Schindler’s List (1993)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg | 195 minutes | biography, history, drama, war | Actors: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, Embeth Davidtz, Malgoscha Gebel, Shmuel Levy, Mark Ivanir, Béatrice Macola, Andrzej Seweryn, Friedrich von Thun, Krzysztof Luft, Harry Nehring, Norbert Weisser, Adi Nitzan , Michael Schneider, Miri Fabian, Anna Mucha, Albert Misak, Michael Gordon, Aldona Grochal, Jacek Wójcicki, Beata Paluch, Piotr Polk, Ezra Dagan, Beata Nowak, Rami Heuberger, Leopold Kozlowski, Jerzy Nowak, Uri Avrahami, Adam Siemion, Magdalena Dandourian, Pawel Delag, Shabtai Konorti, Oliwia Dabrowska, Henryk Bista, Tadeusz Bradecki, Wojciech Klata, Elina Löwensohn, Ewa Kolasinska, Bettina Kupfer, Grzegorz Kwas, Vili Matula, Stanislaw Koczanowicz, Hans-Jörgzer Assmann, Schlossmann Pistor, Beata Rybotycka, Branko Lustig, Artus Maria Matthiessen, Hans-Michael Rehberg, Eugeniusz Priwieziencew, Michael Z. Hoffmann, Erwin Leder, Jochen Nickel, Andrzej Welminski, Daniel Del Ponte, Marian Glinka, Grzegorz Damiecki

Magisterial and moving film by the master hand of Spielberg and the best film he ever made. Shot in black and white by Janusz Kaminksi, who won an Oscar for his camera work, with the aim of creating an authentic atmosphere. It gives ‘Schindler’s List’ extra power and authority, since most of the images available at the time were also shot in black and white.

The main character is Oskar Schindler (Neeson), who comes to Krakow after the outbreak of World War II to start an enamel factory. He manages to get the necessary contracts for the army by bribing German officers with dinners and gifts. He also hires Jews, because they are cheaper than Polish workers. And so he makes a profit out of an unexpected situation. The special thing about Schindler as he is portrayed is that he is actually a crook, a womanizer and a profiteer and the viewer never really finds out what is hidden behind all those masks. Who the real Schindler is and why he decides to save all those human lives is never really made clear. He is similar in many ways to the Nazi commander Amon Goeth (Fiennes), also a crook (Schindler himself says so in the film at one point), a womanizer and a profiteer. But where Schindler is essentially a good person, despite all his character flaws, Goeth is a sadist and a murderer.

The incredible thing is that Schindler manages to save all those Jews from certain death. He has contacts and a good dose of luck, but what makes him really successful is his courage, his guts. This is illustrated in a scene where he tries to convince fellow manufacturers Bosch and Madritsch to do even more than they had already done. The two industrialists are human, have helped and fed their Jewish workers extra, but as ‘sensible’ men they realize they can do no more. Only a gambler, an adventurer and a daredevil would dare to go further. And that’s exactly what Schindler does. The absolute crown on his courage is put when he goes to Auschwitz to rescue the women and children of his factory, who have been mistakenly taken to the wrong destination. Through bribery and bluff he manages to get them out of the extermination camp – the only time in the black history of Auschwitz that a train carrying Jews left the camp. If it hadn’t really happened, it wouldn’t be believed. But Schindler pulls it off with all his bravado.

The film won seven Oscars, including for best film, director and cimatography, but for Neeson and Fiennes it only came to nominations. Not only did they deliver fantastic play. Kingsley as the smart, timid bookkeeper Itzhak Stern is especially notable for his performance. Nominally subordinate and boss, it is Stern who not only runs the factory, but initially takes the lead in sabotaging Nazi directives. Stern’s interaction with Schindler excels in subtlety and nuance. They never have to speak out loud about the actions they are taking to save the “Schindler Jews”, because they understand each other that way. And it is precisely Stern who at one point tries to slow down Schindler from doing such extremely dangerous and reckless things to help “his” Jews.
The two main women in the film have more or less intimate relationships with the two male protagonists: Emilie Schindler (Goodall) suffers the careless pursuits of her husband Oskar and the Jewish housekeeper Helen Hirsch (Davidtz) suffers the unwelcome attention of Goeth, which turns out to be physical violence. Their acting can also be praised, but that actually applies to all actors who play in the film.

‘Schindler’s List’ is full of impressive and unforgettable scenes. The brilliant screenplay based on Thomas Keneally’s book takes Schindler’s premise as pars pro toto to portray the story of the persecution of the Jews.
It is precisely by telling a small, personal story that Spielberg manages to transfer the inhuman suffering – which cannot be described in words – into heartbreaking and shocking images. A monument of a movie.