Schindler's List

Rating: 5/10 (9 May 2016)

Oskar Schindler was a German member of the Nazi party who saved the lives of over one thousand Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. In 1993, Steven Spielberg believed Oskar Schindler's was a story that needed to be told, directing that year's Best Picture Academy Award winning film. Casting Liam Neeson in the titular role with Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes in strong supporting roles, Oskar Schindler's courageous story was brought to life. The story of an unlikely hero proves the point that even the most individual of lives can be turned to a life lived for the masses.
Oskar Schindler was not who you would typically think of as a hero. He was a drinker, a womanizer, and a frequent gambler who had one goal in mind of becoming a millionaire. Liam Neeson illustrates the many flaws of Oskar wonderfully through his many scenes drinking, gambling, and philandering against his wife in the first half of the film. The Holocaust gives Schindler a golden opportunity to realize his dreams of riches. Schindler begins to employ vulnerable Jews as laborers in his factories, saving them from certain exile and saving him immense amounts in labor costs. Gradually over time, he becomes deeply affected by the treatment of the Jews, especially that of his accountant and partner of sorts, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley). Schindler then starts going to great lengths to protect as many Jews as he can, even convincing the German high command to allow him to build another factory and employ more Jews. Schindler even puts himself at risk by going head to head with Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) S.S. Officer in command of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. Even when one camp is closed, Schindler arranges for "his" Jews to be transplanted in another factory. When the train carrying truckloads of Jewish women is deferred to Auschwitz, Schindler races the train down to have them freed using funds from the massive riches he has amassed. By the war's, and the film's conclusion, we see that Schindler has lost all of his wealth in the attempt to save as many Jews as he could from persecution; being responsible for saving the lives of 1,200 people.
Many film devices were used exceptionally well throughout this film which is no doubt due to Steven Spielberg's skill as a director. The film starts out in color, then fades to black and white only to be illuminated in color at its conclusion (and who could forget that red coat scene). This was a marvelous way to illustrate the lives of the millions of Jews affected by the Holocaust to the grim reality they faced once it started (black and white) to the realities they could experience after the persecution ended (return to color). The film could not have told the grim tale it told in color and the fade to black and white was one of the brilliant decisions Spielberg made in this film. The title cards used throughout the first quarter of the movie was a wonderful use to keep the audience engaged and learn further details about the characters involved. The most powerful aspect of this movie has to be its use of sound. I have never watched a movie that used sound so well in a film, especially diegetic sound. The sound is the easiest way to pull an audience into a film and to set the mood of the story, Spielberg, however, uses sound in inventive ways to produce realism by really immersing the film into the 1940's. The film closes with a powerful scene in which we see, in present-day the many descendants of the people saved by Schindler's list, reiterating the powerful reminder of the origins of dangerous political power, especially needed in today's election cycle.