69
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineAlso unforgettable is Steiger's towering performance as the volatile survivor, a powder keg of hateful remembrances.
- 90The DissolveNathan RabinThe DissolveNathan RabinSidney 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.
- 90The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherRemarkable...[a] most uncommon film, which projects a disagreeable subject with power and cogency.
- 89Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleVisually, Lumet's use of gritty black-and-white realism to locate the story is also powerful.
- 80Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonWhen 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]
- 70The Observer (UK)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]
- 60Time OutTime OutAn 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.
- 60Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumAn ambitious but pretentious adaptation of Edward Lewis Wallant's novel by David Friedkin and Morton Fine, directed by Sidney Lumet.
- 30Village VoiceAndrew SarrisVillage VoiceAndrew SarrisA pretentious parable that manages to shrivel into drivel.