In The Pawnbroker, we follow a man, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that runs a pawnshop and is completely withdrawn from any human connection. In the first couple of scenes you see Nazerman bombarded with different cultures; from his assistant, Puerto Rican Jesus, to a self-taught black man, Nazerman could be constantly involving himself with, and connecting with a variety of people. However, no matter how much attention they seem to give to him, he refuses to make any connection with “scum.” His indifference makes him extremely blind to what has been surrounding him for years.
Rodriguez, a colored man who owns the pawnshop, is someone who Nazerman really accepted as a powerful figure despite his wealth. It isn’t until later that Nazerman realizes that his income comes from “dirty money”; money that comes from Rodriguez’s thriving prostitution business. This relationship shows two clashing cultures that represent how ignorance can lead to surprising realizations.
In an early scene when Nazerman and Rodriguez are talking on the phone, I found the way the characters to be depicted, interesting. In this conversation, Rodriguez is received with the camera diagonally facing upward away from him, giving him a large and powerful visage. He also wearing a white robe and is sitting in a room of all white, which interesting enough, is an extreme contrast to his dark skin, maybe depicting false “purity.” Nazerman, however, is shown to be behind some sot of gate or some sort, which I found to be really telling of his emotional state. Rodriguez was trying to impose his power on him, while Nazerman was in a dark place and stuck in an emotional prison. It was fascinating to see how such a simple scene can show so much about clashing cultures and the power struggles that are unfortunately involved.
