Review of Schindler's List (1993) by Kyleb. — 16 Jan 2007

I think this is Steven Spielberg's masterwork. Not claiming or wanting to delve into lengthy sequences of death and violence at Auschwitz or somewhere similar, it instead captures the violence in the ghettos, in work camps, and through the actions of Amon Goeth, who is played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes.

It is ultimately the story of Oskar Schindler, a man who worked within the Nazi party system to save over one thousand Jewish individuals from almost certain death. It doesn't portray him as a god as he clearly had faults, but it shows that hope is possible and that people can work together to save others.

But it is still very clearly about the violence of the Holocaust, almost in a numbing emotional sense. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous in this film. Black and white was the way to go. In some senses, I think it helps to keep the picture from overwhelming us and as authenticity of some newsreel from the time.

The touch at the end in "present" day of the survivors and their families coming to Schindler's grave is at once touching and haunting without necessarily spelling it out for us. Haunting and moving, it is one of the most weighty and ponderous films but it never harkens from its intensity even being more than three hours.