Synopsis
A Jewish pawnbroker, a victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.
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Cast
- Rod SteigerSol Nazerman
- Geraldine FitzgeraldMarilyn Birchfield
- Brock PetersRodriguez
- Jaime SánchezJesus Ortiz
- Thelma OliverOrtiz's Girl
- Marketa KimbrellTessie
- Juano HernándezMr. Smith
- Linda GeiserRuth
- Nancy R. PollockBertha
- Raymond St. JacquesTangee
Recommendations
- 100
TV Guide Magazine
Also unforgettable is Steiger's towering performance as the volatile survivor, a powder keg of hateful remembrances. - 90
The Dissolve
Sidney Lumet’s uncomfortably intense adaptation of Edward Lewis Wallant’s novel gets inside Nazerman’s skin and lets the audience see the world as he does: as unspeakably vulgar, corrupt, and oppressive, a nightmare from which he cannot wake up. - 90
The New York Times
Remarkable...[a] most uncommon film, which projects a disagreeable subject with power and cogency. - 89
Austin Chronicle
Visually, Lumet's use of gritty black-and-white realism to locate the story is also powerful. - 80
Los Angeles Times
When the film stays simple, and concentrates on the actors--as in Juano Hernandez's withering bit as the old man who wants to talk--it's almost great. [28 July 1996, p.74] - 70
Variety
There is little plot in the regular sense, but a series of episodes spanning just a few days of the present, which recall many harrowing experiences of the past. Some are absorbing, but others seem to lack the dramatic punch for which the director must have strived. - 70
The Observer (UK)
The movie is brilliantly photographed in black and white by Boris Kaufman (who lit On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men ), but this ambitious work strains for effect in trying to make Steiger's character the focus for half the problems of the twentieth century. [9 July 2000] - 60
Time Out
An uneasy mixture of European art movie (the Resnais-like flashbacks that punctuate the narrative) and American ciné-vérité (it was shot on the streets of New York), The Pawnbroker never achieves the intensity its subject matter threatens.
