Over-hyped and not over quick enough

Rating: 1/10 (31 May 2000)

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. Only Steven Speilberg could take an astonishing story of courage and determination in the face of hideous oppression and turn it into a poorly made schmaltz-fest like this. Chief in a series of tacky, amateurish filming techniques is the legendary "girl in red coat". Having decided on black and white in an attempt to show that he can be serious about something, the paucity of Spielberg's imagination is clear in that he can think of no other way to make the girl stand out and be recognised - he seems to think that his audience is incapable of recognising, say, a face, and has to hammer home the identity of the girl by presenting her in an entirely different way from everybody else in the film. The monumental cheesiness of the closing scenes with the people saved by Schindler goes way beyond the point of tackiness - just more evidence of Spielberg's extraordinarily sentimental side sabotaging what should have been a meaningful film. On the plus side, most of the acting is superb, but on the whole the film sensationalises the violence and oppression which it should have set out to attack. Oskar Schindler was such an extraordinary man that his remarkable story, which everybody should know, deserved far, far better than this.