Peter.

Schindler’s List

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Screenwriter: Thomas Keneally (book)

Steven Zailian (screenplay)

Music By: John Williams

Genre: Epic Drama

Main Actors: Liam Neeson as Oskar Schlindler

Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern
Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth
Caroline Goodall as Emilie Schlindler
Embeth Davidtz as Helen Hirsch
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It’s September 1939, the Nazi party is in power in Germany and the Poland Campaign has just began.
The Jewish community of Krakow, Poland are under an increasing amount of pressure from the
Nazis, Polish Jews from the countryside are relocated to Krakow and their names are recorded.
Oskar Schindler, the main protagonist arrives in Poland in hopes of creating a fortune off of the war.
He bribes members of the Wehrmacht and the SS to allow him to use the Jewish as workers in his
factory, making army mess kits. He hires Jewish poles instead of Catholic poles because they are
payed less, their wages do not go to the workers, but to the SS.

The story progresses in chronological time, it is now March 1941 and the Jewish community are
forced to live in a segregated, guarded Ghetto where they are forced to where indentifying
armbands. Oskar approach’s Jewish elders for the Jewish community’s co-operation with his factory,
they agree to invest in his factory and in turn the Jewish are able to leave the Ghetto and are given
false documents to prove they’re vital to work for the war effort which spares them from being
taken to concentration camps.

Steven Spielberg portrays the holocaust in an amazing way; Schindler's List perfectly balances the
highs and the lows. There are several stories told, each with the gradual perspective altered. We
learn in the beginning that Oskar Schindler is only in Poland to use the Jewish as slave labour to
create an immense fortune for himself, he only see’s the Jewish as workers and nothing else but
during the story he hears the tragedy and personal stories of his workers. He begins an empathetic
and sympathetic journey to save his Jewish workers from an impending death Liam Nelsons’
portrayal of Oskar Schindler is superb, he carefully depicts Schindler’s metamorphosis from self
centered businessman to a sympathetic savoir. Ralph Fiennes does an incredible job of portraying
Alan Goeth, Alan is a sadistic sociopath that has no compassion for the Jewish people. He is a
complex character to play; even though he has an intense hatred for the Jewish he has an
incomprehensible love for his Jewish maid. The suspense created when Alan is expressing his love
towards his maid and then suddenly beating demonstrating Fiennes’ understanding of the depth and
complexity of his character. The story of the holocaust is gradual; Steven Spielberg does not include
an excessive amount of violence in Schindler’s List but enough to remind the audience of the
brutality and atrocity of the Final solution. In the beginning when the Jewish are transported to the
Ghetto and working in Schindler’s factory you do not witness a lot of violence, only a few shots of
Jewish being executed, this does not evoke an immense amount of sympathy for the Jewish but the
audience is truly able to feel sympathetic to the holocaust when the SS are liquidating the Ghetto,
the random murdering of concentration camp prisoners and the mass burning of dead Jewish. This
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seen is incredibly powerful and blunt because you are witnessing mass mountains of dead Jewish
people being burnt.

I liked the use of the film shot in black and white, Spielberg shoes the film this way to artistically
represent good and evil. It powerfully highlights the violence in the film such as black blood on white
snow and white faces in piles of dead bodies. Scenes of the Ghetto and concentration camp are dark
while scenes of parties are light; this sharp contrast promotes the idea of the Nazis happily living off
human suffering. Schindler in the beginning is a dark character, but as the film progresses he slowly
turns light, this is symbolism that he was an evil character turned good.

I disliked the accents in the film. I understand the film was meant for a Western theatre, the reason
why the film is dominated using Western actors but the American accents alienated me from truly
liking and understanding the characters. I would be happy to read subtitles if the actors have had the
same accent from where there character is from, it would sound more fluid and refined and for me,
be able to connect to the characters story.

Despite the tough and gritty subject matter, the movie does an outstanding job of displaying all
aspects of the holocaust and how one man made a huge difference, the acting was superb, the
accents where annoying and the sound was perfect in setting the atmosphere and mood. The use of
black and white clearly suggests ideas on human behaviour. The movie does a wonderful job of
humanising the holocaust and creating an immense empathy for the Jewish.