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The Pianist (2002) - directed by Roman Polanski
This is a movie that would have better not been
made in my own particular view. In addition to some common scenes of
the sort of
gratuitous violence we could do without, there are some disturbing scenes that
when held to some degree of
scrutiny for historical fact or fiction for that
matter, do not appear to pass the muster in one case and in the other, is
a
dastardly deed of an idea to display without some sort of indignation and indeed
sanction in the minds of those viewing.
I refer most particularly to the cold blooded
execution style killing of a woman of Jewish decent from an area in Poland,
shot
in the head at close range and with no absence of malice or forethought present
in the mind of the executioner.
The other scene shows a level of depravity on the part of a man that
takes all the food that an old starving, desperate woman
had for her life
savings and shows her no mercy in leaving her nothing at all of a huge meal that
he makes for himself after causing
her to let the food fall out of her hands and
from the storage container onto the ground. This is a scene that does a
disservice to
the victims of Auschwitz in particular and has no grounding in
historical fact in such degree as to cause a valid generalization to
be inferred
as valid from what is depicted as perhaps even an isolated incident, when in
fact the chances of such a travesty ever
occurring among the members of the
community would be a rank offence probably never heard of in the entire history
of the culture
of the peoples there. I therefore have to ask why its posited as
a valid incident for purposes of giving impressions of what was
possible or
probable at least to the extent of justifying a key scene in the movie that was
most memorable for many that would have
seen it as that is the level of
dissonance that would be involved for an ordinary viewer of any persuasion at
all, on the historical
events of the holocaust.
When I first saw this movie my inclination was that it should be pulled off
shelves and not sold for any profits whatever. that remains
my view today, and I
think all that get to see this movie should be warned that it is in fact not a
very nice treatment of the issues involved
and as such should be taken with a
grain of salt with a view of never making an unsupervised movie in Hollywood
again, since it likely wouldn't
pass censors that would look for obvious
miscarriage of justice issues that would be involved in inflicting these images
on mankind.
We have all become desensitized to viewing unpleasant images on the movie
screen of late given new found egalitarian ideals and what have
you that
challenge what have been perspectives of relative merit and fairness based
thereon, etc so that the particular mindset that wishes
to see insensitivity win
the day, inanity prevail, that is the mindset that wins, and that can be the
only agenda here. we go too far with these
views and I for one would like to see
a return to morality and good taste on such matters as involve us here with this
movie choice.
The more you accept of unpleasant images around you that defy your sense of
good judgment, the more you accept the sort of world that is
advocated by the
inane who have an agenda to see this through. Best to call a spade a spade and
say, I've had enough of this, please stop.
Michael Rizzo Chessman