The trials and tribulations faced by Wladyslaw Spzilman are portrayed in two different lights in Roman Polansky's film and the autobiographical account written by the very man. In the film, we are given a vivid description of the environment of Warsaw from the early pre-stages of war until its eventual recapture by the Soviets. Szpilman (Adrian Brody) is seen as a quiet, inexpressive pianist who is reserved in his perseverance of the increasing German brutality. His brother Henryk (Ed Stoppard) expresses most of the indignation and hostility towards the German occupation that Spzilman attempts to refute in order to calm the family's suspicions of imminent mortality. These two characters stand out the most in the early scenes of the film, which lends most of it's perspective to the young Jewish man's plight in his resistance of the overbearing force of the Nazis. As both the film and the journal progress, we witness a devolving character of Spzilman from up-and-coming pianist to a man wracked with desperation over survival.
In Spzilman's journal, the reader receives numerous accounts and examples of his obstinate disgust towards the German plundering of his beloved city. Wladyslaw Spzilman was above all other things an artist, who lived out his life in Polish society as a member of the artistic intelligentsia comprised of musicians, writers, painters, and other appreciated individuals. Through Spzilman's perspective as a citizen of high-society who worked and lived in relative wealth throughout his pre-war lifestyle, the reader views the gradual transformation of Warsaw as a cultural and societal wellspring into a decayed community of fallen citizens. Spzilman upholds his societal dignity as long as he possibly can in face of the Germans. In his narrative, he makes frequent references to his fellow Polish Jews around him, making sure to emphasize the waning and waxing spirits of an oppressed people. His description of Mayor Starzynski highlights this: "[Starzynski] was everywhere: he went along the trenches, was in charge of the building of barricades, the organization of hospitals, the fair distribution of what little food there was...Everyone waited eagerly for his speeches and drew courage from them: there was no reason for anyone to lose heart as long as the major had no doubts." In these descriptions the reader receives the portraits of genuinely strong and enduring figures whose attitudes refuse to be infected by the disparaging atmosphere the German army creates for the citizens of Warsaw.
The depiction of life in the Warsaw ghetto differs between the film and the journal. In Polansky's film the tonality of the months spent adapting to ghetto life is harsh and solemn. We are given only the surface emotions of the Jewish prisoners; mixture of dejection and suspended panic as individuals and families crumble under threats of murder and separation. Much of the activity inside the ghetto is lost in the third-person perspective of the film, whereas in Spzilman's account an atmosphere of bargaining, business, and the bribing of guards inside the confinements of the ghetto are revealed.
After the carting-away of Spzilman's family and his subsequent escape from deportation, the film becomes a character focus on the survival of Spzilman throughout the remainder of the war. In these passages and scenes we observe the degeneration of Spzilman as a man of high-society and artistic sensibilities to a man possessed by fear of death while similarly driven on by a lust for survival. His fear of persecution is well kept, and he applies this newfound drive to help isolate himself from any threats to his security. Once cut off from his family and the Poles supporting him, he is forced to contain himself inside any safehouse available to him. In the film, during his stay at these safehouses, he observes the conflict outside remotely through the windows. These scenes emphasize Spzilman's isolation from his war-torn city, where all he is left to do is look on helplessly and take in the tragedy of these events in solitude.
Polansky's film accomplishes much in presenting the overarching panic and despair faced by one encaged in solitude while a war rages just beyond the veil of abandoned safehouses. Spzilman's own account renders these same scenes in vivid detail, documenting every agonizing stage of a single man's journey through the tragedy of a personally fought war.
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