The Pianist: A Cinematic Masterpiece
The Pianist is a cinematic masterpiece produced in the year 2002. The director of the film Roman Polanski did a commendable job to show the struggles that people experience while trying to survive. The movie plays for two and a half hours and the events that unfold shows the tragic occurrences that befell the Jews after the Nazi's invaded their world during the Second World War. It is both befitting and estimable how the play composedly tells a story of a Jewish pianist. The Polish Pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman struggles against the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, along with his survival and redemption. This film has been regarded as a humanity's most brutal chapter. However, humanity is a complicated thing, there is no absolute good and evil in any characters.
The Concept of Good and Evil
Haruki Murakami a proficient Japanese writer once said that "In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil, good and evil are not fixed stable entities, but are continually trading places." A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second, and vice versa. In "The Pianist", the war puts colored lenses in people's eyes and gives everyone the impression that all Germans are completely evil and all Jews are totally innocent (Bradshaw). However, the film clearly shows that there is always a sense of kindness in a seemingly evil soul, and also a drop of evil involved in a kind heart. It corresponds to Murakami's ideology that absolute morality can never be an adequate tool to guide moral behavior in real life. Instead, there is a need to maintain the balance between the good and the bad as leaning on one side makes it hard to maintain actual morals.
Overturning Stereotypes
The script brings a different influence to the target audience. While the discussion on humanity has long been on the agenda, it shows one group of people to be the villain while the other one composes of the good and the innocent. For example, the viewer experiences Szpilman's predicament when his family is driven out of their home by the Germans. It is forced to settle into the overcrowded Warsaw Ghetto where people are abused and stripped of their rights by the invaders. This leads to the audience arguing that human beings can only be categorized as either good or evil. As a result, the Nazi Germans are automatically considered to be completely brutal and evil, while victims are seen as noble and flawless.
However, there are several plots that are against the stereotype that people can either be good or evil. For instance, after escaping for many years, a German officer spots Szpilman and learns that he is a pianist. He asks him to showcase his talent by playing a song. Within no time, Szpilman manages to play Ballade No.1 in G Minor, Op.23; a romantic piano piece by Chopin. The piece consists of only one single movement, with a narrative and overwhelmingly lyrical melody. Implausibly, the officer gets deeply moved by the emotions that the music brings out and acquaints with his victim (Weinstein). He decides to show gratitude and lets Szpilman hide in the attic of his empty house. What is more, he provides food for him regularly as a sign of kindness. On the contrary, there is a different instance where a Jewish mother in the same film suffocates her baby to death in order to escape from an attack. In these two plots, a German's kindness shines through the darkness, while a mother's love toward her baby is overshadowed by her selfish will. These two cases overturn the idea that a man who plunders and kills does not have any good in him, and that an innocent victim cannot have an evil side.
A Personal Connection
The play greatly inspires me at a personal level because I am a young future pianist and have had an experience of playing the instrument for the past twelve years. Specifically, I am fascinated with how the piano pieces are all blended within every plot of the movie. This stands as the prime reason for recommending the film and awarding it Grade A. To illustrate, Szpilman is extremely scared when the German officer spots him. The fear reasonably explains the first choice he makes of playing Ballade No.1 in G Minor as his hands are shaky and the rubato (slow tempo) of the opening bars of this piece sounds just like an awakening from meditation. As a result, he gets time to warm up and get used to the piano. As a new motif enters, the piece suddenly gets melancholically furious as if the past has suddenly become present. At this juncture, the audience gets an opportunity to recall all the details about the characters encountered. At the same time, the director achieves his purpose of presenting the central theme of this movie that humanity is a complicated thing and there is never absolute good and evil in any characters in the film, nor is there any in any human beings in this world.
Works Cited
Bradshaw, Peter. "The Pianist ." The Guardian 24 January 2003.
Weinstein, Wendy R. "The Pianist." Film Journal International 1 November 2004.
