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Dec 04, 2015AnastasiaBella rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
One of the few true masterpieces of cinema, this film is utter perfection. Set in Poland during WWII, this film follows the survival of one member of a family - the pianist - that was torn apart and slaughtered by the Nazis' anti-semetic "purges". Also widely considered to be THE definitive movie on the holocaust, without showing any graphic or disturbing images. A moving and uplifting story of hope, survival and the importance of civilians owning guns. An important warning for us to heed now. Remember the Nazis also claimed gun control and registration was for the people's "security" and "safety", to "protect" them from "criminals" and "terrorists", but by the time the Jews realized that they had been lied to, it was too late. Though not mentioned in the film, a large percentage of European Jews owned firearms before the holocaust began. They were told that the new gun registry was mandatory and only set up to "prevent" crime, then that same registry was used to confiscate all of the Jews' firearms and later those of the rest of the population. Had they known that they were being disarmed to make them easier to kill and to prevent resistance to being sent to death camps, they surely would have never registered their guns in the first place. This film depicts the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest single revolt by Jews in WWII who were opposing the remaining people of the ghetto being sent to extermination camps, as they were ordered to be sent to. (The nerve of the Nazis to expect people to willingly comply to their own murder, no different than, I suppose, the nerve then in Europe and now in America to expect everyone to willingly register their guns, only for now they are withholding the term "Jew" so people won't notice the correlation to the Nazi gun control laws.) Guns were smuggled in via the underground and enabled the Jewish resistance to fight and hold out against the enemy for almost a month. Inspirational and true, many people, including many women, have made the decision to purchase a firearm after watching this movie, and for many it is a first step in personal and home self-defense education, (which even in peace time is a good thing, both to help prevent the horrors of history from being repeated and to help prevent common criminals from harming us or our loved ones. After all, by the time the police arrive at the scene, it's usually too late, and the crime has already been committed). But the film itself is a treasure, the performances brilliant and the music -- absolutely beautiful.