The Pawnbroker

Steiger has been praised to high heaven for this performance, but I thought it was rather spotty. At first, it's a masterpiece of restraint. As the story unfolds and he begins to unravel, however, the hamminess creeps in. The other actors are barely worth mentioning, ranging from fair to terrible. And I thought the depiction of the concentration camps underplayed the horror far too much. Otherwise, it's pretty good. Lumet's direction is gritty and bold, especially in those rapid edit flashbacks.

An intense study in pain and denial. Steiger's Nazerman can no longer feel anything but pain, and so he inflicts a thousand tiny pains on others, undervaluing their pawned items, and ignoring them as humans. But he can't put off the world forever, and when it rushes backs, it destroys him.

Some movies can be seen as too obtrusive, too obvious in what they're trying to say; this movie felt like it was yelling in my face half the time. Like Rod Steiger, I just want some peace and quiet. Shut up the lot of you.....except Quincy Jones. He can stay.

A fairly good portrayal of a concentration camp survivor trying to continue with living in America, who now sees the world in a rather dim light. This exploration is done well, with some effective and shocking flashbacks, sometimes deliriously interwoven via subliminal editing. However, the film seems to build up to a catharsis that never really comes, instead it's just more misery and doom, which I guess is the easier way to end this sort of story.

The pieces may not all come together perfectly, but it's an ambitious attempt at a character study and succeeds in allowing the audience to get into his head. Steiger's performance is a big part of this, but the editing may be even more important, with its disorienting flashes of memories.

Bergman wannabe. It lacks emotional depth though. That's why the ending is so weak.

Seemed important at the time. Now it seems a little too heavy-handed and obvious.

positives: strong memorable performance from steiger. interesting supporting characters, esp.from peters and oliver. grimy 60's nyc feel..... negatives: good ending not a great ending. favorite lines: 1. if you came here just to stare at me i would have sent you a photo. 2.you'll die, but not when ou want to. verdict: strongly recommended.

I wasn't amazed. It definitely was one of the first to cover the effect of the holocaust on a survivor's life, but I found the film rather boring and slow. Steiger's performance was definitely the best thing about the film.

Score by Quincy Jones.

Very strong character study about a Holocaust survivor. I haven't seen many ones in which the survivor is such a bitter but also tragic man. Therefor making him a very human character. The way his character is given depth and history by using small and longer cuts to flashbacks deserves all the praise its getting. It really shows how memory works, giving little quick flashes by associations. Rod Steiger is phenomenal.

89.00

88.500

A far more raw work from Lumet than I have seen, one which takes on the issues of the Holocaust within an ethnically diverse area of New York in a fascinating way. Its not perfect - it does get unnecessarily lurid as it goes on and, despite its ethnically diverse cast, verges dangerously into stereotypes, especially with Steiger despite the complexity of his character's issues of surviving the Holocaust - but its still an attempt at a tough issue in a fresh light.

Intense character-based drama following the life of an older man who carries the weight of surviving Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, it felt like it devolved into stereotypes to carry the film outside of Steiger's amazing performance.

An ambitious Lumet drama with a lot of potential. The frenetic cuts whenever the main character flashes back to the horrors he is trying to repress is particularly interesting, though not always altogether effective. And while Steiger delivers in some of the big moments in the film, his performance is ultimately a good deal too theatrical.

"What better place to explore gay subtext than an all-male prison?" http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/05/episode-59-dark-side-of-sidney-lumet.html

Rod Steiger: Never do anything else.

Interesting.

When Steiger cried, I cried.

This is easily Steiger's best performance. Steiger is an actor given to big and often uncontrolled performances, but he's immensely controlled here in a role that goes from complete withdrawal to big emotional bursts. It's a really transitional fil for Lumet. While it still feels a lot like the small, stage adaptations he'd specialized in (although this is adapted from a novel), he ventures out into the streets of New York here and signs of his incredible work shooting the streets of New York

Decent effort, but the character is a bit of a stereotype, and I don't feel as though enough substance was put into the story.

Lumet is one of my favorites, but I hadn't seen this one yet. Now that I have, add another one to his list of great movies. This one doesn't quite get the attention of some of his greatest, and it's not my favorite by any means, but it's an intense film with an unbelievable performance by Rod Steiger that focuses on an aspect of the Holocaust/World War II that doesn't get covered as often in the movies: the emotional aftermath for concentration camp survivors. Raw.

Everything revolves around Steiger's performance as a broken and dead shell of man. Lumet's direction is a mix of subtle and loud bursts as the streets of New York are meshed with the horror of Nazi concentration camps. Obtrusive and raw.