A serious, solemn success.

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 1999)

Some movies move you. They make you laugh, they make you cry and these are good movies. I don't know if tiredness is an emotion but by the end of this movie I was emotionally drained. I was exhausted.
There are more Jews that owe their lives to Oskar Schindler than Jews that live in Poland today, This is an extraordinary message we recieve at the end of this movie. Extraordinary because of it's honesty. This man saved more people than a country saved and this man was no angel, no prophet. He was an average run-of-the-mill German.
This story could have been one of immense sentimentality but it's not due to the performance of Liam Neeson and the direction of Spielberg. It is easy to tell while watching this that this is the movie Spielberg always wanted to make. His complete and most important work. Spielberg can never reach this standard again. Very few directors will ever reach this standard.
Everything about this movie is perfect. Neeson plays Schindler with just enough power. We know this man is special but Neeson doesn't play him like a legend. Fiennes is evil but humane. Kingsley gives a very touching performance as the only Jew Schindler actually gets to know.
But this is Spielberg's film. His heart is in every shot. He knows how important a film about the holocaust is to the Jewish people and he doesn't let them down. A Jew himself, he associates with them and delivers one of the greatest movies ever made.