Hope through the Death

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2008)

"This is very cruel, Oskar. You're giving them hope. You shouldn't do that. *That's* cruel!" Hope, that is the key to getting through this powerhouse film from Steven Spielberg. He holds not bar on showing the violence surrounding the Holocaust and in that he could have gotten bogged down in despair, but he keeps the pacing a flurry like his most frantic works and creates well-defined character who despite being horrifying to degree, especially Ralph Fiennes' Amon Goeth, offer some glimmer of humanity.
The time is 1940's and the war is gripping Europe and in Poland the beginning of the Holocaust has occurred as the Jews are herded into a Ghetto to live a very limited life for time. Into this time of despair and exploitation comes a showman of sorts, Oskar Schindler who sees an opportunity to make a fortune from the misfortune of the Jews. He first builds a rapport with high officials in the Nazi army, knowing later he will need their support. Next he offers the Jews with something left their option to having hope of some life after the war. He does this with the help of a Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern who becomes both his conscience and his friend. As Schindler is building a well off business off of cheap Jewish labor, SS officer Amon Goeth comes in to jump start the process of concentration camps for the Jews and it is he how heads up the Liquidation of the Ghetto.
The film chronicles the whole journey of all the characters from the start of the Holocaust all the way to the end of the war and it does it expansively and personally taking note of many excruciating situations most often leading up to death. The film is held together by a fantastic timing by Spielberg which mixes grief with hope and death with life. Add to this some of the best performances of the modern age from Liam Neeson as a towering Oskar Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as the odious and delirious Amon Goeth, and Ben Kingsley as the conscience of Schindler, Itzhak Stern, and you have one of the most powerful movies ever made.
Liam Neeson performance is great because it has such a great transformation that he expresses brilliantly and almost brings you to tears by the end. He starts out as an indifferent business man, a profiteer intent on making his fortune. But he ends up getting very close to his works and thus gaining a heart which is broken by the end of the film by the horrors he witnesses. On the other hand, Ralph Fiennes performance offers different strain of powerful as he pulls the string of the evil character as he shows a sadistic taste for killing from the start. When he first arrives in the film he is approached by a Jewish Architect who informs him that they need to rebuild a building because the foundation is not right. He takes a second to look over what she tells him and then and tells his officers to shoot her. Even though her advice he does heed, having them rebuild it after shooting her in the head, he says he could not tolerate dissent. It is terrifying performance as he hides his love for a Jewish maid by repeatedly beating her. Finally Ben Kingsley performance offers the purest of the performances as Kingsley plays the straight arrow, the man ever with the heart from the beginning to the end showing an ever willingness to do what he can to make life easier for his people. He is Schindler's conscience in forcing him to see the hope his enterprise is effecting for the Jews.
The film is shot in a stark grain of black and white thus tempering some of the violence, but it is still extremely potent as the cinematography gets into the faces of the people showing their etched emotions as well as the horrifying deaths of so many. Streets filled with bodies and ash ridden streets.
This stands as one of the most emotionally draining films ever created and is technically outstanding from the powerfully moving cinematography to the softly straining score by John Williams and the towering performances.