Good, but extremely overrated.

Rating: 4/10 (20 February 2004)

I must confess that when I first saw this film in theater, and the followin' few times I saw it on TV, I became a passionate defender of it and so I tried 2 tell everybody who asked me Y I liked it. But, in time, I became disappointed: the film is good, compared with the trash we're accustomed 2 watch these days (& almost all last decade), but it doesn't deserve the consideration of an "All-Time Classic", because it isn't. It's a subjective story told from a personal & subjective point of view (Steven Spielberg is Jew), & it tries 2 emphasize the violent side of it, but payin' few attention 2 anything else. Some scenes R disconnected from the rest of the plot, it contains nudity & sex scenes that don't fit 2 the tale (sexual relationships among Mr. & Ms. Schindler, between Amon GÃ¶th & her lover) & make the movie become rather vulgar instead of true classic. It's got sometimes the taste of a documentary, but the connection between the general scenes & the fictional (particular) ones is not very well made. The violent scenes (especially shootin') R too explicit (there's no need 2 place a camera & stop it above a dead body bleedin' 4 showin' us the crimes that were committed). The idea of shootin' the film in B&W, I think it's actually because that was very "in" those years & it only took a good excuse 2 do it. If Spielberg really wanted 2 make a rigor approach 2 the matter the same way it was told by those media, he would have also made the film with analog Mono sound, & with less explicit violence. Definitely, watch it if U want, but don't expect a timeless classic.