Film: Schindler's List
Director: Steven Spielberg
Country: USA
Released: November 1993
Runtime: 195 minutes
Genre: Historical Drama
Studio: Amblin Entertainment / Universal
Influenced: Agnieszka Holland, Roberto Benigni, Terrence Malick, Lone Scherfig, Darren Aronofsky
Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler's Ark by Australian writer Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List is one of two classic Spielberg films released in the same year. The film is a powerful Holocaust drama that tells the true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a German businessman who saved the lives of over a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during World War II. Apparently, during the filming of Schindler's List, Spielberg would spend several hours each evening editing Jurassic Park, which was scheduled for its premiere that summer. Such was Spielberg's personal devotion to the project that he waived his director's fee and any profits from the film, stating that it would be "blood money". As well as casting some Holocaust survivors as extras or in small roles, Spielberg also received permission to film inside Auschwitz, giving the film an additional degree of authenticity and emotional charge.
Spielberg chose to shoot the film in black & white, adding a documentary-like feel to the movie and intensifying its historical realism. The only exception is the "girl in the red coat", a recurring motif throughout the film and a symbol of innocence lost. Many scenes were shot on location in Kraków, including the ghetto where many of the Jews were herded during WWII. This is where Schindler starts a factory using Jewish labour to produce enamelware, but as he witnesses the atrocities of the Holocaust, he undergoes a transformation. Schindler gradually evolves from a man of business to a man of compassion, using his influence and fortune to protect his Jewish workers from deportation to concentration camps and certain death. The film starts relatively benignly, but the descent into hell begins around 45 minutes in, when we witness the one-armed machinist shot dead in the snow by the Nazis, followed by a horrific scene showing the luggage of those deported on the train taken to a room at the station and sorted into great stolen piles of shoes, watches, photos, etc. The clear implication is that the Jews on the train – including Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), until he is saved by Schindler – are being sent to their death.
Ruthless Nazi SS officer Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) serves as the representative in Schindler's List of the cruelty and brutality of the Nazi regime, subjecting the Jews under his command at the Plaszów concentration camp to horrifying conditions, including forced labour and mass executions. Goeth was a real person who was responsible for numerous atrocities during the Holocaust, and his portrayal in the film is historically accurate, drawn from testimonies and records of his actions. Keneally's book and Spielberg's film were inspired by the life of Holocaust survivor Poldek Pfefferberg (Jonathan Sagall), who also appears as a character in the film, along with his wife. In the end credits, Spielberg cites Pfefferberg as a consultant under the name Leopold Page. The film's ending, where the Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews) pay tribute to him at his grave in Israel, is deeply moving, as is the scene in which Schindler breaks down and laments that he could have saved more lives.
Schindler's List was a critical and commercial success and received numerous accolades, including seven Oscars, notably Best Picture and Best Director for Spielberg. It also won three Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA Award for Best Film. Along with Alain Resnais' Nuit & Brouillard (1956) and Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985), Schindler's List is now considered a seminal work in Holocaust cinema. Spielberg treated the subject with the reverence it deserved, something that was at times lacking in Benigni's equally successful Holocaust film, La Vita è Bella (1997). Spielberg's solemn approach and innovative filmmaking techniques, such as the use of handheld cameras, give the film a gritty and immersive feel, while John Williams' score is notable for its minimalist approach, its haunting main theme now instantly recognisable. The critical reputation of Schindler's List has grown over the years, and it is now widely considered a poignant cinematic masterpiece that continues to educate and inspire audiences about humanity's capacity for both cruelty and heroism.
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