The Pawnbroker

AWARDS

NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY National Film Preservation Board (2008)
BEST WRITTEN AMERICAN DRAMA WGA Award (1966)
BEST ACTOR Golden Globes (1966)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT DGA Award (1966)
FIPRESCI PRIZE, HONORABLE MENTION Berlin International Film Festival (1966)

Rod Steiger stars in this somber portrait of a concentration camp survivor struggling with the horrors of his past and the bleakness of his present life as the owner of a Harlem pawnshop. Based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, Lumet's film is a cinematic tour de force and a powerful character study that makes a strong statement about the legacy of the Holocaust. Steiger was nominated for an Oscar for his performance and won the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"... a painstakingly etched portrait of a man who survived the living hell of a Nazi concentration camp and encounters further prejudice when he runs a pawnshop in Harlem."
-Variety

"... a dark and haunting drama of a man who has reasonably eschewed a role of involvement and compassion in a brutal and bitter world and has found his life barren and rootless as a consequence. It is further a drama of discovery of the need of man to try to do something for his fellow human sufferers in the troubled world of today."
-New York Times