War and Pianist; a true story of a Jew Hiroki FUJITA (11/29/04) The fourth movie was “The Pianist.” It won the Academy Awards in 2002. In Japan, it is called “A pianist at the war.” It was so popular. This is one of the movies that I have wanted to see. It was nearly 3-hour long movie though, I enjoyed it. Not only was it interesting, but also, amazingly, it is a true story. The pictures were also based on the real photos and films. A Jew pianist went through the World War II in Poland. Poland was invaded both Germany and Russia, then, enormous Jews are killed by Germany. Under this circumstance, the pianist survived miraculously. It was not entirely easy way. He faced “deadly” situation so many times. In the end of the movie, one good Germany sergeant helped him. Thanks to his compassion, the pianist managed to survive. After the war, he came back to the stage again. He lived until 2000, 88 years old. What a great life! During the war, the treatments toward the Jews were awful. Jews were forced to wear the emblem on the right arm, were prohibited to walk the pavement, in addition, were banned to enter the cafes or restaurants. At last, Jews were segregated against the living area; Germans built a long high wall between German district and Jews’. Then, Germans tried to make the Jews starve. As a result, many people died on the road. In addition, they were killed occasionally just for a tiny mistake. After all, they sent to the “Auschwitz.” It is said that about 5 to 6 million people were killed during the World War II. This is nothing but tragedy. I wondered how they make a distinction between Germans and Jews. Is it their face or language? (In the movie, actors mainly used English, but sometimes they spoke German. Germany soldiers spoke only German. I guess it is different from reality.) As for me, people living in Europe have a similar face. I cannot make a distinction between these people. In the movie, it seemed to me that the shape of face was the clue of the distinction in many cases. But it will sometimes difficult to do it. For example, when the pianist threw away his emblem to run away from the forced labor, nobody noticed that he is a Jew on the way. He must have been looked as a German. It is one of the proofs of the difficulty of distinction. Another example is here. In the end of the movie, a good Germany sergeant gave him a Germany Army coat. Then, he wore it after the war was over. As a result, he was shot by Polish, because he was misunderstood as a German. There is a possibility that he would be killed. But fortunately, he wasn’t. A Polish soldier judged he is a Polish looking his face. Interestingly, we can see the different criteria in these cases; in the first case, the emblem was the criteria, on the other hand, in the second case, the shape of face was the criteria. As these examples show, the criteria are quite ambiguous. It changes depending on the situation. Therefore, I assume that nobody, even if they live in Europe for a long time, can make a distinction between races just looking their faces. But Germans tried. That’s ridiculous. It doesn’t make any senses at all for me. Nevertheless, at that time, it did make sense. Just being a Jew, it is a “persuasive” reason to be killed. It is incredible. I have been thinking various impressions in my mind. The most important lesson what I learned from this movie might be that the war left nothing to us. As he lost everything except for his piano skill; he lost his family, his living, friends or whatever. Fortunately, he survived. But many people cannot. I can imagine easily that the same thing happens around the world still now. In this sense, this movie was not a history, but a reality. Works cited Focus Features. (Roman Polanski). (2003). The Pianist [Videodisc]. Universal City; Universal Studios.