Has anyone seen the Pawnbroker?

[imenja]

A film with Rod Steiger. He plays a man living in 1960s NY haunted by his experiences in a concentration camp. I watched it today. I found it to be a powerful film, that had a good deal to say about the human condition apart from the circumstances of his being a Holocaust survivor. It forces you to think about what the value of one's own life; the film is profound.


Has anyone else seen it? How did you respond to the film?

[murielm99]

1. I was surprised he did not win the Oscar for that role.

He won for In the Heat of the Night.

The pawnbroker lived in the past. He was so haunted by his past that he could not relate empathetically to his present. He could not respond in a more human way to some of the people who were reaching out to him for contact.

That seemed to be part of his survival mechanism. He walled himself off from emotion.

We hear about the strong people who survived the camps and went on to build full lives. But the experience broke many survivors. Steiger helped us imagine what life for a survivor must have been like, always haunted by that evil.

[imenja]

2. His performance was outstanding

You know they gave it to Lee Marvin that year? Steiger's is one of the greatest performances I've seen on film.

[murielm99]

3. I wasn't aware.

Now that sucks!

[imenja]

4. the Oscars get it wrong a lot

Scorsese has never one an Oscar. Denzel finally got one for Training Day, not for Mal com X or the Hurricane. Paul Newman had been passed by so many times he quit turning up. He finally won an Oscar for the Color of Money, a weak film though I have no doubt Newman deserved it.
They never gave Alfred Hitchcock a best director award! Talk about a travesty. He is a cinematic genius. I think he finally got a lifetime achievement award.