WWII film receives praise

Renowned Polish director Roman Polanski's latest film, "The Pianist," is not for the faint of heart. Based on the actual memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the movie chronicles the Jewish musician's struggle for survival during the brutal Nazi occupation of Warsaw during the second World War. The film is of particular importance to Polanski who, as a boy in Poland, lived through many of the same things as Szpilman. "I survived the bombing of Warsaw and the Cracow Ghetto, and I wanted to recreate those childhood visions," Polanski said on a Web site. Szpilman's experiences are beyond chilling. He witnesses countless street beatings and executions of victims who are frequently women and the elderly. He must watch helplessly as his family members, along with most of the city's 350,000 Jewish residents, are shipped off to death camps, never to be seen again. Polanski's film, however, is more than just a catalogue of Nazi atrocities. "The Pianist" highlights the complacency of the non-Jewish Poles, who stand idly by as the German invaders commit open genocide. In one telling scene, an elderly Jewish man is brutally beaten in the street because he did not bow to two passing Nazi officers. In broad daylight, the man is punched, kicked and forced to walk home in the gutter, while passersby just go about their business, turning their heads and walking quickly past. Despite its often disturbing content, "The Pianist" is not a wholly depressing film. There are many people, Poles, Jews and even a Nazi officer, who risk their lives to help Szpilman escape the death camps and hide from capture. Szpilman, himself, is perhaps the most uplifting character. Throughout the years of cruelty, suffering, starvation, violence and death, Szpilman is able to preserve his humanity, primarily through his music. In one particularly moving scene Szpilman, hiding out in an abandoned apartment and forced to maintain total silence, holds his fingers over the keyboard of a battered piano, closes his eyes and imagines himself playing, hearing in his mind the music through which he expresses himself. Szpilman survived the war and went on to perform, record and compose music for many years until his death in 2000 at the age of 88. Polanski's own summation of the film is perhaps the most fitting. "'The Pianist' is a testimony to the power of music, the will to live and the courage to stand against evil," he writes. It is certainly one of the finest and most important films of the last few years. "The Pianist" is playing at Downtown West. Rating: A-