2002: The Pianist

Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
Adapted from the memoir The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 by Władysław Szpilman

Władysław Szpilman was a Jewish pianist in Warsaw when World War II broke out. Although his parents and siblings were murdered, he managed to survive, and soon after the end of the war, he wrote down everything that had happened to him. His book was originally published in Poland 1946, but was suppressed by the Communist government and was not republished until 1999, the year before his death.

For the most part, this is a remarkably faithful adaptation. Most of the incidents in the book are portrayed in the film almost exactly as Szpilman described them. Some of the people were combined, omitted, or added, and some periods of waiting in hideouts were significantly shortened, but these alterations merely served to make the story flow better without detracting from its overall message or feel. Szpilman seems to have written this as a journal to help himself process what happened, so occasionally he mentions people without really explaining who they were. The movie does a great job of tying things together by further developing some of the other people involved in Szpilman's story.

There was one change that I don't really understand, and that's in Szpilman's interactions with the German soldier. The gist of what happens is consistent, but most of what they say to each other was changed. When they part, in the book, Szpilman offers his name without being asked and tells the soldier to use it if he is in trouble after the war. In the movie, the German soldier asks for his name so that he can listen for him on the radio. Ultimately the outcome is the same, but the book makes it more clear that Szpilman always intended to help the soldier who had helped him, and I'm not sure why the movie chose to modify that. Otherwise, though, the movie is very consistent with the book, and I think this is one of the best adaptations to win this award.

Next up is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. As I have not read the books or watched the movies since May of 2011 when I was blogging about Best Picture Winners, and as all sequels are by definition adaptations, I have decided to read and watch the entire trilogy and not just the third one. According to that blog post, apparently I was not a huge fan of the way it was adapted when I first watched it, but maybe my opinion will be different eight years later. I'm excited to find out. These book aren't exactly short so you might not hear from me for a while, but I promise I will be back.