100 All-Time Films (To see the entire list, click here)
Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993)
There are a lot of things about this film that amazes me. How did Steven Spielberg, the ‘blockbuster king’, the guy who did Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, do this? Where did this come from? With Schindler’s List, Spielberg became more than a gimmicky director known for heart and big action. He took his sentimentalities and it put it smack in the middle of some of the most atrocious events in modern history. The Holocaust was never portrayed like this before.
Even if every event wasn’t entirely accurate as some critics cry out, the fact that Oskar Schindler, the German businessman saved more than a thousand Jewish-Polish refugees by employing them in his factories is simply outstanding. The performances Spielberg gets out of Liam Neeson (Schindler), Ben Kingsley (Itzhak Stern), and Ralph Fiennes (Amon Goeth, in one of the most powerful villain roles you’ve ever seen*) is unbelievable. We can see a lot of selfishness through Schindler early on, but Stern is the one who brings out the heart and soul of him. It would be foolish of me not to mention the performances of every actor and extra in the film. They really got at the feeling of what it would be like in a concentration camp and were the black and white paint of Spielberg’s canvas.
*On a side note, how did Ralph Fiennes lose Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards? No disrespect to Tommy Lee Jones who is a fine actor, but he plays a cop in The Fugitive. Are you serious? I could name 30 other actors who could have performed that role with the same strength as Jones. Fiennes was terrifying as the Nazi.
Critics will point out that this film was misguided showing minor success during a time where 6 million people were killed. Yes, that is true but this film was not Disney-fied. The fact that it showed success is a good thing in my opinion. To survive in any position of death you need hope and this film is as inspiring to people as any film can be. What does just showing death do for an audience looking to escape? People aren’t ignorant enough to forget about the Holocaust just because they see a handful of people getting saved.
When people think of this film, the first reaction is how depressing it is. The subject matter is depressing but I realized something the last couple of times I watched it. It has great humor. Spielberg somehow infused humor into this bleak material. I find that more unbelievable than anything. You will be absorbed in every minute of Schindler’s List.
