Thread: The Most Powerful Film Ever

Schindler's List was better. My brother and I have gone back and forth over this since The Pianist came out. In short, The Pianist is IMO a more shallow movie which basically serves to highlight the atrocities of the Holocaust by following one rather static Jewish character through his experiences with it. Schindler's List explores much deeper themes such as redemption and does so with more interesting and dynamic characters. The Pianist is Polanski's belated attempt to make his own Schindler's list, an opportunity which he had initially turned down. In my view, he did not succeed.

Originally Posted by DuB

Schindler's List was better. My brother and I have gone back and forth over this since The Pianist came out. In short, The Pianist is IMO a more shallow movie which basically serves to highlight the atrocities of the Holocaust by following one rather static Jewish character through his experiences with it. Schindler's List explores much deeper themes such as redemption and does so with more interesting and dynamic characters. The Pianist is Polanski's belated attempt to make his own Schindler's list, an opportunity which he had initially turned down. In my view, he did not succeed.

I've seen both and Schindler's List wasn't as powerful. It's the aesthetics that makes The Pianist so powerful. Seeing how fruitful Warsaw was and the Szpliman family and how comfortable they lived. We see when the first bombs drop until Poland is occupied from the Allies. We see the slow stripping of rights and privilages of the jews piece by piece. The way the nazi's stunted their will to live until they willingly boarded trains to deathcamps and the folly of the Warsaw Jews who waited far too long to fight back. And in spite of all the attrocities committed by the Nazi's we see brief glimpses of the normalcy of the Germans and how not all of them were evil; considering the films contents it's quite hard to do. One of my favourite scenes is when the crazy old Jew is dancing and holds his cane up to two german soldiers and mimics shooting them and they have a laugh, offer him a cigarette, light it for him and wish him a good day. When Szpilman runs into the ruins of Warsaw near the end we see how terrible Poland suffered and how Germany literally took a healthy, vivacious city and turned it into a gray pile of rubble. The violence and brutality aside, Schindler's List did not have the same visual impacts as The Pianist and there are reasons for it.

To say that is was merely Polanski's attempt to make his own Schindler's List is not true at all. His source material was Wladislav Szpilman's Memoirs which vivid depict his struggles during the war. Of course Szpilman was static, seeing that many horrible things would make anyone totally stoic. Near the beginning when you see the child beaten to death under the wall, he cries. By the end he no longer cries, because of what he has experienced. Polanski was a child in Poland during the Nazi occupation. He was in the ghettos, he has actual memories of what happened there. Spielberg had nowhere near the first hand experience to create as authentic looking movie as Polanski did. Not to mention Polanski's very Hitchcockian directing style. Very rarely did we see a scene in the movie that wasn't from Brody's perspective. When the child was beaten under the wall, we saw what he saw. His ability to ghettoize our experience, to me, made the movie so much more impactful. Schindler's List is more about the holocaust and the bigger picture behind it all where as The Pianist is a more personal experience not of the holocaust itself, but of what became of Jewish society, how some turned against their own people and the corruption that existed inside their society. Instead of a view from a German Entrepaneur, we see a personal family perspective everyone can relate to.

Schindler's List is a fantastic movie but I don't think it contains the raw humanity that The Pianist does. We see humankind at their best, their worst and their most desperate.

I've never really given my full attention to Schindler's List. I probably should do some time.

I love the pianist though, it really is a wonderful movie.

It reminds me very much of Children of Men, which is one of my favourite films ever.

Anatevka, Anatevka. . . . . . . .Soon I'll be a stranger in a strange new place, searching for an old familiar face, from Anatevka




What can I say? I haven't seen the Pianist or Schindler's List.

I never thought I would ever like Fiddler on the Roof, but I'm in love with the movie. It's so simple, hilarious, humble, pure. Young girls falling in love. A hard working dad - content man - good man - dreaming of the greener grass.

The pacing of the movie is brilliant. You fall in love with Anatevka. It feels like home. So safe. So far away from the city and trouble. You don't see it coming. Or maybe you do, but like the people in Anatevka, you don't want to believe it's coming. And then it comes, and you don't know why.

Mattrick: don't get me wrong, it's a fine movie. Clearly this is only my personal opinion, and even then only with regards to how it stacks up against its most obviously similar contender in film. Like I said, my brother and I have been disagreeing on this matter for years, and he knows a thing or two about film.

I haven't seen Schindler's List in some time, my friend has it, will be next I borrow most likely. I first watched it when it came out...I was about 8 at the time. Can imagine how it could stick with you at that age lol.

Here's a few, since I couldn't pick just one:

-Brokeback Mountain

-Requiem for a Dream

-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

-Full Metal Jacket

-Revolutionary Road

-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

What the fuck? Did you read a single post in this thread, or did you just read the title and assume you knew what it was about?

....Im not too fond of ww2 films tbh. Ive heard, read, learned so much about it that I may be a little numb with things involving it these days. Having said that, though, I agree with dub, I think Schindler's list is more well done.

Originally Posted by DuB

What the fuck? Did you read a single post in this thread, or did you just read the title and assume you knew what it was about?

I read all of the posts in this thread. Why, what's the problem?

Meh, it's not a big deal. I'm just an asshole sometimes.

Originally Posted by DuB

Meh, it's not a big deal. I'm just an asshole sometimes.

Assholes will be assholes. Then they will also be assholes.

The most powerful movie of all time is Over the Top, starring Sylvester Stallone. He has a shot at being the arm wrestling champion! I won't give away what ends up happening.

Shindler's List is in second place, though. Ordinary People is probably in third. I haven't seen The Pianist, but I want to now that I have read this thread.