Emotional Release

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 1999)

I don't know why but a couple of days ago I pulled out my copy of Schindler's List. At first I thought, well, maybe I'll watch a few minutes of it- it's so depressing but I feel like watching a good movie for a change. I hadn't seen this picture in several years since it was released. The first time I saw the film, in the theater, I went with my parents and was somewhat in denial. I tried to block out the pain that was before me and retain my composure. After realizing its brilliance, I tried to forget the film. It certainly wasn't something to dwell on.
This time when I watched the film I really surprised myself. I sat and cried like I haven't in years- but that's a good thing. I've been so divorced from my feelings and so wrapped up in my own selfish hell that I forgot what life is capable of becoming.
Now, Spielberg himself has admitted that he tends to over-sentimentalize things. Take the scene when Stern has just been rescued from the train by Schindler and as the two men walk away the camera pans to a large room where the suitcases of countless other souls less fortunate are being trifled through; a pile of personal photographs of family lay strewn amidst wasted boots and eye glasses. That scene destroyed me with emotion yet it was something that actually happened.
I will admit that towards the end, when Schindler was going on about how he could have sold his car to save more lives or sold his pin- even on second inspection, that scene seems rather forced- even enough for Jerry Seinfeld to mock. I was kind of mad at Spielberg. I mean, doesn't he know when to back off. It seems with an absolute masterpiece like this film, he would have been more careful and edited out this truly "sentimental" passage with violins going haywire.
Regardless, I'm in awe of this picture and with his latest- Saving Private Ryan, I do think that Spielberg is truly one of, if not, the greatest directors of film ever.