The previews for this movie promised a comedy. When I went to see it, I found a movie with much humor but also much warmth, human understanding and positive philosophy on the best way to live life, all told with a great sense of tenderness for human foibles. While it clearly is aimed at an older audience, younger audiences too will learn much from it if they pay close attention. The different characters are deftly drawn so that you know them as quite distinct individuals. Their stories or backgrounds are most important to the outcomes, so paying attention right from the start is crucial. Since the plot has been well summarized elsewhere, I won't waste time on doing that again but simply urge everyone to see this film for the life-lessons it imparts.
Reviews
3 Reviews
The Pianist
(2002)
Gut-wrenching, grim, magnificent
14 April 2004
This film is without a doubt one of the most gut-wrenching, difficult films I've ever seen, yet it is also one of the most inspiring because it doesn't try to be any of the foregoing. By simply telling the horrific tale of Szpilman's epic journey through the dark night of the Second World War and the Holocaust, with no attempt to editorialize or moralize on the story Polanski achieves, I think, almost a greater triumph than Spielberg did in Schindler's List. By focusing on one individual, the viewer is allowed to draw his/her own conclusions about what is happening. While everyone who sees this film will have their own "most important"shot, for me it came when Szpilman climbs over the wall behind the house and we see Warsaw, or what is left of it. The devastation is immense, the emotional impact overwhelming. I do not mean to trivialize Schindler's List as I feel it too is a masterpiece; the two together go about as far as is possible in allowing us at the end of the century to participate emotionally and intellectually in a period most of us did not experience. They stand as a testament to why we must never, ever, let this sort of tyranny exist in the world.
The Field
(1990)
One of the most powerful movies I've seen
19 November 2002
I checked this movie out of the library after reading an obituary of Mr. Harris. I was totally unfamiliar with it. After viewing it, I found and felt it to be one of the most powerful movies I think I've ever seen. I felt the characterizations were well-played, the metaphor of the field well enunciated without being overpowering, the pace relentless and the ending entirely in keeping with the story. The cinematography was first rate as it emphasized and delineated the brooding, lowering story. While it is for me a very disturbing and thought-provoking film, in the end I came away profoundly moved and touched by it.
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