Schindler's List

We try to rationalize everything, but there are some things we can't. How can you rationalize the Holocaust? The great horror of the 20th century, it happened, we can put it in context, we can study it, we can denounce it, we can put whatever spin we can, yet we can't hide from the truth it happened, and we must own up to the fact that it has left a stain on the rest of humanity.

The best way to show the holocaust is simply just to show it. The images, and the testimony of the survivors are powerful enough. To dramatize it, in a different matter altogether. "Schindler's List" is a film that has dramatized events surrounding the holocaust, but as Stanley Kubrick once said about the film, it isn't a film about the holocaust, it's a film about survival. The holocaust was nothing but death in its cruelest form, "Schindler's List" acknowledges this with images of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, burnt corpses, and the Auschwitz death camps, but it's really the story about how one man was able to help over a thousand Jews evade the holocaust and survive.

Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is a German industrialist, at the beginning of the film he wears a Nazi pin and does business with other Nazis. With the aid of his Jewish accountant Iztak Stern (Ben Kingsley) he creates an enamelware plant. Stern suggests to Schindler near the beginning of the film to hire Jews as they are cheaper than Poles, which would mean good business and more money for him. Schindler becomes a success, but soon the Jews are transported to a camp run by Amon Goeth (Ralph Feinnes). Goeth has orders to liquidate the Krakow ghetto which contains Jews, we see Schindler viewing this from a hilltop.

Schindler is still a businessman, he becomes friends with Goeth, and he does business with him in order for his Jews to continue working at his plant. But by this point, Schindler must resort to bribing in order to get his workers. His plant has become a haven for the Jews, but soon, orders come in to send them all to Auschwitz.

In the Holocaust, you lived and died by being on a list; we are shown from the very beginning of the film people's names on lists, when there name is called they must line up, one list is good, the other list isn't. "Schindler's List" understands this, and the interesting thing about the story is how much of a commodity people become. During the Holocaust, Jews weren't thought of as people to the German army, they were liquidated at random, that's how scary it became, you were no longer a name, an individual, you were something to be sold, traded, or exterminated. Schindler was able to save the Jews through the method of buying and selling, and he wasn't under suspicion because he was a businessman.

The other interesting thing about this film is how a man like Schindler would go from a rich entrepreneur, who spent all his money to save over a thousand people. Through the film, he changes organically, There's not a point in the film where he stops turning a blind eye all of a sudden, it's all through subtle moments, and gestures he gets to that decision. Much of it is done through Stern, his loyal friend and business partner who plays like his conscience. Stern never tells him what to do, but he does enough to point him in the right direction.

Goeth is the alternate example, he's a villain, he's vein, he's man, and he kills without mercy. Goeth may have also influenced Schindler's decision, because through him, we can see the true horror that was in power back then.

"Schindler's List" was directed by Steven Spielberg, the most powerful man in Hollywood. Spielberg is a filmmaker who I think is more complex and brilliant than most people give him credit for. He may be the most successful man in movies, but he's first and foremost a filmmaker. "Schindler's List" doesn't reveal itself until near the end, with the one flaw of having Schindler give a heartfelt speech which doesn't fit with the rest of the film. Spielberg works the film, giving it a frenzied pace, (it's hard to believe it's three hours long). There is a long montage of Schindler building his plant, at the same time Stern working vigorously collecting workers, at the same time saving them from almost certain death. It's a masterful use of the film language and sequence not often talked about, I was amazed at how full of suspense, drama, and movie making it was.

But Spielberg doesn't shy away from the extreme acts of violence and core emotion. The thing I remember most in "Schindler's List" is the faces. It's as if we are watching real documentary footage at times, but much attention is paid to the children, who Spielberg must sympathize as true victims of the Holocaust.

Besides the ending and a few uses of color here and there, "Schindler's List" is mostly a black and white film, and it's another reminder of why black and white should be used more often. The images become more authentic, it's a dark place in history we are sent to. The cinematographer was Januz Kaminski who Spielberg has worked exclusively since then. Together they were able to recreate the same harsh realism later in "Saving Private Ryan", then again in "Munich".

The performances by the Neeson, Kingsley, and Feinnes, can be thought of as career bests by all three, the music by John Williams is restrained, beautiful, and sad, the recreation of 1940s Europe is vivid.

I have seen "Schindler's List" many times since its release, it's hard to believe it's been almost twenty years since it first came out, it still feels new and fresh, to me it remains one of the most moving films ever made. It declared Spielberg as an artist rather than a craftsman, as if people needed convincing. The ending to "Schindler's List" is uplifting, it ends with a remembrance of the Holocaust and of a man who you could say won a small battle in a horrific time. It doesn't wipe away our memories, but it's a way we can remember and to remind ourselves that there is a place for good in the face of evil, but we must never forget.