The motion picture,
The Pianist is the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who was the most accomplished piano player in Poland, if not all of Europe, in the 1930s. This film does an excellent job of explaining why it became impossible for the Jewish people living in Europe to escape the Nazis and the plight of tens of thousands of Jews living in Warsaw. Post a reflective comment about the film and respond to at least one other student’s comment.
15 comments:
Even though I found this film hard to watch at parts I am glad we got to see part of it. I had no idea that were first moved to a blocked off area where they had to live for a while before being brought to the camps. This also made me question the fact that most nazis said they were just following orders. There were some parts where the jew were told to run while the nazis killed them. I do not think they were given an order to play with the lives of the jews. The movie also does an amazing job at showing how hard it was for the jews to get out of Germany. They were lied to and had no idea what was actually going to happen to them until it was too late. I do suggest that this film be shown to all the Facing History and Ourselves classes.
I agree with Jake that this film, like Amen, is more compelling and relatable than what we've been watching and that it should be shown to all of the classes. The film does a good job making the Final Solution personal, but also with showing how impossible it was for the Jews to do anything. I think the movie was exceptional about showing how things happened incrementally; it helped make everything more realistic. We were clearly able to see how hard things were for the Jews and also how little they knew about what was going on. In the scene while the main family is waiting to board the train, only a few men have heard rumors of why they’re being taken away.
Personally i think that this is the most interesting movie we have watched all year. From the beginning of the term I always asked myself why didn’t the Jews run away and do something instead of following the orders of the Nazi’s etc. Now i completely understand how sudden and how difficult it was for them to get away. I think the film did a great job showing how cruel the Nazi’s were to the Jews in these camps as well. It was extremely difficult for me to watch and i definitely want to finish the movie on my own time. I would recommend you show this every year.
Kristen,
I agree that the film is much more compelling and personal than the documentaries we have watched prior.
I thought this film was very hard to watch because of the things that happened during the film. I think the film did a great job showing these things that people don’t really want to talk about or see. I think it’s good to see how the conditions really are and I felt really engaged and hooked into the film where I wanted to know what was going to happen next to the family and the pianist. I really think this film should be shown to all facing history classes in the future because it really gives you a perspective on what it was like during the war in these camps.
Jake,
I completely agree with you that it was hard to watch, because of the content but that is also realistic and needs to be shown. I feel like without those scenes the film would have a lot less significance or meaning.
I thought that this movie was incredibly hard to watch, yet it was very informative. I thought that it provided a very realistic view from the Jewish perspective. I always thought that everything occured at once. However, after watching the movie, I realize that the Holocaust occured in steps. In addition, I always wondered why the Jews didn't do much to protest these terrible acts. After watching the movie, I realized how hard it was for Jews to protest, and how the Nazis had such strong control over the population.
Just following orders doesn't cut it as an excuse anymore when you throw a defenceless old man out the window and kill everyone that tries to see what happened. The sheer cruelty that the Nazis had was shocking and the swiftness of their take over was unstoppable unless you knew ahead of time what their plans were. @ Jill, this definitely was the best movie all year. It puts you in the shoes of those Jews, gets you close to them and skillfully gives you a small bit of the fear of things to come that they felt everyday.
I agree with Jake in that I'm glad we got to see part of this film. I also found it hard to watch, but I felt like it was a very effective way for us to realize how trapped the Jews were. It was painful to watch how successful the Nazis were in slowly but surely forcing the Jews to their own deaths.
This movie was incredibly hard to watch but it also helped me understand how the jews felt during the halocaust and how they were completely trapped. This film not only related historical facts about the halocaust, but also helped me to understand how the jews felt emotionally and how their lives were completely ripped apart. This was the most compelling and heart wrenching movie we have watched so far. This definitely should be a movie shown to every class.
"The Pianist" helped explains why the Jewish population could not see these horific events coming and couldn't do much about the conditions. I found the film very relevant and significant to watch and feel that I learned a lot from it. It was at times very hard to watch, but it gave a more realistic interpruation of what went on. One moment that really stuck out to me was when the little boy was under the wall and the main character tried to save him without success. Also, I was shocked when the Nazi's threw the man in the wheelchair over the railing. The movie does a fantastic job at showing what life was like for Jews prior to the concentration camps. By watching part of this film, I am very interested in finishing it and believe it is beneficial to show to all the Facing History classes. Nate, I agree with what you said about the Jews. It was very difficult for them to protest and the Nazi government put very strict rules and regulations on them before they could do much of anything to revolt.
I truely think the film is well made for showing how bad it was to jewish people. While I was watching the film, my eyes were looking down trying not to cry and my stomach started twist. It's very helpful to understand and it came to right into my face in reality. I think it's necessary and practical to watch this kind of film or documentary on the television than explain what happend or read articles what happpened to jewish people. It's absolutely not okay to discriminate against people with any reasons. Every each person have valuable and different perspective, it is not okay to hurt people in any ways.
this film, although it was incredibly awful and heartwrenching to watch gave you an incredibly new and "good" view of what it was like to be a jew at the time. it is a more relatable film and you can understand and feel the pain of this family and of all the jews being rounded up at this time.
This film really made it clear to me how it was basically impossible for any of the jews to try to fight back in any way. it shows the complete power that the nazis had at the time, and how if you resisted you wuld only be kiled sooner. Another thing that the movie did for me was make the whole situation more real. There was one scene where nazi soldiers drop a crippled man over a balcony, brutally murdering him. This is just unimaginable to me, but things like this really did happen during the war and this opened my eyes to that. I think that this is an important movie to watch so that the holocaust is more real to people. I am going to rent this movie so that I can finish it because I believe that it is imortant for me to watch it.
This film really made it clear to me how it was basically impossible for any of the jews to try to fight back in any way. it shows the complete power that the nazis had at the time, and how if you resisted you wuld only be kiled sooner. Another thing that the movie did for me was make the whole situation more real. There was one scene where nazi soldiers drop a crippled man over a balcony, brutally murdering him. This is just unimaginable to me, but things like this really did happen during the war and this opened my eyes to that. I think that this is an important movie to watch so that the holocaust is more real to people. I am going to rent this movie so that I can finish it because I believe that it is imortant for me to watch it.
I think that what jake said about the idea that nazis claimed they were only following orders is important. It is too hard to believe that they were all so completely devoted to hitler that they would do whatever he told them to do. I think that it is crazy that so many people were able to be convinced that what Hitler was saying was right. I also agree that the soldiers clearly made many of their decisions on their own because they didnt ask hitler personally what to do in every situation.
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