An Intense and heartbreaking film

Rating: 9/10 (9 February 2005)

Winner of seven Academy Awards in 1993, this three hour epic is based on a true story, by Steven Spielburg, it very well portrays the horrors and sadness of the Holocaust. Although three hours of black and white may put viewers off, once you give it a chance, it's quite interesting and rather intense.
The horror of the Holocaust is unfolded through a member of the Nazi party, drinker, womaniser and ultimately war profiteer: Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who initially employed Jews from ghettos of Poland to start a factory during the war, making pots and pans. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them covertly under the eyes of Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) who is in charge of the ghetto and later moves all the Jews to a forced labour camp.
Schindler ensures their survival against odds, at the same time, he must remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) who rescues those that are 'expendable' and at the same time negotiate business with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. The film is largely about Oskar Schindler's transformation in response to the horror around him and learning the corruption of political power. Although the whole film is in black white, a significant Jewish girl is seen about, wearing a red coat which is prominently shown in the film, the colour red is rather shocking amongst the black and white surroundings and the theme of mass massacre. We follow the little girl to the point where even she, herself is killed in the gas chambers. At this point we realise the full horrors of the Holocaust and this is the turning point where we see the development of the Schindlers list. The film depicts Schindler's ultimately successful attempt to rescue 1,100 Jews from Hitler's "Final Solution" of mass massacre by getting them to safety outside of Poland. This beautiful movie allows viewers to feel like they're actually a part of one of the darkest, most horrific periods in history.