Poor mans Schindlers List

In my opinion Schindler's List and The Pianist are two very different films. One, because SL is a more theatrical, blockbuster Spielbergian affair complete with happy ending, whereas TP is more low key, with typical Polanskian pessimism, and two, because the former is the Holocaust through the eyes of a gentile who observes the machinery of the Holocaust from the top and observes both Nazis and Jews from a position of safety, naturally Schindler had a more panoramic and birds eye view of the Holocaust, whereas the latter is the Holocaust through the eyes of a Jew who observes the machinery of the Holocaust from the bottom and observes both Nazis and Jews from a position of danger, so I think while
SL is a better film for understanding the
machinery of the Holocaust The Pianist is
a better film to watch if you want to know
what it was like to experience the Holocast
first hand as an ordinary Jew. The Pianist is also the more historically accurate of the two, whereas SL is based on a book written by an Australian about Schindler years later and directed by an American who never witnessed the Holocaust (who typically felt the need to paint his protagonist in a good light at the expense of historical accuracy by removing the fact that Schindler didn't compile the List himself, that he had spied for Germany in Czechoslovakia, helped plan the invasion of Poland, and that he was viewed with suspicion by Israel's Holocaust Authority and not granted
"righteous gentile" status until 1993, not
1958 as described in the film) whereas TP
is based on Szpilman's actual memoirs and is directed by a Holocaust survivor who takes no liberties with the truth. SL might be better theatre, but TP is the better film.

Appreciate your response. Guess I didn't look at it like that. I do know in SL that they left out the spying... Dont think that hurts the story as he redeemed himself in the end but it already being a 3+ hr film they didn't feel the need telling that story as he was already a member of the Nazi party. Anyway, I'll finish TP and hopefully enjoy it more than the middle which seems a bit slow.

I think The Pianist is more personal and touching, while Schindler's List is a bigger scale, larger than life approach to a tragic event as a whole? I haven't seen both movies for a while, but the opening piece by Chopin in The Pianist still haunts me....

I prefer The Pianist because it is so personal. My Oma was a child in Hitler's Germany, her brother a high ranking officer. I grew up hearing her speak of pro-nazi everything. Seeing this story for the first time gave me the other side of the coin, it is my favorite WWII film.

Same topic, but total different flicks. One mans struggle vs....you know.

I think Brody was great. Oscar deserved(i'm not sure who he was up against).

Had some great moments in The Pianist.

They are two different films, essentially, in spite of the backdrop of WW II being the obvious denomenator.

Shindler's List was of course fundamentally about Oskar Schindler so had to go into broader detail from the viewpoint of the Jews as a whole whom he was trying to inadvertantly save. The Pianist was about Władysław Szpilman based on his memoirs and so focused to a larger extent on his personal struggle from his viewpoint (although obviously we see the brutality and destruction all around him but not quite to the same extent).

So, aside from the Nazi brutality we see in many of these films, we can't really compare the two because they are completely different stories and from different sides of the fence, so to speak.

"Has anyone seen my wife?" - Columbo