The finest film ever made. Period.

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2000)

Quite simply the finest film ever made.
Nothing even comes close to this film. It ascends to a new level; it so poignantly and delicately conveys its message that you are left breathless, speechless and completely in awe of what you have just seen.
Mr Spielberg so often shows his talent in a very forward and visible way; his restraint and control in this film adds so greatly to its power because it IS restrained and you are left with the memory of what the film is about, not just any specific effect, sequence, style or even performance.
Indeed these performances were second to none, Ralph Fiennes comes particularly to mind  you feel such hatred towards him and yet there are flaws in the evil of his character, indeed this would have been a very hard part to play.
There are also reminders of the human tragedy of the holocaust that tie the entire event to one person, the use of the red coat on the little girl is a simple and brilliant way of doing this; it serves to shatter any desensitisation that we may build up to protect ourselves from horrors that we are seeing, it brings the entire thing back home; in such a simple and effective way and makes it personal  VERY personal.
I think that this will serve to educate us and remind us of what happened for many centuries to come, it is a work that will stand the test of time like no other; I firmly believe that it will go far in serving its ultimate cause, that such events may never happen again.
In short I do not think that it is possible to speak too highly of Schindler's List. I fear that we may never see another film of this calibre but if we do it would have to be something truly remarkable and be of someone of at least Mr Spielberg's brilliance; a very, very hard act to follow.