One of The Best Movies Ever Made? Uh…Yeah!!

I first watched Schindler’s List years ago when I was about 10 and I was too young to understand it at the time, but I knew what it was and what was happening and I knew it was a really good movie. Now to the present: I just finished watching it for the third time and I understand it a lot more now that I’ve come to understand the denied events of the Holocaust and out of all the movies about the Holocaust that I’ve seen (The Diary of Anne Frank, The Pianist, Jakob The Liar, etc.), Schindler’s List is the finest depiction of that Nazi-era.

So, I guess this movie won 7 or more Academy Awards and they were very well deserved. The sadness sweeps over you the first time you watch it and like everybody says, this movie is unforgettable. Instead of a lot of color in the film, it’s done in black and white with little color segments. Those color segments would include the young girl wearing a red dress that stands out and at the end when the remaining Jews travel to Oskar Schindler’s grave. A lot of people got turned off from the movie mainly for this reason, but fear not, it’s not filmed old-school, it’s regular filmmaking without colors so don’t expect grainy pictures of anything of the sort.

This is based on the real events that happened in a Nazi concentration camp and leads up to how Oskar Schindler, Nazi-ammunition-maker, saved over a thousand Jews and his struggles to do so. This spans on two VHS tapes with most of it just being the cruel things that happened to the Jews at the time.

Something that I really admired about the movie is the realistic feel of it. Everything that Steven Spielberg shot was correct and the crew did a very good job making sure all the facts were correct. From the way that the concentration camps were built to small intricate details of how the Jewish workers worked on products. Everything was done right, and was never underestimated. In Schindler’s List, you also see how mean people were to the Jews for no reason but because they were Jewish and that’s all. When they stuffed hundreds of Jews in one train car and they looked out their little barbed wire window, you see little kids rushing out of their homes by the tracks and smiling at them and making hand language for “you’re gonna die! Ha ha ha” and how the Nazi’s shot Jews in cold blood for no reason.

The movie is hard to see, but you have an obligation to watch it. You might want to turn it off, but you never do because you want to see what happens next and see what Schindler is going to do. A feeling that comes over me in movies about the Holocaust that makes me cry is anger. I don’t cry on these movies because of sadness for all the people that were killed, I cry because of how angry I am at the Nazi’s and the reason why they did these sickening tasks. How cold blooded were those Nazis? Well, if there were babies of Jews, they would use them as target practice as clay pigeons and that’s something that you won’t find in this movie and that I’m happy for because if they fit more horrible things in this movie, it would be way more than the R rating.

The Direction

I’ve been a fan of Steven Spielberg’s work for the longest time and he has made countless classics like The Color Purple, Jaws, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, and E.T. so of course I was ecstatic to see that this Jewish man directed the movie since it would be odd to have any other person direct the movie. The angles that he presents in the movie are fantastic and just give the scope of how many people died and how hectic it was in that time. His camera scopes the entire surrounding area of a lot to present how wide and big the area was that they kept the Jews in and just how cruel the Nazis were. Also, every scene fits into the big puzzle. There is no filler at all in this movie. If there’s a scene of a Nazi polishing his shoes, later you find that there’s a reason like he always wanted things tidy or something and you get a better feel for the Nazis. I think that he was the perfect director for the job and that no one else could have directed this movie any better.

The Actors

Liam Neeson (The Haunting, K-19: The Widow-Maker) did a great job playing Oskar Schindler and this is the best movie that he’s done so far. He makes a huge metamorphosis throughout the movie. In the beginning, he’s a cold hearted Nazi, womanizer, and rich bastard and by the end, he’s a caring man who was the savior of over a thousand Jews and his performance is incredibly moving especially at the end when he’s crying (when the Jews are free) that he could have saved more and how he wasted money all those years when he could have saved so many Jews.

Ralph Fiennes (Red Dragon, Maid In Manhattan) did a pretty bang up job himself with his portrayal of a general of a Nazi concentration camp. His cold heartedness shows as he shoots innocent Jews from his bedroom window with a sniper rifle only because he was tired or had a late night. He’s a wonderful villain, but you don’t love to hate him. You venomously hate him with all your heart until at the end when it shows him being hanged by the heroes of the war, the Russians.

Usually in movies, the extras aren’t a really big deal, but in Schindler’s List, there are a major part and make the movie wonderful with their panicky running and frightful behavior. You actually believe that they are scared and they do a stunning performance, each and every one of them on the scary times of the Holocaust and without them, the movie would just leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Audio

If you have surround sound, use it. John William’s (the greatest composer alive with his work on the Star Wars movies) music makes this listening experience fantastic and he captures the mood of every sequence and scene with his beautiful music of the 1940s and has a solid cello/violin song that just steals your heart with it’s goodness. The gunshots heard around the film will make you flinch, though, especially if you are Jewish like myself and they do sound real and are even correctly the ones that the real Nazis used.

The Cons

Well, I’ve watched this movie three times and I’ve owned it for two years now. What does that tell you? This is an awesome movie just that you won’t see it again and again like you would other Spielberg masterpieces. Also, the sensitive material and subject matter might make a lot of people depressed like it obviously did me. The graphic material is not suitable for children of any age because you have to be mature to watch this movie.

The Ending

The ending is perfect with the Schindler’s real surviving descendents of the original ones putting rocks on his grave and if you don’t know the significance of this, it means to honor the person who has passed. This is a heart-wrenching last scene because those people wouldn’t be alive today if he hadn’t saved their family. It’s the perfect end to this magnificent story and probably the best part of the whole movie. Also, right before the credits, you find out that the movie is dedicated to the over 2 million Jews who died in the Holocaust (although there is probably much more since the Nazis didn’t keep records of how many people they killed).

Ending Statements

If you know anyone who mutters or calls people “dirty Jews” or “this is so Jewish”, make them rent this movie because it might change their mind about saying that. I think that if you are Jewish then you should definitely see this movie because these are your people…and you just have to no matter how sad you might be to see it. This review was hard for me to write since a movie of this magnitude is hard to cut open and pour details into on a Word document. Trust me and go out and rent this movie because it might be the best you will ever see. Most people know that I hate religion (I am a punk rocker) and although I don’t believe in anything that the Jewish religion says or any other religion, I’m proud to be Jewish because we’re so strong and as we’ve proved, we can stay alive and we can’t be exterminated. Take that you Nazi-KKK bastards! Thanks for reading.

Jay

Quote For The Review: Whoever Saves One Life, Saves The World Entire