Among the nominees for Best Picture in 2002’s Academy Awards is THE PIANIST. The movie, which has been nominated for six other Oscars in addition to Best Picture, tells the story of one man’s survival during the Nazi occupation of Poland.<\/p>\n
Like most films, THE PIANIST takes liberties with the historical facts. Unfortunately, these liberties include one key fact that made the story, and the film that tells it, possible.<\/p>\n
THE PIANIST is based on composer Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoir. Szpilman feels little affinity for his fellow Jews, even after the Germans forced them into the Warsaw ghetto.<\/p>\n
He only avoids the fate of the rest of his family — who perished in Treblinka — through a series of improbable events: being selected to work on a construction crew and then afterwards as a clerk.<\/p>\n
Then comes the most improbable turn of all: While searching for food, Szpilman is stopped by a German officer who asks him, of all things, his profession. After Szpilman answers, the officer takes him to a piano where Szpilman plays Chopin. The German then hides and feeds Szpilman for the remainder of the war.<\/p>\n
As Michael Oren wrote in the NEW REPUBLIC, the image we are given is one of a \u201cmonster transformed by music.\u201d That image, as Oren tells us, is a \u201cmisrepresentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The German soldier in question was named Wilm Hosenfeld. Hosenfeld was \u201can ardent Catholic who abhorred Nazism.\u201d In his diary, he wrote that the war happened because \u201chumanity had to be shown where its godlessness was taking it.\u201d Our \u201cdenial of God’s commandments\u201d and our unwillingness to \u201clove one another\u201d condemned us to die \u201cinnocent and guilty alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
This faith is why Hosenfeld \u201crepeatedly risked his life to rescue others, Poles and Jews, from extermination.\u201d This is why these survivors, including Szpilman, tried to get Hosenfeld released from a Soviet labor camp, where he died in 1952.<\/p>\n
The only suggestion in the film of Hosenfeld’s real motivation is when he gives Szpilman his coat and tells him, \u201cYou must survive. God wills it.\u201d But without knowing about his faith, the audience can’t possibly make sense of that remark. Why must Szpilman survive? Because he can play Chopin flawlessly or because he is made in the image of God?<\/p>\n
In suggesting the first answer, the filmmakers are following the Romantic ideal of the artist as a visionary, prophet, and even redeemer. The irony is that no one better articulated this vision than the German composer Richard Wagner — Hitler’s favorite composer.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that Wagner or Romanticism should be blamed for the crimes of the Third Reich. Of course, they should not. But it is a reminder that the kind of heroism displayed by people like Hosenfeld and other \u201crighteous Gentiles\u201d was, more often than not, a function of their faith. Risking their lives to rescue others was a matter of love for neighbor, not a refined aesthetic.<\/p>\n
Szpilman knew this, and he pointed it out in his memoir. Unfortunately, his adapters were not as careful with the facts. As a result, a film that was supposed to shed light on the Holocaust leaves viewers in the dark about what they saw. And you might want to tell your friends who watch the Academy Awards the real story behind this film — very different from the one they will see on the screen.<\/p>\n
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION<\/p>\n
Michael B. Oren, \u201cSchindler’s Liszt,\u201d THE NEW REPUBLIC, 17 March 2003.<\/p>\n
Jonathan V. Last, \u201cA Pre-Pre-Oscar Malaise,\u201d WEEKLY STANDARD, 10 January 2003. http:\/\/www.weeklystandard.com\/Content\/Public\/Articles\/000\/000\/002\/091hcvbx.asp<\/p>\n
Roberto Rivera y Carlo, \u201cDuty, Honor, and the Movies,\u201d BOUNDLESS, 13 March 2003. http:\/\/www.boundless.org\/2002_2003\/departments\/atplay\/a0000728.html<\/p>\n
Rebecca Phillips, \u201cIn a World without Heroes,\u201d BELIEFNET, 18 March 2003. http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/frameset.asp?pageLoc=\/story\/123\/story_12306_1.html&boardID=53631<\/p>\n
Wladyslaw Szpilman, THE PIANIST (Picador, 2002). http:\/\/www.powells.com\/cgi-bin\/biblio?inkey=62-0312311354-0<\/p>\n
Read Chuck Colson’s List of 50 Insightful Films for suggestions on good movies to rent, including children’s films. http:\/\/www.breakpoint.org\/Breakpoint\/ChannelRoot\/ResourcesGroup\/BackgroundArticlesAndInformation\/Colsons+List+of+50+Insightful+Films.htm<\/p>\n
Robert K. Johnston, REEL SPIRITUALITY: THEOLOGY AND FILM IN DIALOGUE (Baker Book House, 2000).<\/p>\n
____________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5171]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Among the nominees for Best Picture in 2002’s Academy Awards is THE PIANIST. The movie, which has been nominated for six other Oscars in addition to Best Picture, tells the story of one man’s survival during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Like most films, THE PIANIST takes liberties with the historical facts. Unfortunately, these liberties […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[465,48,466,464,171,403,30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}