When The State Dehumanizes A People

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2008)

It would not have been possible to have made Schindler's List immediately after World War II. The public was just taking in the magnitude of the Holocaust, they might not have believed it. Fortunately for the prosecutors at Nuremberg and for history the Nazis being the anal retentives that they were, made these incredibly meticulous records which scholars and historians have sifted through and we have the whole thing incredibly documented by the perpetrator's own hand. With a fifty year perspective now and the very existence of the state of Israel questioned by those who ought to know better, Steven Spielberg has given us a work for the ages.
If you can sit through two incredibly long and sorrowful films one ought to see Schindler's List back to back with The Diary Of Anne Frank. In the latter film, we see a very ordinary group of people fighting for survival to escape the fate of what we see happened to so many. The fact they were days from possible liberation makes the sorrow of that film all the more poignant.
Schindler's List is a story of escape from the ultimate fate of six million. Oskar Schindler played by Liam Neeson is a German businessman who sees a chance at some nice war profits using some incredibly cheap labor from the concentration camps. He's willing to start a factory in occupied Poland with slave labor Jews. Towards that end he hears of a man who ran a factory among the Jews in the newly formed Cracow ghetto, Itzak Stern played by Ben Kingsley.
Kingsley agrees to work for him and with him recruiting the labor force, Neeson gets his factory going. With that comes responsibility for these people. He fights for them, the original ones and some added to his growing work force.
Over the over 3 hour film, Neeson gradually changes and his concern for his charges becomes humanitarian. He plays a dangerous game, especially with concentration camp commandant Ralph Fiennes. A man who delights in the total power he's been handed and the liberation from all civilized restraints to exercise barbarism, arbitrary and capricious. Fiennes will chill you with his penultimate portrayal of a perfect Nazi.
Let us not forget that Schindler himself was a Nazi. He did in fact in the end go broke in paying out bribes for special consideration for his charges that meant their very lives. It's also possible that he saw the way the war would end and that those responsible for the Holocaust would be held accountable. Some have speculated that he did this for no other reason than to bank credit with possible witnesses. If that was the case it certainly worked because he was investigated and not charged with any war crimes.
Still I'd prefer to believe the testimony of those on the scene including the real life Itzak Stern. Those are the folks that ought to know.
Schindler's List was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven including Best Picture and Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. It deserved every honor it got and I only wish Neeson and Fiennes were winners as well.
It's a film about the Holocaust, but it's also a film about the results of dehumanization of a people and when the state completes the process of dehumanization what can be the result. I'm not sure what future work Steven Spielberg has planned, but he can't top this no way, no how.