A heart warming tale of mass murder and genocide

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2004)

"Gawd bless you mister Schindler", is one of the few phrases not to appear in Schindler's list, which is useful in that it enables us to distinguish it from a Frank Capra film. Well, to be fair, the phrase "Shoot her now, on my authority" isn't in It's a Wonderful Life either.
Schindler's List - the story of a war profiteer who saves the lives of over a thousand Jews from Krakow Ghetto during WWII - is one of the Sacred Cows of modern cinema. This is partly because of its subject matter, the excellent performances of the three lead actors, and the epic length and flashy direction of Stephen - ooh what a long film I'm making (it's in black and white y'know) - Spielberg.
Schindler's List is a good film, and there are some performances of real note. Kingsley reprises his role as Gandhi and Fiennes and Neeson look fab in black and white. There is also nice mutual tension and understanding between Schindler and Goeth, which makes their scenes together really watchable.
Having said all that, the film can be really infuriating.
Why, for instance, does Spielberg try to blur the film/history distinction by shooting it in black and white and having real holocaust survivors turn up at the end? Does the film really need this kind of "legitimacy" for audiences to take it seriously?
And where are the Jewish characters? I can almost hear Spielberg with his screenwriters... "Woody, hi, I'd like you to do Schindler and Goeth". "Ah, but, you know, like, that sounds great! But what about the Jews huh - I think I could do really good job with some of the Jewish Characters" Woody Allen replies. "Yeah, hear what you say Woody, but I've promised that to my old buddy George Lucas - he's getting in some practice for a project he's working on called the Yellow Peril, or the Phantom Menace or something". One review of Schindler's List describes Stern as "Schindler's conscience" and that's just about it. Spielberg has outsourced his casting for Jewish characters to Jimny Cricket, which is a real shame because, apart from anything else, it denies them their humanity.
In fact, you don't have to be a particularly attentive viewer to see Spielberg's less-than-light touch all over this film. You get the sophisticated monster cliché, with the Stormtrooper playing Mozart (suspiciously well) on an old upright piano during the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto. You get the violent guard cooing over a Jewish baby "Ein kind, ein kind!" You get the Goeth proving how evil he is by hitting his maid. And, of course, you get that ridiculously over-sentimental ending where Schindler makes his final transition to Avatar of the Almighty.
Then there's the death. Young girls and boys are killed, women are killed, old folk kick it - I wouldn't be surprised if the tragic death of a young girl's fluffy rabbit only just made the cutting room floor. But, you know, I struggle to remember any adult Jewish man between 18 and 60 killed on camera. Did these deaths not count? David Irving would be delighted.
However the holocaust has been used subsequently, it remains one of the most significant and tragic events in European history. It deserved a great film treatment and it nearly got it. Tragically, though he got great performances from his cast and had one of the best stories going, Spielberg was unable to forget he was the same director that brought us ET and Close Encounters. Surely the point about Schindler's story is that, however bad a person is, and however black the times are, everyone has a responsibility to do good when the world is going bad. The danger of this film is that the MTV generation might regard it as a clarion call for inaction  there'll always be a saint like Oscar Schindler along to do the good work for you. 7/10.