Hey everyone! This was a film that I have wanted to watch for a long time so I thought it may finally be time to do so. What a film this was and the importance of it cannot be understated. Never before have I felt this contained and horrified within the ghettos and the streets during World War 2 and deciding to focus on survival rather than a heroic protagonist is truly what sets this movie apart from the rest. Thanks for watching! Have a great day! :)
I didn’t see anyone else in the top comments say this but they didn’t need makeup to make him look thin. Adrien Brody lost a substantial amount of weight for this role. He almost died playing this part. He also learned to play piano for this role.
The "German soldier", Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, did not only help Szpilman, he (along with some other soldiers who were under his orders, but also other officers) has helped many other people from different backgrounds and religions. He was a teacher before the war, and he was in his late 40s at the time of the events in this movie. He has since been recognized as a "Righteous Among the Nations" by the Yad Vashem.
Every time Adrien Brody's character plays piano he gets interrupted, aside from the scene where he plays for a soldier. The best scene from the movie and my favorite war movie. Masterpiece of a movie. Hard to imagine things like this really happened
Great reaction! I much prefer this to Schindler’s List because Polanski presents the subject matter objectively and doesn’t get into all the sentimental and contrived devices used by Spielberg. FYI The most pivotal music in this film was composed by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), by far Poland’s most famous and greatest composer. He wrote almost entirely for the piano. Although his last name is French, he was born in Poland. Polanski is Polish, but born in France. Chopin was greatly influenced by Polish folk music as a boy, via his mother’s family, before emigrating to Paris, never to return. His music however is not “folksy” at all. On the contrary, it is highly stylized, elegant, and powerful, but often utilizes Polish dance forms and rhythms.
Polanski was also a survivor of the Krakow ghetto so the authenticity of the story he wanted fully realized and not made into a "thrill" story. The memoir has even more detail, but Polanski wanted to be sure that story elements he sculpted his narrative with were true to Szpilman's experience and his own for that matter..
This is a great film with an amazing performance by Adrien Brody, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for this film. Roman Polanski also won Best Director for this film. Even though Thomas Kretschmann was only in the movie a few minutes… his performance as Captain Wilm Hosenfeld was outstanding and impactful. Hosenfeld was recognized by Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust memorial) as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. Thank you for reacting to it, Oliver. I always love your reactions.
Yes, it is accurate. All the major events really happened. The cruealty also is spot on. If you wish you can do reactions to Uprising and Inmate 4859 from the Sabaton History channel. They both nicely showcase and explain the struggles of Poland during WW2.
Great reaction to an amazing film. Although it lacks as many gratuitous depictions of violence as Schindler's List (to which it is often compared), this is just as horrifying and difficult to watch. Yet, it's something that should be watched by every man, woman and child. That concert at the end -- with just Wladyslaw Szpilman and Captain Hosenfeld -- is arguably one of the most moving musical moments in film that I've ever watched.
Im currently learning Chopin's Ballad No. 1, the piece that he played in front of the officer, its a lot longer in real life, but 10 mins of piano playing would be too much in a movie, they played the whole thing in Your lie in april though.
To start with, I enjoy your videos, your reactions are natural and funny. However, with many from your generation, History that is dramatized or even actual footage isn't really understood. These events happened and in Roman Polanski's life he actually was a survivor the Holocaust. I hear you saying' Why would the Nazi's do that?", well History is full of such indescribable violence to millions of people, many of them killed in the last century alone. It saddens me when I see interviews when people are asked on the street about World History and how little the know and could never comprehend that Evil exists and not only in a video game. I fear for the future , I really do, because whoever made this quote' Those who do not remember History are condemned to repeat it" was exactly right. Forgive me for going hard on you, because you seem like a great guy. It was just something I had to say to you and anyone else reading.
"If you remember the '60s, you weren't there." -People who don't want to remember the 1960s from Kennedy to Kennedy to King to the Moon, from the Gulf of Tonkin to the summary execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém, from the March on Selma to the Siege of Chicago to the Weather Underground. If you remember it, you weren't there. The whole decade, then, is lies from those who remember but can't have been there. It can't be true. It can't be true. It can't be true. It was real.
28:15 August 1-October 2, 1944, The Warsaw Underground Uprising was a 63 day effort to push back the Germans as the Allied Russians advanced, it was the largest offensive by any European resistance movement. Due to confusion, the Russians halted their advance which allowed the German forces to defeat the resistance and destroy 90% of the entire city, 15,000 killed or missing and 15,000 taken as prisoners.
Bro, I'm 15 minutes into this reaction, really great observations, uniformly. It's hard to say "best ever reaction" for a channel or a particular movie, but already this is definitely up there for me as one of the best reactions to "The Pianist" (not that there are any bad ones, of course). The fact that you know the history well really adds something. Meanwhile, you're noticing the film-making elements and it all adds up to a top-shelf reaction video! Great job! (I'll see you on the other side, when I'm done with the reaction!)
The piano piece he played in front of the german officer is a shortened version of Chopin's Ballad no. 1 (which Im currently learning) but in the real story he played the Chopin c-sharp minor nocturne which is what he was playing on the radio at the beginning. Playing Ballad no. 1 would just be wayyyy to difficult to play by someone starved and with no practice in years but I guess the director thought it would be more impactful for the movie which I think it was a great choice.
22:22 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising lasted from April 19-May 16, 1943. The initial uprising led to the block-by-block burning of the entire Warsaw Ghetto killing 13,000, half of whom were burned alive.
"The Diary Of Anne Frank" - both the book and the movie/play versions tell the story from the perspective of the hiding. You have to take long breaks between Holocaust movies (at least I do), they're so bleak. But next time you do one, PLEASE do the fantastic SOPHIE'S CHOICE, Meryl Streep's greatest, most iconic performance. (Kevin Kline's also). Unbelievably no one has done that yet, and that is a reaction video waiting to happen. And it's something people know, it's a term people use: "a Sophie's Choice type of situation", you'll hear that in political discourse sometimes. Anyways, THANKS, MAN!
7:28 Save the humans from the humans without harming the humans. There is Jewish holiday called Holocaust Remembrance Day where we fast and learn Holocaust stories and watch news footage from the period. I am agnostic but was raised Jewish. This story about the boy who got halfway through the wall and beaten to death is a story I learned as a small child that has always stuck with me. When I saw it in this movie I was just disturbed to see it. We learn the evil humans can do and it gives reason to avoid doing it but I feel like it would make more of an impact if it was an open-to-the-public thing so that we could really share this with everyone so we can all know to avoid it. When you look at modern American cops and their treatment not just of minorities and women but of anyone they think they can get away with abusing, and the way those few thousand people reacted to Trump's losing, you see how easy it is to cross the tipping point. It is so easy for humans to decide other people are not human and to do whatever they like to those subhuman people. So easy to to do and so easy to avoid.
There were 2 uprisings-one in the Jewish Ghetto in 1943 and one by the Polish Underground in 1944. Roman Polanski (born in 1933) lived in the Krakòw Ghetto in Poland and some of the details were from his memories. Adrien Brody won the Oscar for his performance and he did learn to play some Chopin as he prepared for the role.
31:20 "The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation." -SS chief Heinrich Himmler, October 1944
The guy that plays Itzak Heller ( Roy Smiles) who saves Wladyslaw Szpilman ( Adrien Brody) is a really good friend of mine! This is such a heartbreaking yet beautiful movie!! You should react to Uprising with Hank Azaria
It would be great if you could react to "The best years of our lives", one of the best movies about the World War II, but totally different to this one, which was filmed right after the end of the war, in 1946. Definitely, one of the greatest films of all time.
When I was in middle school,my 8th grade class focused on the Holocaust for the entire year. We even had survivors of the Holocaust come to our little middle school to speak to us (in the early 90s, they would still be alive); You never saw an auditorium full of pre-teens so quiet as an elderly gentleman showed us his arm tattoo, and as Eva Kor herself(one of the twins experimented on by Dr. Mengele) told us what had happened during her time at the concentration camp. The most chilling part were the words said to her mother when they arrived at camp,and officers wanted to know if Eva and her sister were twins. Her mother had asked ," Is that bad?" And the German had responded, "No, it is very good."
love your commentary! This is one of the best films I've ever seen !You need to check out another film called Uprising ( 2001 film) with Hank Azaria, and Donald Sutherland it's a fantastic film!!
My only problem is with the title. I totally mix it up with 1993's "The Piano". This is why long and interesting titles are always better. (I never mix up "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with any other movie. lol)
I can assure you that this movie is at no point exaggerated. Everything the Germans do there, every cruelty they perpetrate, every misery that Jewish people (and Polish too - since Poles weren't really treated all that better) have been put through - all this actually happened. And more. Even this scene where they throw a wheelchair-bound man off the balcony for fun (which many people were heartless enough to laugh at due to its absurdity) is based on an actual event. And each time you ask "why?", the answer is always the same - for their sick amusement. Yes, even when they picked randomly selected people to shoot them, they did it for absolutely no reason. It just made them feel great and powerful. 25:04 - that character is actually played by Polish actress Katarzyna (Catherine) Figura who played many roles in many movies, not necessarily those of bad guys. However, when she needs to look evil, she definitely will...
Hey, the piece he plays is Chopins first ballade (if you want to see/hear the full piece with an extraordinary pianist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BSFNl4roGlI.html ) Best regards from Germany.
There were armed uprisings by Jewish people. The film Defiance is about Belarussian Jews becoming partisans. The Warsaw uprising is perhaps the most famous, with many Jews choosing to burn to death rather than surrender. Never forget.
I have the DVD. One of those few, very special films where I just had to buy the DVD. This film is Ronan Polanski's masterpiece. The scenes towards the end with that street, where he hides out, with all the destruction and rubble is something else.
18:56 The subtitles are so wrong in many scenes. In this scene the German officer asks a question "do you have a god damn band aid?". That's why he is licking his bleeding finger and Szpilman has some kind of authority for handing out food and goods. No idea why they made a statement like "what a god damn place" out of it. Doesn't even make sense in this context when he entered the room 🙄
Thanks, Oliver! 🎹 I'm glad you're able to separate the art from the artist. I've found that to be a most useful tool in appreciating movies... as imperfect people can still contribute near-perfect creations. Others might "throw the baby out with the bathwater" and that's their right, but not us. #RolyPolyOllieReactions #RomanPolanski #ThePianist #ThePianist2002
As a professional musician myself I agree that we should be able to separate the art from the artist however I don't know that I would call a man who, more than once, drugged and r*ped a 13-year-old "imperfect." Hurting yourself is one thing but hurting others should be intolerable and Polanski should have been rotting in prison since 1977 instead of enjoying his life, wealth and fame.
No one is arguing that here. This is simply about the movie he directed. Many other regular, normal, nice people helped make that movie and I think it's important to acknowledge the movie for its own merits... not to get distracted by one person's crimes, mistakes.
In todays times it’s important to watch movies like this. One to learn what to do and not. And to see just how quickly something like this happens. The cruelty human beings seem to be capable of is always unsettling. Disturbing. Period. There no reason for this in any time period. No really. NONE
Any race who does this or religious group Is unexceptable. And must be rid from our world. Completely. Anyone who can’t except others based on outrageous reason should be jailed till they change. Education. And experience with one another will help slowly but surely. Can’t hold on to hatred of one another forever. Let’s keep trying to do better and learn from the tragedies we’ve made for our selves. No one race is innocent from the hatred in the world. We are all guilty of judgemental behaviours. Somewhere in our lives we’ve inherited biases, stigmas, lies, or half truths about others. Same tune different century. Need a song to unite.
Dude, let your viewing audience watch the film instead of inserting your every thought-form with each scene! We're here for the reaction, and not a blow-by-blow analysis.
