Transcendental Film-making

Rating: 10/10 (7 July 1999)

Back in December 1993, I drove into Kansas City to view Schindler's List at a midnight showing. The film, which dealt with something as simple as human compassion in a time when compassion was far from simple was truly one of the most magnificent pieces of film-making I had ever seen. But as truly moving as the film was, my distinct memories come after the film, at 4 AM on a Wednesday, driving home through the Plaza Area of KC. Anyone who has ever been to Kansas City knows the beauty of the Plaza Lights. With nobody else on the road, with the frost glazing the streets, the stillness of the moment still haunts me. I know that if it were any other Wednesday morning, I perhaps would not have appreciated that beauty quite so much as that particular Wednesday. The real power of Schindler's List and its simple story of a man who did the right thing at a time when there was madness all around him is not just one of the most important films historically, not just one of the great films artistically, not just one of the most powerful films emotionally, but it stands as an achievement that transforms the very way you see the world. I know that watching this film on video, picked-up at the video store on some rather ordinary Wednesday cannot really convey as much power as it did to me on that winter night 5 years ago. Watching it on video is still more moving than many other films that could never even imagine itself to aim so high. But the real magic for me is that this one of the films that made me realize the power that comes through in the dark of a theater, or through the dark of night.