There are much better films about the Holocaust

Rating: 1/10 (26 June 2008)

Yet another pretentious, overblown "meditation" on a serious subject by a Hollywood director. That is how I would sum up "Schindler's List." But maybe my view is skewed by the fact that I have actually seen other movies that deal with this subject -- from "L'Enclos" (out of print) to "The Pawnbroker." "The Pawnbroker" is a devastating indictment of man's inhumanity to man. "Schindler's List" pales by comparison.
Looking at the details of "Schindler's List", the movie opens promisingly with a wonderful assortment of authentic German cabaret songs coupled with black and white period scenes meant to evoke the raciness and fun of Berlin before the Nazis rose to power.
All well and good. But then the movie falls apart in its depiction of a drunken, debauched and undisciplined SS concentration camp commander whose romps take place in a cliff-hanging house overlooking the camp.
This is so far from the reality of what took place in the camps, and the way they were organized, as to be silly.
Schindler's rescue of the Jews is decently portrayed, but the movie goes into "overblown" mode with its drawn-out portrayal of the train approaching the gates of Auschwitz.
Were there crashing cymbals, a hundred violins playing, and trumpet fanfares to signify to the audience that this moment was tragic in case they hadn't already figured that out?
I don't remember. Let's just say that Spielberg's approach -- in this and some of his other movies -- is the very opposite of subtle.
Now, I really have nothing against this movie otherwise. It's okay, that's all.
But I'm amazed at the adulation it is receiving from an apparently uncritical cadre of adoring fans.
Turning the Holocaust into what amounts to a soap opera and an ego trip for the director strikes me as pathetic. It seems that too many young directors in Spielberg's generation were given gold stars before they really deserved them. Not unlike kids in school today getting A's "just for being you."