Post by StevePulaski on May 31, 2011 19:24:45 GMT -5
Schindler constructs his list.
Rating: ★★★★
For a movie as monumental as Schindler's List, I believe a review should be conducted in a different style. Normally, my reviews consist of multiple paragraphs, summarizing the plot and my thoughts on the film. This time I want to give ten reasons why Schindler's List was easily one of the most powerful and breathtaking motion pictures I've ever seen. It goes above and beyond anyone's expectation, and cements itself on the list of greatest films of all time. Here's why.
1. Acting. No one could write about Schindler's List and not talk about Liam Neeson's Oscar worthy performance as Oskar Schindler, the business man from Czechoslovakia. He plays it with power and full force, grade A acting. Still shocked his leading performance didn't win him the Oscar in 1994.
2. Filming. Spielberg's choice to film the movie in black and white sets a rare tonality for the film that I have not felt yet. Older movies were shot in black and white because that was the only option, and at the time, Technicolor was far too expensive to be utilized. The only sequence in Schindler's List that are in color are the final scenes of the real life "Schindler Jews" and their descendants. I'll discuss that more later. But to make the film 98% black and white was truly remarkable and an efficient way to construct the film.
3. Storyline. Instead of focusing on one of the survivors, or a fictional story for that matter, Spielberg chooses to focus on Oskar Schindler, a rather unsung chapter and character of The Holocaust. Oskar Schindler worked for the Nazis, and is famous for using his great wealth to buy hundreds of Jews to make them work in his factory. It wasn't much, but it prevented death, and they would make bowls for the Nazis. Even though the film goes into a subject, some may not know, the storyline is definitely one of the strongest points.
4. The end sequence. I don't want to ruin the final scenes in the film, but let's just say, it's one of the most effective and well done scenes in film history.
5. Accuracy. Some films, like The Social Network, want to completely rewrite a film's storyline and turn a real event into a work of fiction, just leaving the character's names in place. Schindler's List tells the truth, the whole truth, and mostly the truth with the minor exception of just a few things. 98% of the film is accurate, but in the real story Schindler was a lot more strict and his wife helped him out a lot more with the list. It's inaccurate by omission. They couldn't focus on everything, but they focused on a lot of key points and didn't try to change the course of history too badly.
6. The film's desire to "show it all." When Holocaust movies are made, so try to water the film down by not showing the terrible treatment of innocent Jews. This one doesn't. Despite the event being gruesome, tasteless, and ignorant, no movie should subject itself to water down the scenes. Unless it's PG-13, and I doubt many Holocaust movies are. Schindler's List isn't all about the gas chambers and things most of us already know. We witness two of the worst things possible; (1) innocent people taken out to the yard and being shot in the head with absolutely no feeling on the guard's part and (2) we see the heart-wrenching scenes of peoples belonging getting tossed off balconies like garbage. That part I almost couldn't bear to watch.
7. Writing. The script, written by Steven Zaillian, is a work of excellence itself and incorporates some dry humor within. It gives Neeson a lot of lines, which he deserves, and it gives us one of the best screenplays ever written.
8. The proof that human beings can change. There is strong debate that if someone is bad at heart, they can become good at heart if they try. Some agree, some disagree. I agree, but not with everyone. If a human being changes they first have to sit down with themselves and think deeply what they did was wrong, then go through the strict and explicit methods to exhibit and prove to themselves they can be good. Some people can't change because the life they're living has impacted them too greatly. With some people, like Schindler, who were smart enough to know what they were doing was wrong, it was possible and it happened.
9. The complete carelessness for human life. Face it, the Jews and many other races were dehumanized come time of The Holocaust. Life didn't mattered to anybody. You could tell a Nazi officer that you just killed sixty thousand Jews in one day and they wouldn't flinch, yell, smile, or object. They would say "Good work." They wouldn't take into consideration you just killed sixty thousand mothers, father, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and worst of all, children of both sexes. One scene in the film, right before a woman is shot in the head, the camera zooms in on her to show her frightened reactions, her pale face, and her clearly nervous behavior. Spielberg most likely did that to remind viewers that the victims in this movie were people and they were innocent people with their own feelings in life. Dehumanization lived in The Holocaust.
10. The rage and anger the film makes you feel. Maybe it was just me, but I felt a sudden burst of anger and frustration while watching this film. I was enraged by the Nazi's acts of hatred and really began to have some sympathy. I've never looked at The Holocaust the way I did until I watched Schindler's List. Imagine you were affected and you and your family were evicted from your house. If you had any pets, they'd be killed, and if you had any valuable belongs, they'd be taken. Saddening and absolutely despicable.
Schindler's List currently ranks number nine on the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of one hundred greatest American films ever made. I am a firm believer that if this wasn't in Spielberg's hands, it wouldn't touch that list. Thankfully, we get one down to Earth and very vibrant Holocaust movies that manages to accomplish what it should. Just an all around amazing film.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, and Embeth Davidtz. Directed by: Steven Spielberg.