Horrific And Yet So Inspiring At The Same Time

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2009)

This movie must be the best piece of work dealing with the Holocaust that I have ever seen. The only criticism I can find myself making of it is that it was a little bit confusing in the first hour or so, but even that was probably appropriate as the movie portrays a time of chaos anyway. The first thing that one notices is the decision to film the movie in black and white. That was a brilliant decision. Somehow, it gives the story greater power. The brutality of the Holocaust is obvious, the sadistic nature of the SS is portrayed brilliantly, both in depictions of actual events and by Ralph Fiennes in his portrayal of SS officer Amon Goeth, the confusion and uncertainty and desperation of the Jews is palpable. Everything is raw with power. I would have liked some greater explanation of the impact of the little girl who provides the only splashes of colour in the movie (she's dressed in red) on Schindler. She's hardly the only child he sees suffer. Why her in particular?
Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant recruited by Schindler to run his business is appropriately low-key. Here was a man who saw an opportunity to help his fellow Jews through Schindler's company and who quietly took advantage of it. Which brings me to Liam Neeson's portrayal of Schindler. He did a great job - completely believable as he portrays Schindler's evolution from a businessman who just wanted to make money and who brought Jews into his factory for no reason except that they were the cheapest labour available to a man determined to protect his Jewish workers from the insanity and horror of Auschwitz. The closing scene, as he breaks down crying out that he feels he should have saved more people, is one of the most powerful and moving scenes I have ever seen in a movie, especially as Stern quietly comforts him and says "no - you did so much" and the other Jews he saved rush up to embrace and comfort him. It was also moving to see the Schindler Jews honouring his grave at the end of the movie.
Schindler provides the inspiration here. Yes, it's inspiring that he saved 1200 Jews, but the inspiration goes beyond that. As the story makes clear, Schindler was largely a failure at everything he did in life, both before and after the war. And yet, this man - who was (I hate to use the word, but it's pretty much true) a loser - managed to rise to what must have seemed an insurmountable challenge and accomplished something great of historic proportions. If a man like Schindler could do this, surely others can do it too - not with respect to the Holocaust anymore (thank God!) but with some of the other issues in the world today. This is truly a brilliant piece of work. 9/10