Steven Spielberg's greatest cinematic achievement

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2016)

In the early 90s Steven Spielberg had built a reputation as being the master of kid-friendly family films like E.T., Jaws, The Indiana Jones trilogy, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Hook, the list just goes on and on. Sure today he has films like Munich and Saving Private Ryan under his belt so Spielberg making a non kid-friendly film isn't very strange to us, but back then it was unheard of. So considering his previous career, Schindler's List might be the biggest departure from style any director has made in the history of film making.
Even if you are among the more "experienced" film goers, meaning people who have seen several incredibly violent, disgusting, and down right disturbing films, Schindler's List will still make your stomach turn, and you'll want to look away at some of the more graphic moments in the film. Stephen Spielberg really does not hold back, and tries to give an uncompromising depiction of the holocaust, which in the earlier 90s was not something that was commonly done, sure you had films like Night and Fog, and Shoah, but your average, everyday Joe wasn't going to ever see those films. And there were films like Sophie's Choice, and Judgement at Nuremberg, but they really focused on the after math, and didn't really directly confront their audience the same way that Schindler's List so boldly did.
Schindler's List is a biopic about Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party, who is runs a factory, in German occupied Poland, that uses Jews as workers. Oskar Schindler is played ever so greatly by Liam Neeson in what is definitely his best role yet (in my opinion Tom Hanks robbed him of the best actor Oscar). One of the best things about Schindler's List is the character of Oskar Schindler, Oskar Schindler was obviously not a righteous hero throughout the entirety of the film. After all he was a member of the Nazi party, and some viewers may take issue with this, but the film would be so much more dull and lose its complexity and depth, if Schindler was a straight forward hero fighting the bad guys. The way Stephen Spielberg presents it is far more interesting, (after all Stephen Spielberg said he was drawn to the paradoxical nature of Oskar Schindler) and far more accurate to the real life Oskar Schindler, and accuracy is something that Schindler's List strives for. The film was based upon the real life testimonies and accounts of the people who survived the events.
Steven Spielberg at first did not want to direct Schindler's List, he didn't think he was "mature" enough to handle something as serious as a holocaust film. But eventually decided to do it himself when he saw the rising number of holocaust deniers. Which is probably why he also wanted the film to be as close to reality as possible, he wanted something that would challenge the audience, confront them with the true horrors of the holocaust.
Earlier I talked about how great Liam Neeson's performance was, but Ben Kingsley, (who plays a Jewish account, who works for Oskar Schindler) and Ralph Fiennes (who plays an S.S. Officer in charge of a work camp.) both do amazing jobs, Ralph Fiennes was even nominated for best supporting actor at the academy awards. The cinematography, done by Janusz Kaminski who would later do Saving Private Ryan and Minority Report, is also perfect, it is probably among the greatest looking contemporary black & white films out there. The film is also scored by the legendary John Williams, (which is all you really need to know) after John Williams first saw the film, he said it was to beautiful and he was not worthy to score it, the only people that were worthy were dead. Schindler's List won the academy award for both cinematography and soundtrack. Schindler's List was also the first time Steven Spielberg ever won an actual Oscar. (he had previously won the Irving G. Thalberg award but that is just a lifetime achievement award.)
Schindler's List was films on a relatively small budget of 22 million dollars, and Steven Spielberg did not accept any money for making the film, he said it would be like accepting blood money. But you would never be able to guess that Schindler's List was shot on a budget a 1/3 of the size of Jurassic Park. The sets are so massive and pay such close attention to detail, and the film was actually shot in the real life locations of where it takes place. The reason Schindler's List was shot on such a small budge was because the Steven Spielberg and the producers thought a holocaust film might bomb, and Steven Spielberg was not known for making R rated films. The film did not bomb it grossed over 320 million dollars world wide, which is over 1/2 a billion dollars in 2016 dollars.
I'm not going to pretend that Schindler's List is flawless, perhaps its biggest flaw is the fact that 90% of the film is in English, which really clashes with Spielberg's intent to keep the film as close to reality as possible, and really can take you out of some scenes. Though I could see this not bothering most viewers, because the actors do such a great job portraying the people their playing that it would be hard to imagine anyone else in their roles.
Steven Spielberg accomplished his goal of making a holocaust film that would not only be as close to the actual events as physically possible, but he also made it accessible to all audiences, (but for some of the more sheltered viewers, it would be a bit much.)
9.4/10