MOVIE

THE PIANIST

The pianist was a Polish Jew who worked at Polish radio, who did escape deportation to the labour camps and was hidden by a German officer. This movie is a stunner, bringing to life the horrific conditions and brutality that Wladyslaw Szpilman endured to survive six years of Nazi brutality in Warsaw, Poland. What's truly amazing about this movie is how Szpilman tells the story with a sense of detachment - the barbaric killing that he sees up close his final moments with his family, when he realizes shortly after they are gone that will never see them again. It baffles the mind how he was able to keep his wits about him and survive after suffering and witnessing such unspeakable horrors at the hands of such barbarians, and in the end his survival may well have hinged on the kindness of a Nazi Captain, Wilm Hosenfeld.  The fact that a Nazi helped him live is too unbelievable to be fiction after all that Szpilman had witnessed and endured. It must be true, and this story is. The Pianist is a remarkable story that will be every bit as powerful hundreds of years from now.