March 01, 2012
The Pianist
The Pianist is a great movie based on a true story. The movie is set in the1940s at the
beginning of the Holocaust during World War II. The film begins with a black and white scene.
Wladyslaw Szpilman (played by actor Adrien Body), a famous Polish Jew living in Warsaw, and
working for a radio station as a Pianist sees bombs dropping at the radio station where he works.
After the radio station is destroyed by an explosion from German bombing he leaves the station,
and he meets a pretty lady named Dorota (played by actress Emily Fox), but they discover they
have different faiths. Szpilman then heads home to his family. Szpilman …show more content…
The film, directed by Roman Polanski, received numerous nominations such as the Oscar
for the best director, best adapted screenplay and best actor. This film successfully portrays a
true story in memory of Wlydslaw Szpilman a Polish Jewish pianist who survived the Holocaust.
This movie has different effects. One example of this is when the Jews are forced to live in the
ghettos and wear armbands imprinted with the blue Star of David to identify themself. All Jews
weather rich or poor are put to live together where food is hard to find and death awaits them all.
One of the scenes that made me feel sad is when a group of soldiers go into the apartments
across from Szpilman, and they order the family on the top floor of the apartments to stand and
Soto 2
because the older man in a wheelchair is unable to stand, two of the soldiers throw him off the
balcony. The rest of the family is then taken out into the street and shot. This scene was done
effectively because the actors make it look so realistic while my eyes fill with tears at seeing …show more content…
However, the movie started to become more melancholy and this is evident when the
people are dying everyday. Some kill themselves and others are shot by the
German soldiers. I just can not imagine how horrific it was back in those times.
The part of the film that made me cry was when all the Jewish people including the
Szpilman family tries to escape deportation, but find it inevitable. Everyone was deported to
death concentration camps where all were either shot, burned or gassed to death. Szpilman is the
only one who survives in the ghetto of all the hundreds of dead bodies lying in the streets. He is
pulled away from deportation by one of the Jewish policemen that admired his music and
befriends him. He saves his life and sends him back into the ghetto. The ghetto however is empty
because all the Jews were killed or deported. He is the only Jew left. A year goes by and his
life in the ghetto further deteriorates. During this period, he suffers
from hunger and lives in hiding. He befriends two non- Jews (Anderzej Bougcki and his wife
Janina Bougcki) who help him in hiding, give him food and help him avoid being captured