Based on the journal of a World War II survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto this movie gets my highest “WWII holocaust movie” rating since Shindler’s List. It’s done very tastefully and at the same time isn’t so depressing that it’s impossible to watch.
Whether I agree that Adrian Brody deserved the best actor Oscar for his performance is beside the point (I don’t by the way — I think Daniel Day Lewis should have gotten it for The Gangs of New York.)
The Warsaw ghetto, as far as I understand, is the one place that the Jewish population fought back against the Germans who were shipping them off to death camps. I would have preferred to see more about the resistance itself, but because of the situation that the protagonist, Spielman, was in, we only get to see a little of the fighting and hear about through rumours and word of mouth from those around him.
I highly recommend this movie because of the importance of remembering the holocaust but in particular because this story was based so closely on Spielman’s journal and also some incidents were taken right from the directors own personal experiences. He was a holocaust survivor as well.
If you rent the DVD I also recommend that you watch the special features disk — the story of survival.