an uprising would kindly let one of the Jews go outside the wall and get food for their companions. Even though, the Jews started an uprising bringing secretly guns inside the food inside the ghetto. Before the revolt, Wladeck asked a companion to make contact to a non- Jew friend to take him out. There was good news for Szpilman because he would go out very soon. After he escaped, he went to his friend’s house where he was taken to another house. They hid him in an apartment that was near the ghetto wall, so Szpilman had the view the revolt and how the Nazis killed his companions. Sadly, Wladeck received the news that his friend{s had been captured and killed. He decided he would take his chances in the apartment until one day the neighbor discovered him. He had to run away to an emergency address were his radio friend, Jurek, sister, Dorota, received him. He was locked in another apartment and another person would care for him. The problem was that that person was careless and Wladeck was dying of hunger. When Dorota came to say goodbye, the found Wladeck almost dead. After getting cured, many things started to get worse. Poland was fighting against the Nazis, so they started bombing the buildings and killing innocent people. Wladeck was trapped inside and his apartment was bombed. After almost being shot and almost falling off the building, Wladeck survived. He had to stay in the bombed hospital in front until the Nazis came again. They burned the hospital and Wladeck had to run away again. He had to hide in a half destroyed apartment. Desperate, he found a can of food. When he was trying to open it, a Nazi captain found him. He immediately recognized him as a Jew, but instead of turning him in, he asked him to play the piano. The Nazis installed in that apartment, but Wladeck would hide in the attic. The general would bring him food every day. The captain told him he needed to wait a few weeks because the Russians were invading. After leaving, the general gave him his jacket for the winter. He also asked him his name. Some days later, Wladeck heard car engines and saw the Russians. He came out, but he forgot he had the Nazi jacket. He was almost shot until a soldier recognized he was polish. They asked him why the jacket and he said he was cold. Many Nazi soldiers were captured and Jews were freed. When a group of Jews passes nearby a Russian ¨jail¨, one of the Jews started insulting and spiting. He mentioned about his violin when a Nazi soldier asked him about Szpilman. It was the general who asked for him and told the Jew to tell Szpilman he was there. Szpilman started again his life playing for the polish radio. He lost all his family. When the violinist told him about the general, Wladeck immediately went to the ¨jail¨, but it wasn’t there anymore. The only thing they knew about the captain was that he died some years later in a Russian ¨jail¨ and that his name was Wilm Hosenfeld.
I think that the worst thing that could happen to Wladeck is that it lasted too long. All the suffering and fear was too much and surviving but with all your family and loved ones gone doesn’t make sense to survive. If he could still be with his family, it would be okay surviving all those events, but in the end, Wladeck was alone. He survived all that suffering to suffer more.
I think that the Nazi captain helped Wladeck because he though himself in that same position and he thought of his family. He knew that Wladeck wasn’t a bad person or anything and he didn’t deserve to die shot or by starvation. In the end, many Nazi soldiers were captured and had to go through a small part of the Jews suffering.
The director´s survival of the Holocaust made the story of Wladeck have more meaning and what Jews truly experience. The director had life experienced all this so he was able to show the real situation.
The story really impacted me. It shows s the brutal and atrocious way of humans. I can’t believe people could have such a heart, torturing with fear and killing for no reason. How could someone be able to survive in those conditions? It may be worse than hell. Thousands of Jews living in such a small place with almost no food or medical care. Fighting for survival is almost impossible. What is more valuable is that many of them kept their faith.
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