Film Review : SCHINDLER'S LIST * * * *

Schindler's List (1993)

CAST Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Embeth Davidtz

DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg

One doesn't make a film like this everyday. As a matter of fact, one doesn't make this kind of film every decade."Schindler's List" is a rare breed of a film. A film about the holocaust, it penetrates deeply to analyze conditions and the people involuntarily thrown into those positions.

Liam Neeson is Oskar Schindler. He is a business tycoon in Germany who sets out to make a fortune by using Jews as workers. He hires Itzhak Stern (played powerfully by Ben Kingsley) to manage the books for his industry. It is through Stern that Schindler's heart vicariously softens. Ultimately he sees the wrong in the holocaust and feels obligated to set as many as possible free. He has to deal with Amon Goeth to be able to have this to happen. goeth is played at oscar caliber by Ralph Fiennes. he balances his evil with a subliminal vulnerability. He has no will power. He has the desire to kill. One scene we see Schindler tell Goeth that through mercy we show are strength. Goeth tries so hard to practice this theory, but we see him cave in and shoot a young Jewish kid, for not adequatley cleaning a bath tub. This scene is powerful.

Spielberg filmed this in black and white. It looks intense and broody. He uses color in a couple of key spots. We see a little girl walking down a crowded street, where Jews are being led out of the city. She walks in a red coat. I think this symbolizes life. The others are doomed but somehow we know that this girl shall live. Hope. One thing that the Jewish did not have is cast here in this scene.

There is mindless acts of violence in this film. Mindless in the sense that the holocaust was mindless. It was very important for Spielberg to show us the monstrous activities the Germans did, in order for us to really understand what they went through. This is not a happy film, although the payoff is pleasing. This is a real look at the horrors of War and prejudice. We all live, and we all die. No one has the right to tell us when we die, or how we live. This movie makes that point better than any other medium I can think of. This is one of the greatest movies ever made.