The Pianist
The Pianist is a movie that revolves around the theme of survival and the ability of the human spirit to endure. It shows both the human's characteristic of evil and good. The film, directed by Roman Polanski, is based on a true life account of a Polish Jew named Wladyslaw Szpilman, one of the greatest pianists in the world.
This film showed a talented pianist who managed to survive the war by luck and the kindness of several people. Wladyslaw Szpilman was a famous pianist who played for the Polish radio, but when bombs began falling on Warsaw, his whole life started to change. The Nazis moved into their city and execute women, children, and elderly people along with Szpilman's family members in numerous senseless killings.
Szpilman was saved by a friend who took care of him and gave him a place to hide until the Russians made there way into Poland.
Roman Polanski and Adrien Brody at Cannes in 2002.
Deutsch: Andrzej Szpilman
Władysław Szpilman’s grave in Powązki Militar...This couple gave him an apartment that no one knew anyone was living there. About once a week they would come and see how he was doing and dropped off some food. When he was sick they would take care of him and send over a doctor to see him. All of these people would be in trouble if they were caught harboring a Jew, however, they still went ahead with their own principles. At this point of time, Szpilman had always wanted to play the piano in his room, but if the Nazis found out that he was inside the house, he would be in trouble. Therefore, Szpilman had no choice but to play the piano silently in his own mind. This kept him enduring through the days during his stay at the apartment.
Most people would probably think that all the Nazis are evil men who have no feelings for anyone. However, one person in the movie had completely changed my view. After Szpilman escaped from the apartment in Warsaw, he managed to find a house which was badly destroyed in another city. This is where Szpilman meets a Nazi general who was kind hearted and appreciated Szpilman's music over the piano. The general knew at once that Szpilman was a Jew in hiding, however, he did not turn him in nor kill him. Instead, the two of them became friends and the man brought him food daily and made sure that he was staying healthy. When the Russian was arriving, the man had to escape so he gave Szpilman his heavy coat so that he could stay warm and asked for his name so that he could listen for him on the radio after the war. This example showed that not all the Nazis carried hatred towards the Jews and most of them were simply carrying out the orders of their leaders.
At the end of the film, Szpilman made it out alive. He lived up to his dream and made it onto the Polish radio playing the piano. The German man was caught and he reached out to Szpilman's friend for help. However, when Szpilman returned to search for his German friend, he was already gone. It was quite sad as his friend had helped him in many ways to save his life, however, Szpilman did not have a chance to repay him.
Szpilman's determination right to the end had helped a lot in his survival. He could have given up half way through, and there were many chances for him to. However, he did not. Why? He treasured his own life. He also had a dream yet to fulfill. This dream motivated and pushed him on and on to carry on with his life. So what exactly is this dream? It is none other than playing on the Polish radio again. It looks simple, yet it seems so far away. In fact, every one of us has a dream, a goal to achieve. As long as we keep on reminding ourselves the goal we want to reach, we will succeed no matter what happen during the journey.