Schindler's ListThe Holocaust is remembered as one of the most catastrophic tragedies in human history--the wanton murder of noncombatants and systematic genocide of a people during World War II that left millions dead. Schindler's List is based on the true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an industrialist who comes to Krakow intent on profiting from the war raging across Europe. Yet over the course of six years, he becomes a legend among the eleven-hundred Jews he saved from annihilation by the Nazis, as his business and secret philanthropic efforts are facilitated by his gifted accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley).
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Schindler's List follows the reclamation of Schindler, who all but comes to Poland to make a quick buck, hiring the Jews being placed into ghettos on the cheap. Yet he became a saint-like figure because of his selflessness and the sacrifices he made to save the lives that no one else would or could. Oskar's motivations are transparent; he schmoozes his way through the Third Reich's power elite, presenting himself as a person of importance, despite it being a bluff. He confesses to his wife, Emilie (Caroline Goodall), that the key element he was missing in his prior ventures was the presence of war; he has the face for business, but not the patience for the mundane details. His interest in hiring Jews is purely fiscal at first, telling Itzhak that he only has to pay the S.S. five marks for a Jew versus seven for a Pole--an opportunistic sentiment at best, ghoulish at worst. The Oskar Schindler of 1939 is a man who wears the swastika on his lapel as he strides confidently into a swanky nightclub--a wolf in wolves' clothing, not a man of virtue. He is a hustler who knows whose palms to grease to make his enterprise flourish, and relishes the finer things in life--like caviar, beautiful women, and German cigarettes. His reputation as a playboy is such that after he kisses a Jewish woman full on the mouth at his birthday party--and is subsequently arrested by the Gestapo for it--none other than the morally vacuous Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) comes to his defense, concluding that his predilections are born from normal, red-blooded masculine lust rather than sympathy for Jews. (Even when Oskar is hiring a secretary, he is visibly dejected when the most qualified applicant is not as pretty as her predecessors.) He exudes the charisma and virility of a man in charge, and capitalizes on the ignorant Nazi bureaucrats that hold their positions of power not by savvy but by savagery--he is deft in his negotiations with them because he is smarter and more cunning than these soldiers. Oskar is always walking the tightrope of selling himself as an image of what a Nazi industrialist should be versus the man he becomes. He comes to appreciate his persecuted labor force not just as inexpensive workers, but as real human beings. Oskar often argues that it is "good business" to keep his workers alive--including to Amon, who oversees the prison camp after the ghetto is liquidated--so that he doesn't have to waste time and money on training replacements; that he is correct is less important than the sliver of mercy that works its way deeper and deeper into his conscience. The notorious playboy and decadent businessman grows a conscience, and experiences a transformation like that of Saul of Tarsus. When the war ends, Oskar must flee from Czechoslovakia because he is a member of the Nazi Party by default. He breaks down in one of the most touching scenes in movie history, regretting how he might have saved "one more" Jew from death with his money. He understands the high cost of his erstwhile vanity in a flood of emotion; his soul is resurrected from cynicism and avarice, baptized by compassion for his fellow man.
In a world where movies are generally only regarded as art or escapism, it is rare that a movie could be described as truly important--a chronicle for future generations to not forget and risk repeating such a calamity. Schindler's List is uncompromising in its graphic depiction of how the Jews were incrementally wiped out of Poland. The platitude that it could "always be worse" is repeated in the film, and is chillingly proven true time after time. Schindler's List is important because it doesn't reduce the loss of life to a figure in a history book--it depicts human beings being destroyed by a populous convinced that they are a virulent plague. The film does not try to justify or ponder why the Poles and Nazis allowed such a terrible crime against humanity to occur, but shows how everyday people--that happen to be Jewish--are driven out of their homes at gunpoint, forced into the dark squalor of the ghetto, and then driven into a slave camp. When this indignity and the constant threat of execution by monsters like Göth is not enough, they are carted off by train to Auschwitz, where its skyline by dominated by an ominous smokestack spewing fire and ashes into the night sky--like the flames of Hell itself. Jews are beaten with clubs and stripped down to nakedness, then made to run through a circuit to see whether they are healthy enough to remain in the prison camp or if they will be excised and marked for death; and some are shot in the head without warning. These scenes are filmed in black and white, which adds to its cold and brutal starkness, and recalls the stomach-churning photographs and footage taken after the liberation of concentration camps like Auschwitz. Exceptions to these horrors are few and far between, but include a scene where a hinge-maker is miraculously spared from execution by Amon for failing to produce hinges quickly enough. This is due to two jammed pistols, rather than mercy by the sadistic Nazi, in a rare moment of divine intervention. Schindler's List makes it clear that these are the blackest of days for Jews in Europe, underscoring the importance of Oskar's contributions all the more. The film opens with the lighting of candles that burn down for the Sabbath, and closes with the real people depicted in Schindler's List--alongside the actors who portrayed them--visiting Oskar Schindler's grave. Both scenes are in color, and a link to the present; the survivors remember a man who became a champion of a persecuted people in the most difficult of times and at great personal peril, reclaiming his soul through an act of mercy.
Recommended for: Fans of a story about what it means to discover the value of human life in the face of horrifying evil. Schindler's List is unflinching in its depiction of a terrible time in human history, but carries a message of hope. It is a reminder that despite the powers of darkness always vying to destroy goodness, stories of the flame of kindness that glows within the human heart must always be told for future generations.
In a world where movies are generally only regarded as art or escapism, it is rare that a movie could be described as truly important--a chronicle for future generations to not forget and risk repeating such a calamity. Schindler's List is uncompromising in its graphic depiction of how the Jews were incrementally wiped out of Poland. The platitude that it could "always be worse" is repeated in the film, and is chillingly proven true time after time. Schindler's List is important because it doesn't reduce the loss of life to a figure in a history book--it depicts human beings being destroyed by a populous convinced that they are a virulent plague. The film does not try to justify or ponder why the Poles and Nazis allowed such a terrible crime against humanity to occur, but shows how everyday people--that happen to be Jewish--are driven out of their homes at gunpoint, forced into the dark squalor of the ghetto, and then driven into a slave camp. When this indignity and the constant threat of execution by monsters like Göth is not enough, they are carted off by train to Auschwitz, where its skyline by dominated by an ominous smokestack spewing fire and ashes into the night sky--like the flames of Hell itself. Jews are beaten with clubs and stripped down to nakedness, then made to run through a circuit to see whether they are healthy enough to remain in the prison camp or if they will be excised and marked for death; and some are shot in the head without warning. These scenes are filmed in black and white, which adds to its cold and brutal starkness, and recalls the stomach-churning photographs and footage taken after the liberation of concentration camps like Auschwitz. Exceptions to these horrors are few and far between, but include a scene where a hinge-maker is miraculously spared from execution by Amon for failing to produce hinges quickly enough. This is due to two jammed pistols, rather than mercy by the sadistic Nazi, in a rare moment of divine intervention. Schindler's List makes it clear that these are the blackest of days for Jews in Europe, underscoring the importance of Oskar's contributions all the more. The film opens with the lighting of candles that burn down for the Sabbath, and closes with the real people depicted in Schindler's List--alongside the actors who portrayed them--visiting Oskar Schindler's grave. Both scenes are in color, and a link to the present; the survivors remember a man who became a champion of a persecuted people in the most difficult of times and at great personal peril, reclaiming his soul through an act of mercy.
Recommended for: Fans of a story about what it means to discover the value of human life in the face of horrifying evil. Schindler's List is unflinching in its depiction of a terrible time in human history, but carries a message of hope. It is a reminder that despite the powers of darkness always vying to destroy goodness, stories of the flame of kindness that glows within the human heart must always be told for future generations.