| Schindler's List is a cinematic journey of hope, loss, and love that any person fit to see such images in the film should watch. Every aspect of it seems knit into a tight ball that we keep unraveling until we get to the center where a golden treasure is stored. The ending of the film is the only part of any film that I have ever seen that made me (yes, I hate to admit it) cry. There are things that seem twice as important and significant once the last words are said in the film. It is interesting, and sometimes heartbreaking, but what really brought the whole story together for me was how it ended. I will elaborate on that in a later paragraph. The story is, as most people know by now, about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman, that was filled with lust, greed, and later, a passion for saving the Jews. He starts a business of making war weapons and has a lot of the Jews working for him only because they are cheap workers. He then sees how they are treated outside (in concentration camps and etc.) of his factory during the war, and begins to want to save more of them from their living hell. It then becomes an emotional journey from there, not letting up until the emotional ending. He ends up giving up most of his money to buy more Jews into his factory, until the end of the war. The story also revolves around Ben Kingsley, his Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern, and Ralf Fiennes, a ruthless German Commandant, named Goeth and how he interacts with Schindler and his feelings about the Jews. Schindler's transformation is not a movie clich�, where a bad (Schindler) man becomes humbled, and is all of a sudden good. His good qualities grow and get stronger as the film goes on but never does he take a total and utter transformation from preposterous man, to loving, caring, and compassionate man. The change is not that extreme. Stephen Spielberg put his whole heart into this, and not just his usual great look, and excitement. That is not what Schindler's List is about. Not at all. Although the cinematography is excellent, perfectly shot in black and white, and is positioned brilliantly without storyboards (the cinematography is supposed to have a documentary style feel to it), it is not all that Speilberg thought of to get the film to a such a standard that it is at. He also thought to have Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsly, and Ralf Fiennes as the cast. Each one of them brings a certain presence onto the screen that wouldn't have been possible by any other actor (or so that's the way they make it look). Kingsley, I thought was the best of them all. His facial expressions tell a world about his character, as they did in Ghandi also. Fiennes obviously succeeds at making us hate him, and Liam Neeson goes through Schindler's emotions like he has been Schindler for all his life. Speilberg has chosen the perfect cast. Even the characters with smaller parts like the Jewish girl that Goeth unadmitantly falls in love with is absolutely spellbinding. Speilberg doesn't let us float through the concentration camps and Jewish Ghettos with glee either. He shows us exactly what happened there unflinching. The movie is not a gore fest, which also goes to Speilberg's credit; instead, the film boldly shows us the life and how horribly awful it was for his Jews in W.W.II. It is as violent as it has to be, nothing more, nothing less. In one particular scene, it shows Goeth firing at every other man in line for no good reason except that just one of them decided to try to escape. Goeth does this because he simply didn't see a need for them or care about them. Not because they did anything wrong. The musical score by John Williams (who has collaborated with Stephen on almost every single one of his films) is nothing short of a masterpiece soundtrack. It just draws us farther into the story, never drawing too much attention to itself, heightening the perfect deep, and moving experience. The movie wouldn�t have been half as heartbreaking or emotionally overpowering if it weren�t for the score. At the end of the film, we see Schindler break down crying saying "I could have saved more, I could have saved more." He points to where his car is and indicates that if he sold his car, ten more people would be saved. If he sold his gold ring, one more Jew could be standing next to him. Neeson is perfect in this scene and gives his emotions to the audience. After this scene, we see the real Jews that Schindler saved, and the actor that played them in the film place a rock on Schindler's grave. This and the scene before it are the two most touching scenes of the entire film and of any film I have ever seen to this day. Schindler's List stands alone as a tribute to the six million people that died during the war, and to Schindler, who saved 1200 Jews that could have died. This is so much more of a film than Pearl Harbor is, when it comes to showing what its subject SHOULD be about and succeeding in script, story, direction and casting. The world forevermore has a renewed respect for the Jewish race, and the people that gave their lives so it wouldn't be wiped out forever. |
| Schindler's List |
| United States, 1993 U.S. Release Date: 12/15/93 (limited), 12/25/93 (wide) Running Length: 3:15 MPAA Classification: R (Violence, Holocaust images, nudity, sex) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Embeth Davidtz, Jonathan Sagalle Director: Steven Spielberg Producers: Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko Lustig Screenplay: Steven Zaillian based on the novel by Thomas Keneally Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski Music: John Williams U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures |
| ****Stars |