Another Overbaked Spielberg Production

Rating: 4/10 (12 April 2001)

This is yet another example of how Spielberg can kill an otherwise passable movie. The movie contains some genuinely good, subtle moments like the shooting of one hiding Jew fading into a phrenetic piano solo during a pogrom or a close-in shot of bodies being burned that fades out to a view of smouldering bodies that looks like a gigantic landfill. But, in general, the movie contains far too many scenes meant to tug at our hearts that end up demeaning one of the greatest tragedies in the history of mankind. The sole use of color for the little girl in the pink jacket wandering through the streets is meant to be poignant. Instead, it is cloying and heavy-handed at best. The scene of Kingsley and Neeson typing up the list of people to be saved is classic Spielberg garbage. Neeson emotes to his best to keep exhorting Kingsley that they can save "more." Come on - going into the operation, they clearly would have known to a fairly good certainty how many could finally be saved. This movie takes melodrama to exciting new heights.
The ending scene showing real-life grievers of the now-dead Oskar Schindler is some of the most exploitive, unnecessary filmmaking you'll ever see.