Schindler's List (1993)

Schindler's List (1993)

10/10

Starring

Liam Neeson

Ben Kingsley

Ralph Fiennes

Caroline Goodall

Jonathan Sagall

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Distributed by Universal Pictures

Schindler’s List tells the tale of a German industrialist Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) who was credited to have saved over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust.

The movie is based on the book Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally.

Steven Spielberg both directed and produced this movie, and has been received widely as a classic.

The thing that catches your eye when watching this movie is the cruelty of war itself, there are just mainly losers no winners, only those who happen to be in-between that suffers, while the men behind it sit behind a desk. Spielberg depicted such cruelty in the Camps.

A scene where a Jew who made hinges was moved from where he is working to go shove coal and then when he was done he returned, Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) queried him for not meeting up to his regular toll of hinges and immediately had him arraigned to be executed, for something that was not his fault. That scene touched me.

The movie was shot in Kraków, Poland for seventy-one days. Shots were done in real life locations, though the Płaszów camp had to be reconstructed in a pit adjacent to the original site, due to post-war changes to the original camp.

The plot of the movie is direct; a German businessman named Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) in Poland sees an opportunity to make money from the Nazis' rise to power. He starts a company to make cookware and utensils, using bribes to win military contracts, and bringing in an accountant and financier Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help run the factory.

He then hires Jews for the cheap pay, but later after witnessing the cruelty they face in the Nazi Camps, he then tried to get as much Jews away from the Camps to his factory, using all his savings to take care of them.

The movie is not so bad when it comes to acting, but the main hat dipping should go to the Screenplay and the directing. The Screenplay and the script had to be perfect in other for us to be able to get the feel of what the Jews were going through. Also the directing had to be top notch so as not to get carried away by the suffering or the cruelty but to understand why a German will like to save the Jews.

Although we know that much has been done by Liam Neeson (Taken (2008)), Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter) and Ben Kingsley (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) over the years, but they will be fondly remembered for their role in this classic.

Take a 3 hour break from your busy schedule and watch this movie. It is one of a kind.