The best and most important movie ever made

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2008)

I think the strength of Schindler's List comes from its illustration of how the value of Jewish life to Oskar Schindler changed throughout the movie, and Steven Spielberg's way of channeling most of the horror of the Holocaust we see in terms of Oskar Schindler's reaction to it.
Schindler starts out as a relatively greedy man, in search of money. It seems that he will stop at nothing to make it, and mistreat any Jewish or Polish person in his quest for it. He opens a factory producing "pots and pans", choosing Jewish workers because they cost the least of any on the market. He sees Jewish people only as items of his factory, and ultimately there simply for his profit.
There is a one-armed man working for Oskar Schindler. He is executed by Nazi soldiers because they see no practical use for him. We see him shot in the back of the head. Parallel to this, Schindler is talking to an official about it, complaining, and the dialogue is constant, but the scene continues to alternate between Schindler and the official, and the dead Jewish man. We see a close up of the man lying on his back, his blood soaking into the snow, while Schindler talks of the loss of the man in terms of the money it will cost him.
Schindler continues to have this outlook, while Stern, his accountant, is secretly recruiting Jews from Krakow ghetto who are inevitably going to be killed to Schindler's factory, knowing their lives will be spared. Schindler realizes this, and becomes angry at Stern for doing this. Although he is angry, there is some indication that his views are changing because he makes it evident to Stern that he is angry because he is afraid German officials will find out it is happening.
There is a turning point for Oskar Schindler that occurs when he overlooks the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. He witnesses first hand the cruelty, and inhumane acts his country is carrying out. Here is also the most brilliant idea I have ever witnessed a movie use, and that is having the coat of one little girl in the ghetto be in color. In the midst of all the chaos ensuing around the ghetto, we see a red object moving around, and realize it is the coat of a little girl, who's parents have probably either been killed or taken away, and she is trying to find a place to go. Schindler spot her as well, and she disappears from sight into a building. Though he doesn't, we see her hide under a bed in the upstairs portion of a home. The next shot is the look on Schindler's face, and we get a sense of his character change.
The following portion of the movie revolves around horrific, true events that occur. A powerful strategy of Schindler's List is to show unblinkingly some of the inhumane acts done by the Nazis on the Jewish people, and to use this violence in a way that will help contribute to a world-wide assurance that events like those during the Holocaust will never happen again. Though they are hard to watch, they serve an incredibly purpose, and are justified in their presence in the movie.
There is a scene called "Make me a Hinge", where we see a man about to be executed for not making hinges at a pace that is satisfactory. Amon Goeth, the main Nazi military leader in the movie, is about to execute him by shooting him in the head when the gun jams, probably because of the cold weather, and does not fire. He tries another gun, but it too does not work. The life of the man is spared, only because the guns will not fire. This is the difference between life and death for the man; a simple annoyance to the Nazis.
Schindler continues to gradually Jews as people, and to value their lives, and is growing increasingly sympathetic toward them. Now, as all of the Jews around are about to be shipped to concentration camps, it is apparent to him that he has an opportunity to save some of them. Now the tables have turned, and Schindler begins to spend money in order to save the lives of Jews, by buying them from Nazi officials, and bribing others as well. In the start of the movie, Schindler saw the loss of a Jewish life as a waste of money. Now, he is wasting all his money in order to prevent as many Jewish deaths as he possibly can.
What happens for the remainder of the movie is a miraculous true story of the survival of more than 1,100 Jews because of Oskar Schindler's brave, self bankrupting actions. When the war ends, he is forced to flee because he is technically a criminal, buy the Allies' standards. There are two images in Schindler's List that I will never forget. The first is seeing the little girl in red later in the movie, as her dead body is being hauled away to be burned, her coat still illuminated on the screen in bright red. The second is when Schindler's car is driving away from his factory at the end of the movie. There is a shot where we see his reflection in the window. Out the window, we see Jews lined on the side of the road, passing by, all alive because of him.
Steven Spielberg refused to receive any kind of payment for directing Schindler's List. With the funds from it, he helped found one of the largest memorial foundations today, the Shoah Foundation, to preserve the memory of the millions who died during the Holocaust. There is not a movie that I consider to be more important than Schindler's List, nor is there a director who I consider to be more honorable than Steven Spielberg.