One of the greatest films of the 20th century

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2008)

You can't really find anything that is as powerful, thought-provoking and tragic as seeing this superb film from the director, often accused of dealing with more flashy projects. Even so, as tragic as the subject matter is, it is not a depressing film.
We see Oskar Schindler (a brilliant performance by Liam Neeson), con man and war profiteer. He likes the finest things in life (good wine, women and most of all money) but a metamorphosis occurs where he simply doesn't care about any of it and loses everything in order to save his workers, who happen to be Jews. He is himself a member of the Nazi party.
On the other hand we have Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes in a part that defines evil), the ruthless leader of the death camps where Jews are killed left and right, simply to terrorize the living Jews who mistakenly believes that the Nazis operate logically. He is stupid, alcoholic and a miserable human being. Fiennes plays his part with absolutely no redeeming qualities and the scary part is that you can't figure him out. A bizarre sequence between Schindler and Goeth illustrates this point, where Schindler tries to explain true power. We think that Goeth will take the advice of Schindler, only to learn that Spielberg goes the other way. Quite schocking.
Both Schindler and Goeth pay for their actions and you can't really say that either of them is a hero or a villain. Spielberg doesn't want us too root for anyone, he mainly shows us what happened. Of course, many people consider Schindler a hero but Liam Neeson never plays the hero. He simply seems to have lost interest in all what he held dear in the beginning.
What is so fascinating about this movie is hard to explain. It doesn't have one glamorous moment and there are many horrifying scenes. Maybe it's this: It's a depiction of triumph of the human spirit (sounds cliché, doesn't it?) but it is nevertheless true.