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Sidney Lumet's direction is not the highlight of The Pawnbroker -- it can be heavy-handed and self-conscious at times -- but Rod Steiger's searing portrayal of a freed Holocaust victim trying to make a living as a pawnbroker in Harlem is unforgettable. Steiger's Method acting is dead-on, offering up a character so wracked by the past that he's barely functional in the present: So he places the love of money over all else in his life. Lumet's use of awkward flashbacks to the concentration camps, actually hinders the storytelling rather than help it.
