The Pianist
This film has provided me with a new perspective on the horrors of the holocaust and what it was truly like to be persecuted and mistreated. I normally do not say this about many films, but The Pianist was almost hard for me to watch. It was gruesome not graphically, but psychologically. It is hard to imagine that people could treat others this way and get away with it. It is one thing to read or hear stories about the Holocaust, but it is seeing the violence that actually sheds light on the true magnitude of the inhumanity that took occurred in the ghettos. The only other film that has made me feel this way was The Passion of The Christ, an equally sad but influential film. Lastly, was the actor playing Wladyslaw Szpilman really playing the piano?

I believe Hosenfeld saved Wladyslaw Szpilman to justify his previous (and possibly future) guilt about the cruelty and violence he was condoning. He probably saw an innocent man, who had no reason to be killed. In addition, the general may of had an epiphany and probably realized his actions were wrong and needed religious or just moral forgiveness. Szpilman would risk any opportunity to survive. I believe he saw the German general as an opportunity to make it out alive, after all he had an even smaller chance of survival hiding and providing on his own, without the help and protection of other individuals. He took the risky chance of trusting Hosenfeld, but it is the reason he survived.