|
| • Advanced Search • Help |
The Pawnbroker | Year: 1965 Classification: Drama Directed: - Sidney Lumet Actors/Actresses: - Rod Steiger - Geraldine Fitzgerald The Pawnbroker: A Book That Deserves To Be Read No question that the 1964 Rod Steiger movie version of this novel is a masterpiece in stark black & white. No less powerful is the source book's account of Sol Nazerman, who survived the Holocaust only to be living in the middle of another kind of concentration camp as a Harlem pawnbroker. The power of this book is in Wallant's consummate handling of some of the bleakest material one can imagine. It's hard to put this one down and, once read, it's hard to forget. END Rod Steiger's best work. This black & white art film from the Sixties holds up extremely well thanks to Rod Steiger's wonderful performance and Sidney Lumet's gritty direction. The film, not to mention the novel it was based upon, is one of my favorites because it captures graphically the way the main character's memories of the Holocaust hold him prisoner years later as a Harlem pawnbroker. With his life long ago drained of joy and feeling, he is at once the victim of his pawnshop and life, and the businessman who's lost the ability to empathize with his poor and victimized (but often amazingly hopeful) customers. Add to the drama an urban jazz score by Quincy Jones and you have a picture that belongs in any serious film lover's collection. Brilliant film but with one inexcusable flaw "The Pawnbroker" is a bleak, shattering character study concerning the ravages of guilt on a holocaust survivor who has psychologically shut down his emotions in order to survive. Sol Nazerman's (Rod Steiger) guilt is based on his inability to save his family at Auschwitz while he himself has continued to live. His emotional shutdown results in his ability to empathize with the desperate, pathetic customers who pawn their valuables at his store, or to care about his mistress, his Puerto Rican employee, or anyone else. However, through a sort of cinematic stream of consciousness, director Sidney Lumet is able to reveal how current situations act as catalysts on Sol, enabling memories of the past, through flashback, to return and haunt him still. This is arguably the best performance of Rod Steiger's career, with exceptional support from the entire cast. So what's the flaw? Well, the filmmakers convincingly show where the horrors of hatred and bigotry that led to the Holocaust can lead. And then the filmmakers proceed to promote another form of hatred, as if this were somehow acceptable. The problem for me is that for no positive reason, several of the arch villains in this piece are shown to be gay men, and one can't help but wonder at the homophobia behind the director or author's choice in this. The main villain of the piece is Rodriguez (excellently played by Brock Peters), who uses the pawnship as a money-laundering "front" for his personal crime syndicate, and pays Sol well for his compliance. Rodriguez is continually shown with his blond male lover, a handsome but subservient figure in a non-speaking role. After one threatening interchange between Rodriguez and Sol in Rodriguez's living room, Rodriguez and the lover are seen ascending the stairs, presumably to the bedroom, to turn in for the night, leaving the distraught and vanquished Sol by himself. [...] And then there are the three evil thugs who decide to rob the pawnshop. Prior to this robbery attempt, we see one of robbers lovingly examining the photos in a men's muscle magazine. Again, why?? The movie even contains an East Harlem nightclub scene, in which a pathetic drag queen of advanced age struts his sad stuff in a performance worthy of "The Gong Show" before removing his wig at the dance's end. For the third time, why??? This facile use of homosexuality to highlight modern-day evil is quite frankly repugnant and both tarnishes and sabotages an otherwise brilliant film. If the filmmakers are attempting to show where hatred toward one minority group can lead, how can the writer and director justify reviling yet another persecuted minority group? Were they not aware that hundreds of thousands of gay men and women also perished in the death camps? Was the suffering of the concentration camp prisoners who were forced to wear a yellow star more valid than the suffering of the prisoners who were forced to wear a pink triangle? Buy The Pawnbroker at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Pawnbroker Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Pawnbroker This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
|
