SCHINDLER'S LIST (Dec 1993) Director: Steven Spielberg.
Writer: Thomas Keneally, Steven Zaillian.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, 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.
He was a Nazi, a profiteer of slave labor, a philanderer, an adulterer, a confidence man and a traitor to his country. He was Oskar Schindler, who saved over 1,100 Jews from concentration camps in World War II.
Reminds me of that joke "...but screw just one sheep..." in reverse.
Oh, you'll be tasting the salt of your tears on this one. SCHINDLER'S LIST is another of the many reasons Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors on Earth.
He takes us out of our spoiled rotten Snuggies and into the harsh winter of 1939 Poland; he makes us a verboten race, a forbidden jew; treated like offal, manhandled, shot arbitrarily; we feel every shard of indignity, dishonor, terror of being thought of as less than human. As in AMISTAD, he pulls no punches.
Schindler goes to chruch to recruit black market Jews.
recruits kinglsey from Judenrat - place where they lodge complaints - as his accountant.
goe sto church to recruiet vbalck market jews selling shit.
all jews from Krakow are forced from their homes, crowiding into an area of 16 blocks, liquidation of the Ghetto - so realistic it's terrifying. SS storms into the ghettos and destroys everyone - shoves them out shoots people arbitrarily
Goeth runs forced labor camp in Plaszow. Oskar in Krakow factory.
stark black and white - shot of little girl in scarlet coat - splotch of red, takes you out of film but not in a bad way - planst you in 1939 Poland. apparently this was a recount of shcindler's that he noticed a little girl in a scarlet coat amongst the melee
Now I understand Kevin Smith's pessimistic take on the film: out of 6 million jews, 1100 were saved, Whoopee! And I understand how easy it is to make a film like this highly manipoulative - how hard can it be to empathize with the jews who are bieng so downtrodden? On the other hand - every life counts, dunnit? Even one. And these atrocities DID happen. and the film is made spectacularly. There are botchy films and cheap films and incincere filsm about the same topic - this is defeinitley one of the great films on this topic.
ralph fiennes in a blood-chilling
role, as the unbalanced, power-mutated Amun goeth. We think he's amoral and sociopathic, inhuman, a nihilist, then he displays a twisted moral compass when he's in the cellar with his Jewish maid, Helen (--)
talks to his servant, that he lusts after, "I realize you are not a person in the strictest sense of the word" -- ironically proving that HE is "not a person in the strictest sense of the word." trying to make his play. in the cellar in her slip.
And here's the irony: he is trying to "humanize" her so that he won't consider himself so depraved for desiring her; He is trying to convince himself that she is not an animal so that he can rape her with a clear conscience!
In other words, even thoguh his human urges are quite natural, he has been uinculcated to believe Jews are subhuman, and therefore excoriates himself for his absolutely nautral urges!
It would be hilarious were it not so perverted.
his adopted family became the The "Schndler-Juden" they were all the jews he saved who took care of him until his death.
the SS separate sick from the healthy - the jews prick their fingersw ith blood rub blood on cheeks to make themelves look healthy - again -spielberg - fearlessly makes all the extras tramp /run nake dthroug hthe yard women and men, malnourished, pale, pasty, jewish
scenes of loading children in trucks - heartbreaking -not amazing that speilberg captures lal this on film with almost the same emotional impact, but that it actualyl happened.!
incredible scenes - jews loaded in rail frieght carriages - small oopenings - dying of heat - schindler tells the soldiers to hose own the carriages while he german soldiers laugh at him, Goeth included - priceless - because they ARE from real life.
throw schindler in jail for kiissing a jewish girl on his birgthday against the regs. Goeth goes to bat for schindler in hisd defense
to keep jewelry safe they put it into pieces of bread and eat the bread. -oh my god!
the violence graphic sudden - even in black and white, blood is unimstakeably horrfic.
at hospital, all nurses and doctors giving patients poison - so they wont be terrorized.
a boy runs as his father and him are manhandled - the father tries to stop a soldier from shooting th elittle boy and is shot immediately, the boy is dragged back and shot pointblank
opens factory manufactureres of enamleware crockery - deisnged and crafted for military use. - opens afctory -hires only jews - the environment is a haven.
at first he IS doing it all for himself - when Stern gets on train by mistake - forgot work card. Schindler" What if I got here fitve mins later - where would I be"? Stil thinking og Sterna s his plant mgr to make HIME money, got nothing to do with the fact he saved him from being sent to the gas chanmbers.
one of Spielberg's "serious" films"
"DEpartment D orders Goeth to exhumeand incinerate the bodies of more than 10000 jews killed at Plaszow and the krakow ghetto massacre - scene of ashes falling form sky - snowing ashes - human.
scenes of jews digging up other jews rotting in the shallow snow - wha t avisual - on one of wheelbarrows is litle girl dressed in scarlett - faded shock of scarlett crumpled on the top of the barrow.
Goeth: they're shutting us down and tranferin everyone to Auschwitz - can't figure motivation - forced labor camps -now going to destry all their free labor. One of th eladies even says, "we're important to them why would they kill of their workforce?" Is that the measure of the mad chancellor's mind?
schindl decides to leave with bagdful, trunksful of money- but gets the idea to buy all the people off Goeth - that's when he gets Kingsley to type up his infamous lists. To stop them from going to Ausch he buys all of them from goeth - setting it up as if he's making his own subcamp. Like me not being able to figure th emotivation of the German high caommand, Goeth cannot figure the motivation behind Schindler - the idea that someone would be beneficial to life is so alien to him that he gives Schind the benefit of the doubt - that he is a good german - and sells him the people.
he thinks for every 100 he makes, oscak is making 3, maybe 4 - he cannot concieve that he might be buying them to save their lives.
schindler's hometown - Zwittau-Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia - they all get transported like cattle to this town to work in his factory.
all the women get rerouted to auschiwt - clerical error - bureacracy was a bitch even back then. he has to rush to save them from the ovens.
spielberg doesnt gussy it up - as schindler's jews are getting back on train out of auscheiwtxz a whole new crowd are being herded in. throwing all their luggage in a pile.
imposing neeson tall powerful - if shchindler was actually like him - easy to see how he commanded such respect - FIND OUT.
7 MONTHS it was operational, shindler'a factory was non-oerational - bhecasue he didn't actually want to produce shells or ammo for the war. effort. During that same time - he spen millions of rechmarks to keep factory open and sustain the people.
After the war he failed at his marriage and several businesses. in 58 he was declared a Rightwous Person and imvited to plant a tree in Avenue of the Rightoue - It gorws there still. Very touching.
The Schindler Jews today. Ending sequence -the actual survivor and the actor who portrayed them come up toegether to place a stone on Schindler's gravestone.
SCHINDLER'S LIST will make you feel like becoming a good-hearted Nazi. Modern American Republicans are halfway there - now they just have to add the "good-hearted" part.
END
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:
Voices From The List - The Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg - Cast and Crew - Oskar Schindler.
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ACADEMY AWARDS
1993
BEST PICTURE
SCHINDLER'S LIST (Dec 1993) Director: Steven Spielberg.
Writer: Thomas Keneally, Steven Zaillian.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, 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.
