The Painted Bird

A powerful sprawling epic across a cruel and harsh war torn landscape seen through the eyes of a child, The Painted Bird is one of the more perfect pieces of cinema one will ever see. This now holds the distinction of being the first ‘foreign film’ to earn a five-star rating from me.

Powerful. Raw. Tough. Sad

The film improves over the duration of the journey. The main actor is impressive.

At first I thought I'd never get through this, and as time went on, I wondered if I should I even bother. But about a third of the way through, something gripped me and didn't let go. It's actually a profound and moving film where it's not just scene after scene of horror, but rather a journey of one boy's grotesque suffering during world war II. There is definitely a narrative if you stick with it. And considering the direction of the world in 2023, we should always remind ourselves of the depravity that humans are capable of. Ten years ago, I might have naively thought these kinds of crimes would be behind us, but as our world slips into its Orwellian future, films like this are more important than ever. Those who turn away don't want to be reminded of what we can inflict upon one another, understandably so. Ultimately, the film ends on a hopeful note. Stick with it.

Its like defecating on a canvas and calling it art. Sadistic and brutal for the sake of nothing. Perhaps man is not redeemable, but neither is this movie.

A powerful must see Holocaust film. The child lead is absolutely outstanding. Though his character is just an innocent child caught up in genocide, he has the unstoppable will, wit and grit of the most heroic of adult soldiers.

I read "The Painted Bird" 50 years ago and found the reading difficult but ehard to put down. The memories of the book haunted me for years. I later read reviews by critics who accused Kosinski of plagiarizing or inventing his material. Perhaps I had been duped into reading something I should not. One of the lines of critique engages in the notion that the book--and the movie--are depictions of Nazi Germany. Indeed, the critics say, the scenes did not take place in Germany. The Germans played a small role. It's therefore not a good movie about the Holocaust. But that's wrong. The greatest excesses of the Holocaust did in fact occur outside of Germany in Eastern Europe. Even German Jews, and for that matter Dutch and French Jews, were deported into Eastern Europe to be murdered. The story line of the Painted Bird is almost certainly apocryphal, a work of fiction, not a documentary. Like all fiction, it draws its material from human nature. The various depictions of ugliness provided in the book--and in the movie--might never have been witnessed by any one person, and a few might not have actually ever occurred, and only been invented in the imaginations of twisted people. But the fact remains the stories are there, the notions of depravity are there. And the fact remains that in Eastern Europe in the 1940s a massive amount of unspeakable, depraved cruelty happened. The movie almost perfectly captures Kozinski's story. One can argue whether the story itself should have been told, for the reasons I mentioned above. I believe that it is an important story, not as a document of historical detail, but as a document of human ignorance and cruelty. If we fail to understand that ignorance and cruelty were at the core of the depravity that enveloped Eastern Europe, we have missed not only what happened, but are inviting it to happen again.

I could barely get through the first half hour, it's too graphic and mean for my tastes

Václav Marhoul made a film and it's pretty graphic and it just doesn't work. Marhoul produced, wrote and directed 'The Painted Bird' based on the novel and, well, you be the judge. It was never boring, but more in the way people rubberneck at an accident cleared off to the side of the highway than anything else. It's a herculean task to get grasp of everything Marhoul is attempting to do and that overambitious effort leads to a miss. Is it art? Is it exploitative? Maybe some of column A and some of column B. Final Score: 5.0/10

From the opening scene to the very end, I cried. This is not an easy film to watch, I had to cover my eyes at times as a seemly endless parade of human cruelty, inhumanity and depravity marched by; but at the same time, it was touching and beautiful. Beautifully written, acted, filmed and directed. It’s a courageous movie and a testament to the endurance of the human spirit amid almost unimaginable suffering. It leaves you pondering the human condition and the blindness of hatred and prejudice—literally.