Left Me in Tears

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2011)

Very little films can do it. That is to leave me in tears, sharing the pain of the characters on screen. I've seen plenty of 'sad movies' and 'tearjerkers' over the years that I have left me emotion hollow. (Beaches and Terms of Endearment come to mind.) Schindler's List is different. It matters. The realism portrayed is frightening. You're not watching a film about the horrors of the Holocaust, you're witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust. Decent people, people just trying to make a living like you and me, put into such a devastating position for no fault of there own. And a man, a Nazi of all people, who has a virtue his peers seem to be lacking: compassion. But, unlike many weaker efforts to exploit human tragedy, the protagonist (Oskar Schindler)is initially set on cashing in on the force labor by the Jews he brings to his factory. Over the story, his character develops more and more feelings for his Jewish subjects. He reaches the point where they aren't Jewish workers, but fellow human beings.
In that, Schindler's List is a very human story. A film that every single human being on the face of the planet should sit through, not for entertainment, but to get a first person perspective to the horrors man is capable of committing on each other. Schindler's List is a beautiful film. A miracle film. A film so emotional, down to the very last scene, no matter who you are, you will be pouring tears by the buckets.