Don't avoid this film: despite the horrific setting, the good guys win!

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2006)

Despite Thomas Keneally's excellent book and Steven Spielberg's awe-inspiring film, many people still avoid the story of Oskar Schindler and his famous "list," because they fear reading about, or watching, the Holocaust. They shouldn't, though, because this is a story where the "good guys" win--German industrialist Schindler and the more than 11,OOO Jewish workers he kept safe in his Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia factory, while their brethren were being systematically slaughtered all around.
A number of viewers find it difficult to accept that the film is liberally laced with humor. But why shouldn't it be? Humor is one of the most effective weapons with which man on earth is armed, and, for the oppressed, humor can literally mean the difference between survival and destruction.
Some of the more humorous moments in "Schindler's List" include: ...The scene in which Poldek Pfefferberg (for those who haven't noticed, the same Pfefferberg who, as an older man, first told the Schindler story to author Thomas Keneally) and his fellow black marketeers are arguing about the quality of the merchandise: "That's not my problem," "That's not his problem," et cetera.
...The scene in which Wilhelm Nussbaum and his family have been thrown out of their luxurious home and relocated in a ghetto hovel: his wife remarks "It could be worse," Nussbaum thunders "HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY BE WORSE?!?" and then, as the OTHER new residents of these wretched quarters come filing in politely, he sees exactly how it can be worse.
...The scene in which Schindler holds auditions for a secretary: applicant after applicant is gorgeous but can't type for beans (hilariously, he shows one how to return the cartridge!)while the final candidate is a cigarette-smoking battle-ax who types with effortless efficiency--and in the next shot, he has hired them all! ...The scene in which Emily Schindler tells her husband that she'll stay with him in Krakow IF he can guarantee that no doorman or maitre d' will ever mistake her for a mistress, followed by an immediate cut to her departing on the train--the cut is so abrupt, it's almost slapstick.
...A similar scene in which Schindler is seeking permission to search a trainload of deportees for his manager Stern: he takes the names of the officer and the NCO who are blocking his way, assuring them that they will soon be serving on the Russian front, and CUT, the two Germans are shouting for Stern! ...The many scenes in which Oskar pours drinks for himself and the taciturn Stern, then ends up drinking them both--scenes which, of course, set up the poignant moment when Stern finally shares a drink with Schindler--just before Schindler makes his fateful decision to draw up the List.
And, lest the viewer object to "manufactured" humor in a serious story, three scenes are taken verbatim from fact: ...The scene during the clearing of the ghetto when Poldek Pfefferberg is trapped by Goeth and his officers and salutes them, declaring that he has been ordered to clear the passageway. Goeth is so amused by the "little Polish clicking soldier" (Poldek had, in fact, been a Polish officer before that army was wiped out) that he allows him to live.
...The scene in which Goeth accuses Rabbi Levartov, the hinge-maker, of being a slacker, and drags him outside to shoot him, only to have not one, but TWO guns misfire, after which Goeth stalks off in disgust and the Rabbi is spared.
...The scene is which the women from the Schindler factory have been mistakenly sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Clara Sternberg is ready to give up and throw herself against the electrified fence. Mrs. Dresner tells her friend, "Don't do it, Clara! You'll never know what happened to you!" Again, a human life is saved.
These scenes are sharp, and funny, and add immeasurably to the power of "Schindler's List." Such is the quality of this story that the viewer is compelled to IDENTIFY: with the hero, the victim, and, yes, even the villain.
The hero, at first reluctant but later coming to embrace the role, is Schindler, played with avuncular warmth by Liam Neeson. The victim is embodied by Ben Kingsley as the Jewish accountant/manager Itshak Stern. Kingsley virtually "becomes" Stern, just as he "became" Mohandas Gandhi in that outstanding biopic. And finally, Ralph Fiennes is so incredibly effective as the villain, the sadistic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, that he lingers in the viewer's memory much as the real Goeth haunted the dreams of his charges (and may still).
When I first saw the film, I wondered why Spielberg had followed up the scene of a shirtless Goeth shooting prisoners at random from the balcony of his villa, with a scene of him walking to the toilet and urinating. Why, I wondered, did we have to watch the man taking a whiz? Then it came to me that the key word is that question is "man." Spielberg is graphically demonstrating that the Nazi commandant is NOT some demon from the depths, NOT some alien creature from another world, but a MAN. A man who has a pot belly, as so many of us do. A man who has to pee, as we all do. And a man who kills without compunction, AS WE ARE ALL CAPABLE OF DOING.
This may explain why so many, to this day, deny that the Holocaust ever occurred: they don't want to admit, they CANNOT admit, that they themselves are capable of such evil, so they desperately deny the truth they find so unacceptable.
That's the true glory of Fiennes' performance: he reveals the beast that dwells in all of us, and must always be guarded against. Because the beast denied is not the beast vanquished. It merely waits, and watches, and observes the opportunity. It is always ready to emerge again, in any government, in any nation, in any people. Constant vigilance is required to empower the cry of the Holocaust survivors: NEVER AGAIN.