No. 25 - Schindler's List (1993)

Whoever Saves One Life, Saves The World Entire

Wikipedia Link

Rated: R for violence, language, torture, mass murder

Director: Steven Spielberg; Screenplay: Steven Zaillian; based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Tom Keneally

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagallie, Embeth Davidtz

Movie Introduction: Businessman Oskar Schindler (Neeson) arrives in Krakow in 1939, ready to make his fortune from World War II, which has just started. After joining the Nazi party primarily for political expediency, he staffs his factory with Jewish workers for similarly pragmatic reasons. When the SS begins exterminating Jews in the Krakow ghetto, Schindler arranges to have his workers protected to keep his factory in operation. Even after the Jews are moved to the concentration camp at Płaszów, under the brutal command of SS Lieutenant Amon Göth (Fiennes), Schindler bargains to keep the Jewish workers for his factory. He soon realizes that in so doing, he is also saving innocent lives.   

Defining Moment: the girl in the red coat

Spielberg’s choice to tell this story in black and white was smart. I honestly feel this helps make the film more palatable. What happened in the German camps was so horrible, seeing it in color would be almost unwatchable. With the colorless backdrop, it enabled one of the film’s more powerful vignettes. As the Jews are being rounded up in the ghetto, they are confused and scared. It’s chaos. Using the color red, director Spielberg draws our attention, and Oskar Schindler's, to a little girl in a long dress coat. She walking among the confusion, calmly trying to be so brave in the melee. We follower her as she walk past guards shooting people. She finally ducks into a building, her home perhaps, then climbs upstairs and hides under a bed.  We will see her again, much later, one final time.  

Something subtle you might have missed:  enduring the heaviness

Shooting a film on this subject is incredibly heavy, and emotional. It took a toll on Spielberg and many of the actors and actresses. Many would openly weep after taxing scenes. Spielberg asked his friend Robin Williams to tell come jokes and do some of his hilarious comedy routines, on speaker phone, for the cast and crew. Some of that material would end up as dialogue for Disney's Aladdin (1992), where he portrayed the Genie.   

Memorable Quotes:

"They came with nothing. Nothing. And they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. Think about that. By this evening those six centuries are a rumor. They never happened. Today is history." – SS 2nd LT Amon Göth

"I am a member of the Nazi Party. I'm a munitions manufacturer. I'm a profiteer of slave labor. I am … a criminal. At midnight, you'll be free and I'll be hunted. I shall remain with you until five minutes after midnight, after which time – and I hope you'll forgive me – I have to flee." - Oskar Schindler

Dad's Review:

As an amateur history buff, there are several moments (and I mean historical moments, so, time-wise, they could encompass several years) that stand out because of the sheer magnitude of their severity and impact on humanity. The Fall of the Roman Empire, The Boxer Rebellion, The US Civil War - all are historically massive.

However, those pale in comparison to the Holocaust. Six million people exterminated, systematically brutalized, experimented on, and mercilessly murdered. Killed in the name of Nationalism, as German proudly sat and watched. As the Nazi party seized power in Germany, citizens gathered in huge rallies. They cheered as Adolph Hitler put into action his “Final Solution” to wipe out the Jewish culture, and put forth world domination for his “Master Race”.

It’s almost too horrible to believe. How could this happen? But, it did. The facts surrounding the Holocaust are undisputable. Undeniable. However, there is a rising group of people in American and abroad, who want to propagate the idea that it never happened. It was an elaborate hoax.

This is one reason Steven Spielberg’s felt a sense of urgency to make this film. As a Jew, he always knew he’d make a movie on this topic – I think he felt it his duty. The director often explored the topic of World War II. Indiana Jones always seemed to run into those nasty Nazis. This film was to be a masterpiece among his many masterpieces, however Schindler’s List feels very personal. This is a difficult topic to convey on film. If the tone is wrong, it might appear preachy.

This story elects to tell the story of the Jews who survived the ordeal in large part due to the efforts of a businessman named Oskar Schindler who used Jewish workers to manufacture munitions for the Nazi’s during the war. At first he used the Jews for profits, but changed his efforts in an attempt to get as many out of the death camps as possible.

I cannot say enough about the performance of Ralph Fiennes as the SS Lieutenant in charge of the camp. Good Lord, what a monstrous psychopath. Perhaps that was in the job description for a high-ranking Nazi. Spielberg cast him because he saw a "sexual evil". Fiennes gained 28 pounds for the role and spoke with survivors who knew Göth. His appearance and mannerisms were so convincing that when survivors saw him on set, they were terrified. It is certainly understandable that he would go on to play the serpentine "He Who Cannot Be Named" in the Harry Potter films.

Onto No. 26... A Dozen Pissed-off Dudes