Shade of Hope

Rating: 9/10 (13 April 2004)

Oskar Schindler represented a snippet of hope and optimism for an otherwise beleaguered people. The fact that one man could be responsible for saving well over 1000 people is astonishing in itself. The story Schindler's List tells magnifies our astonishment. How a man who seems so self-absorbed and moneygrubbing could end up sacrificing his fortune and risking his own life to save others, is what the film principally deals with. This interesting subject, shown in the midst of the Holocaust, and combined with other interesting subplots, makes for a stirring movie experience.
One detail quite noticeable and frequently discussed is the occasional use of color in this black and white picture. The most obvious of these being a small girl in red coat. We see the girl and follow her path for a short time in the film. This is symbolic on many different levels. I see her mostly as a glimmer of hope in a tenebrous world for the Jews. Later, her red coat looms on top of a pile of dead bodies. Here, we see her singled out among the dead to remind us that while 6 million died, each individual's death mattered.
The cast is wonderful. Liam Neeson plays Schindler subtly but with the right emotion at the right time. Ralph Fiennes plays a pertinacious German officer with zest and complexity. The rest of the cast, especially Ben Kingsley as an intelligent Jewish accountant who starts out helping Schindler but finds a way to help his people, too, all play their roles accordingly. Certainly, anyone who enjoys film should add this to their collection.