Inaccurate and Schmaltzy

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2003)

I personally consider a schmaltzy film such as this an insult to the 6 million non-jews who died in the concentration camps. No mention whatsoever is made of these poor people. What a surprise....
You can judge Spielberg's mindset by his work after SL and prior thereto - shallow, phony and tired.
I've seen this movie a number of times, and its agenda of making the World feel guilty for the suffering of the jews while completely ignoring the equal suffering of all the other minorities in the camps is starting to make me feel ill.
But what of the movie itself ? Well, do a little research, and you'll find that most of Speilberg's "facts" turn out to be either fiction, or grossly exaggerated. Take the "Girl in the Red Coat" for example - she has just published a book about her experiences !!!! So much for the truth !
Spielberg's portrayal of the story is simplistic in the extreme. He deals in generalities rather than the truth. The acting is poor, especially Neeson and Kingsley, who appear to believe that putting on a bad foreign accent will absolve them from future woes. Shooting the movie in Black and White does not provide any extra artistic merit, and the blurring of facts detracts from it all anyway.
The fact is that this is a very mediocre movie, and in my humble opinion, received its Oscar nominations because ANY movie with a Holocaust theme is guaranteed a boatload of those. "The Pianist" will receive the same plaudits, but is just as poor.
It is time that the movie-going public woke up the type of amoral blackmail being foisted upon it and started to vote NO with its feet !!!!!