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Amazon.com essential video: Based on a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, this gritty story follows Sol (Rod Steiger in a breakout performance), a lonely camp survivor who has dealt with the destruction of his family by suppressing all emotion and cleaving to the philosophy that nothing matters except money. (His bedridden and dying friend Mendel describes him, to his face, as "the walking dead.") Sol cannot accept the friendship of his assistant, Ortiz (Jaime Sanchez), or of an equally lonely widow (Geraldine Fitzgerald). As the 25th anniversary of his wife's murder approaches, he starts to fall apart, and it becomes clear that what he really wants is to die. The film was considered shocking when first released, both because of its rawness and because of brief nudity. Time has made some of the dramatic touches seem melodramatic--especially the corny "blood on my hands!" final scene. But Steiger's performance is still remarkable, and, even after MTV, the sudden-flashback editing is a forceful technique. A high point of Sidney Lumet's career. Black and white, with lots of atmospheric trumpets by Quincy Jones. --Richard Farr Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-03-26
Ever a c lassic
Some time framed memories seem to last, in this case, a Rod Steiger classic performance. Idylic days in the countryside transform into 3rd Reich madness and then a lifetime of nightmarish memories interwoven with daily survival. A movie that operates on different levels remains effective in running the gamult of emotions tinged with sadness and longing. A squandered Oscar opportunity for Steiger by the Acadamy which sought redemption by bestowing the award years later for an overated performance in a weak script. The pieces of this cinematic pie fit together well and the film remains a pleasure and privilege to view. Rating:
Date: 2007-10-27
Stark 60's urban drama
Might be Rod Steiger's most morose and bleakiest role. As an Auschwitz survivor whose family were raped and tortured there, he feels a veritable menagerie of despair because of the guilt he feels for his inability to extricate them from the camp and for the guilt he feels because he somehow managed to make it out. His job as the titled pawnbroker does nothing but fuel more fire to his dire situation in life as he is cast amongst the severest cases of poverty in his store's Harlem neighborhood. Added to that, he has to front his store for a despicable vice lord (Brock Peters) so that he can at least make a modicum of income.
Sounds and is grim but is, to me, the quintessential groundbreaker of the ultra-realistic urban life dramas that were to unfold in the latter 60's and early 70's. Rod plays his part to perfection as a lifeless, embittered old man who has seen too much in one lifetime. The aforementioned Brock Peters along with Ray St. Jacques, Jaime Sanchez (his apprentice) and others flavor this dramatic pot even more so with their poignant portrayals of their respective characters, each of whom has fallen victim to the scourges of his ghetto habitat.
I shall not offer up where and how the redemptive transformation occurs in our principal, except to say watch the entire movie and see for yourself how it all unfolds. Truly, a time-tested masterpiece!
Rating:
Date: 2007-08-23
Excellent
Excellent for the period. This film shot Steiger into Stardom. A must see for all holocaust aftermath followers. Rating:
Date: 2007-07-02
The Pawnbroker
One of the few films to deal head-on with the psychological havoc wreaked on survivors of the Nazi extermination camps, Lumet's "Pawnbroker" is a bleak, hard-hitting story about imprisonment, both literal and metaphorical. Steiger, in a virtuoso performance, portrays a man so scarred by his witnessing of atrocities that he's become a paragon of emotional cruelty, quietly stewing in his hate and pain. Lumet wrings tension from Sol's jarring, sudden flashbacks as well as the urban setting, drawing sharp parallels between New York City's ghetto milieu and the wartime camps. With a somber jazz score by Quincy Jones, "Pawnbroker" is a gritty tale of unlucky survival. Rating: 
Date: 2007-04-09
An unsentimental look at survivor's guilt
`The Pawnbroker' was directed in 1965 by: Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men,1957; Serpico, 1973; Dog Day Afternoon, 1974)
The film deals with a Holocaust survivor suffering survivor's guilt after his wife and children died in the camps. He is now experiencing flash-backs to his experiences in the camps. He is clearly a man at war with himself and seeks to isolate himself from the world and people believing only in absolutes. Several people who appear to be lonely and desperate come into the store simply seeking company or help only to be turned away by his now cold indifference. Essentially this is a wonderful character study of man who has given up on life believing the world to be cruel and inhumane. I found the film well worth watching because it avoids a lot the sentimentality that can be seen in films of this nature.
Cinematography on `The Pawnbroker' was by Boris Kaufman the younger brother of Dziga Vertov (Man With A Movie Camera,1929) He had shot perhaps the finest of all poetic realist films, `L'Atalante' (1934, Jean Vigo) as well as `Zero For Conduct' (1933. Jean Vigo). In 1942 he moved to America where he made a name for himself by working with Elia Kazan on `On The Waterfront'(1954)and `Baby Doll' (1956) winning an Oscar for the former. His cinematography had a high contrast monochromatic element to it that can be clearly seen in `The Pawnbroker'. It has the same grittiness that can also be seen in the films of John Cassavettes. Music was composed by Quincy Jones which gives it a sixties Harlem flavour. The film stars the underrated Rod Steiger (On The Waterfront, 1954; In The Heat Of The Night, 1967; Fist Full Of Dynamite, 1972) in the lead role. |
