fine work from a master who will never die.

Rating: 10/10 (17 January 2002)

(please ignore my previous comment as it contained some errors)
Let me begin by saying that the thousands of you out there who worship "Saving Private Ryan" should think twice about labeling it 'the best Spielberg film of all time'.
Schindler's list is by definition a masterpiece and in my opinion Spielberg's finest work to date. Unlike SPR, it focuses on true events and not only uses true locations and dates. SPR has a group of men risking their own life to save one whereas SL has one man trying to "save the world entire". Which one is far fetched though? Both, you would say unless you are historically inclined and know that Oscar Schindler(Neeson) did in fact exist and save more than 1100 people during the holocaust. Miller and his team, although loosely based on true characters do not depict an accurate incident in the chapter of world war 2.Thus we find Schindler's List more gratifying to watch as a film but also absorb as a historical guide.
The acting mind you, is exceptional in both cases and hadn't there been charming old Bennigni hopping and bouncing on the chairs of the Academy - Hanks would have certainly taken Oscar (forgive the pun) home to meet his other two brothers.
Schindler's list is deeply moving, and in every scene you get the feeling that you are there living in that misery and thanking your lucky stars that you have pulled through another day. What is most disturbing (and equally ingenious of Spielberg) is the way the Jews are killed. Sometimes they are lined up and shot at to save bullets, other times they are wounded and then shot in the head to make up for the 'mistake' (the scene where the woman dies in the hands of her husband spraying her blood all over him after the shot, is one of the strongest in the film). But Spielberg's genius does not emerge through the portrayal of gratuitous violence. It emerges through the way he shows what HAS to be shown. At times he creates tension by NOT showing an actual death (like the scene of the boy who couldn't clean the stains out of Goeth's bath and then gets killed by his sniper rifle) or else when you think someone is going to die - and they don't (the rabbi ) such subtleties always leave us uncertain as to what is going to take place next and always leaves us on edge.
The girl is the red dress contrary to what many think, is also a stroke of genius. Spielberg includes her for two reasons :
1) We are taken on a journey through which we can relate and through which we can feel what is happening around 'us'. Because she is marked her in red, we can easily follow her through the streets of the ghetto and not get lost in the violence which takes place around her.
2) She becomes a symbol of lost innocence when later in the film she is seen in a pile of corpses. Had she not been in red ( a very empathic colour) we might have not recognized her, or we would not have focused on the tragedy of her murder.
When the flames later on in the film are lit to celebrate the Sabbath (notice they to are coloured) we get the impression that hope is re-emerging and good will triumph in the end.
I particularly admire the scene where a German plays Mozart on a piano to the rhythm of stuttering guns being fired around him. This not only creates a macabre atmosphere but it also shows how cold blooded some Germans where ("is that Bach? No Mozart").It is not surprising however that the film is praised in Germany today because most German's disassociate themselves rightly with the atrocities their ancestors committed against the six million Jews murdered.(one must notice the scene where the German soldiers decide to "go home as men rather than murderers", showing that not all Nazis where NAZIS, if you know what I mean.)
The portion in colour at the end then, always sends goose bumps down my back. Probably because we are seeing real people (the actors and actual characters still alive today (well 1993) like {amazingly enough} the girl Schindler kisses at his birthday party!) The very last scene then, where the road built from gravestones is panned on and "Directed by Steven Spielberg" appears, has me sighing and thinking "wow".
Add to all this a great character analysis (the typewriter's audition scene is amusing because we learn more about Schindler's character, and the scene where Fiennes says 'I forgive you' to the mirror shows us how hatable he really is) and development throughout as well as a heart pounding score by John Williams and what you've got is a film which I would surely beat myself to death for not rating it: ***** (Excellent) so I will (rate it 5 stars that is).