Is it just a movie?

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 1999)

First I have to say that being born in Poland, I knew about holocaust since before I was 10. I guess only in Israel people are more aware of it. It is a very sensitive topic, and making a movie about how millions of people were exterminated in death camps seems like trivialising the topic. On the other hand criticizing the movie for it's factual faults is even more slippery nontheless. The movie itself is very good indeed, with great acting, memorable scenes, and overall very impressive. I remember that when the end credits started rolling people in the theater were very quiet, and didn't move. Many were shocked by the realism of this movie. It surely is one of the greatest movies ever, but Steven Spielberg intended it to be much more than just a movie. This is where I stop admiring his work.
Many will take this film's version of history as a fact. I'm talking about the way Poles were shown in SL. Mr. Spielberg presents us as hateful antisemitic creatures, and he does it so convincingly that if I didn't know any better I would surely believe it. The second issue is the gas chamber scene - in reality, none of the people who would enter the so called "shower room" would survive. And as for Oskar Schindler - he didn't consider himself as a man on the mission, not concerned about his profits at all. To sum it off - If you didn't see this movie, go see it.
But don't stop there, find some real live accounts of holocaust survivors.