History in Vivid Hues

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2002)

After the release of 'Saving Private Ryan', Spielberg, in one of his interviews said that the purpose of a "war" film was to disenchant people from war, to show it so horrifyingly that no one would ever want a repetition of what happened in WWI and WWII. Spielberg's purpose in 'Schindler's List' which he made five years before 'SPR' is much the same. With calculated detail he drives home the horrors of war constantly. A third World War may not have the Nazis but there will always be someone who will be equally brainwashed and equally cruel as the Nazis were to the Jews. I've seen war films before(the series 'Escape from Sobibor' which I think was the most vivid), but Spielberg manages to show war in 'Schindler's List' with such a menacing tenacity that you actually have to look away from the screen in some of the scenes. The story of Oskar Schindler starts in a very film noir style(especially the sequence of him in the bar), giving us the impression of him as a typical smooth-talking manipulative lady's man. But this is a very initial primary impression of a man who might be manipulative and a womanizer but whose humanity totally overshadows any of his vices. Liam Neeson is truly classic and magnificent in his portrayal of Schindler. His facial expressions(when he's on horseback, staring as a whole town is driven to ruins because of the Nazi atrocities), his whole demeanor, his voice, make Schindler one of the best characters ever portrayed by an actor. Liam Neeson deserved an Academy Award that year as much as Tom Hanks for 'Philadelphia' did. Sometimes it's a good idea to have a tie for the Oscar and give the Award to both! Because one actor's performance is just as good and commendable as the other's, especially when you have an actor like Neeson playing so complex a character as Oskar Schindler... Ralph Fiennes(who is so spectacular in 'The English Patient'), also gives a charged performance as Amon Goeth. His feelings for Helen, the Jewish girl who works for him are portrayed sensitively.
This movie leaves you with images, you remember the camera tracking behind Neeson and into the bar, you remember him looking at the destruction of a whole town watching from a hilltop, the Nazi soldier playing Piano as people are getting killed, the doctors and nurses mercy-killing their patients so that they'd be dead before being shot by the Nazis, the little boy who saves the life of his fellow prisoners by his clever repartee to Goeth, the beautiful scene between Helen and Schindler in the wine basement, the boy running and hiding in a sewery, the girl in red escaping and hiding under her bed...images that linger long after they are seen. Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is awe-inspiring! He treats us to a visual poetry in black and white, the way he did two years later in color in 'How to Make An American Quilt'. Spielberg's decision to use black and white is laudable, it suits the subject perfectly. Even where he has used color - showing the little girl's red dress, the yellow tones of the candle burning when the rabbi is chanting in Yiddish - the effect is poignant and symbolic.
To say that 'Schindler's List' is a memorable film would be to understate its majesty. It is an altogether breathtaking cinematic experience!