how one man made a difference

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2005)

The story of Oskar Schindler, adapted from Thomas Keneallay's book 'Schindler's Ark', was brought to the screen by Steven Spielberg. Liam Neeson gives a strong and powerful performance in the lead role, bringing a dignity and gravitas to the man who saved the people on his list from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.
The film is in black and white, with the exception of the red dress of a small girl we follow in the Jewish ghetto, and a real-life coda at the end where the people saved by Schindler pay their respects to him. Was Schindler a great man, a humanitarian, or motivated by gain and greed? The film seems firmly in the first camp and in its other characters portrays certain stereotypes - the sensitive Jew played by Ben Kingsley, the sadistic SS man played by Ralph Fiennes.
It doesn't flinch from showing the worst of the Holocaust, and rightly so. But - as the story unfolds and the small amount of people on the list are saved - there is hope within the unspeakable terrors of anti-Semitic propaganda. Along with 'The Color Purple', this is Spielberg's strongest work.