A very entertaining yet flawed film

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2009)

Shindler's List is supposedly Steven Spielberg's greatest achievement, however I cannot say that I agree. Of course there are a lot of good points about the film, it goes without saying that the documentary style and use of black and white gives it a very authentic edge, but it still has its fair share of faults.
The main problem with Shindler's List is the length. I'm of the opinion that when watching a film less is more and if you are going to do a film that is over 3 hours long every scene should be as relevant and important as the next one. In Shindler's List, in my opinion, there are many scenes that repeat each other, giving us no new revelation or insight into the character's emotions or actions.
It was probably Spielberg's intention to show us so many scenes of torture and abuse of the Jews to help show the horrific scale of the events that took place, to show us how many were killed without emotion or reason, but I feel he got too emotionally involved and went over the top, getting to a point where with each random killing he lessened the impact to the audience because you've seen the same thing happen earlier.
Another major problem I have with the film is that some parts come off as strangely comedic, which in my opinion completely goes against the idea of the documentary style. Scenes like when Schindler threatens the guards so they help him find his accountant and when Amon Goeth "pardons" himself in the mirror were extremely ill judged as in my opinion you should not be made to laugh in a film that covers such serious subject matter.
The film is also very biased in a sense that it gives all the Jews a personality and character development whereas every single Nazi in the film is shown to be pure evil and mechanical, enjoying every last little thing they did. Obviously I am not saying anyone committing these atrocious acts should be absolved from our condemnation and scorn, however it would have been interesting to see how the bosses of the labour camps would have dealt with guards who actually had a moral compass and refused to act upon these orders of such brutality. Not doing this, unfortunately, takes a bit of credibility away from the film as it makes it seem only those who are wealthy, only Schindler, had any respect for the Jews or were against the war.
However, despite its faults there is indeed a great deal of tragic beauty to the film. Apart from the scene at the end where Schindler breaks down and cries, which seemed extremely over-acted and quite awkward to watch, the film really does manage to evoke very real emotions. It opens your eyes to the pain and suffering of the Holocaust and gives you a fly-on-the-wall style view into what happened. When you watch from such a close up perspective it really makes you feel that you are there in the film, someone who is standing by and doing nothing to stop the dreadful events that are happening so close to you. This style really helps amplify every emotion you feel to great effect.
A lot of credit must also go to the actors. It is key that in a film like this that you believe what is happening on screen and all the actors do a very good job, especially Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern who really manages to capture the emotions of skepticism and hopeless inevitability flawlessly. Liam Neeson does a really good job as Schindler himself, but lets himself down in the final scene where he is just makes you cringe and think "this is acting".
Overall I found the film very entertaining, but there were a lot of minor quibbles with it that lessened my enjoyment somewhat along with a few major problems that I feel cheapened the overwhelming emotional experience that I received. The film is 100% essential viewing and will definitely stand the test of time, but in my honest opinion is not the masterpiece or the demonstration of perfection that many people laud it to be.