SCHINDLER'S LIST A film by Steven Spielberg Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes Written by Steven Zaillian Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally
At the end of Steven Spielberg's emotionally draining masterpiece, one gets the true feeling of the depth of man's inhumanity, especially to other men. There is a deep sense of fear and dread that follows a viewing of SCHINDLER'S LIST, a feeling that a viewer is about to be bombarded with the horror of a time long gone, yet oddly familiar. SCHINDLER'S LIST is one of those truly rare films which aspire to something more than filmed entertainment: it aspires to be something truly powerful, to depict something brutally horrifying and find the inner beauty deep inside it, somewhere. It begs to search the souls of men to find the evils and the goods, and tries to explain, give some rationale as to man's most tragic failings. It is a film about how men can fall to their most inner hatreds, and how some special men can overcome their many failings to emerge as intensely flawed heroes. In a sense, SCHINDLER'S LIST depicts the personal journey of one man, and the massive journey of one race, as they both somehow interweave through the fates of history's most brutal massacre. There is that deep sense of ominous foreboding, as if we know this story, but the brutal realities of it being displayed on screen disturb us, make us vomit and retch, and cleanse us of the inner demons which cause man to do such crimes. And yet, there is a flicker, a barely noticeable candle of hope in the deepest despair, there is a shining example of what man can be, instead of what he often is. SCHINDLER'S LIST probably probes man's fate in the world more than any film since possibly 2001.
The film, on a personal level, concentrates on the remarkable story of Oskar Schindler (Neeson), a German businessman, a womanizer, drinker, chain-smoker, greedy, self-centered member of the Nazi party. Schindler is lazy, conceited, and finds joy in the one thing that shall make him the most money: war. He is a classic example of the "war profiteer". At the start of the film, Schindler purchases an enamel factory, through which he wishes to make pots and pans for the German army, as well as armaments if necessary. He decides to employs Jews in the ghettos of Poland, due to their cheap labor cost, and works with Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Kingsley) to find Jewish partners to gain investors and make his supplies. Stern comes up with the ingenious idea to save those who have no "essential" skills: teachers, musiciens, rabbis, and the handicapped, and labels them as "essential workers", allowing them to work in Schindler's factory. During the film's middle portion, Spielberg shifts his focus from Schindler to the Holocaust in general, and in particular to Commandant Amon Goeth (Fiennes), who is in charge of the ghetto, and later moves all the Jews to a forced labor camp. Schindler becomes close friends with Goeth in order to have his factory run even within the walls of the camp, but he slowly sees the monstrosities committed by the Nazis to his workers, and to others.
During moments of the second act, Spielberg focuses on children. There are unforgettable moments of power when Spielberg shows the inhumane cruelty suffered by innocent children, and the changes that happen to these little boys and girls, no older than 10 or 11. Spielberg has often been accused of oversentimentality: there is one portion, when he colors the coat of a girl as she is walking through the ghetto, intercutting with Schindler watching her. It can be said that this is a "Spielbergian" touch of audience manipulation. However, Spielberg isn't looking for that: he is demonstrating, in frightening terms, the intensenly personal effects of the Holocaust. So often, 11 million people are reduced to a number. Spielberg is able to cast every single one of those 11 million people, including the millions of children, into real people in one devastating shot where the red coat is on a conveyer belt full of dead bodies. It is a stunning example of how truly atrocious this time period was.
The third act is where Schindler creates his list. The flawed war profiteer has chosen to stop the madness that has been unjustly going on. He spends his entire fortune, bankrupts himself, and literally purchases 1000 lives from Goeth. He takes these 1000 people away from the death camps, and puts them to work in his factory, saving them from the horrors that were to happen to them. Kingsley delivers history's judgement of Oskar Schindler in a moving scene: "He who saves one life, saves the world entire." It is a touching moment in a film full of intensely touching moments. By this time, the audience has been purely devastated in immense heartache: there is no more that can be done to further impact a viewer.
When SCHINDLER'S LIST was profiled on AFI's top 100 list, the reviewer said that SCHINDLER'S LIST was able to capture death more realistically than anything ever before seen. Death is so realistic that it touches the viewer dramatically. Surely, the brilliant decision to film in black and white is a reason, and for that Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski have to be thanked. It is a stunning example of cinematography never before experienced on screen. The script, by Hollywood's premier writer of serious fare, is ingenious, deftly mixing in humor at times to give the audience the further impression that this was real, that this actually happened. John Williams turns in his most moving and haunting score, with sounds that are simply breathtaking. The repeating melody is as tragic and somber as anything ever before composed.
The perfomances are downright exquisite. Neeson makes his career with a stunning performance that lifts him into the stratosphere of great actors. Kingsley is absolutely magnificent, but the true discovery is Ralph Fiennes's dramatically scary turn as Amon Goeth. This is one cold-hearted killer, with a complicated, twisted personality. Fiennes is so scary that I still have nightmares of Amon Goeth, coming with his gun to shoot me in the snow, make my blood just sink into the white surface, like ink spilled on a page. It is one of the century's most horribly frightening, disgustingly repulsing, truly brilliant performances.
SCHINDLER'S LIST is as raw, as punishing, as brilliant, and as hopeful as film has ever been on screen. It is a brutal example of what film can do, pushed to its highest limits and taken to its most extreme bounds. It is without a doubt Steven Spielberg's greatest acheivement, and one of the greatest films of all time. Remarkably clear, poignantly devastating, and lovingly portrayed by a filmmaker who knows the true power of his art, SCHINDLER'S LIST is the best film is a generation, and one of the most inspired pieces of art in history. Magnificent.
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