This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas are closed and I have to review something.
(M) ★★★★★
Director: Steven Spielberg.
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagalle, Embeth Davidtz, Malgoscha Gebel, Shmulik Levy, Mark Ivanir, Béatrice Macola.
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| The colour grader had messed up once again. |
Schindler's List exists because a Jewish man, Poldek Pfefferberg (played in the film by Jonathan Sagall), pressured author Thomas Keneally to write the book Schindler's Ark to honour the man that had saved the life of Pfefferberg and 1200 other Jews. Pfefferberg then talked Steven Spielberg (also a Jew) into making the film - it was basically Pfefferberg's life goal to get this story turned into a novel and then rendered on the big screen purely so the world would know about what Oskar Schindler did.
All this makes Schindler's List the most elaborate "thank you" in history.
It also happens to be a truly incredible film. It's the kind of movie that makes your soul ache. Nothing demonstrates the horrific depths humanity has the potential to reach quite like the Holocaust, and nowhere is the misattributed quote about evil triumphing when good people do nothing more fitting than in Schindler's List.
Filmed in timeless black and white, its crisp cinematography and often handheld camerawork are never overt. Spielberg aimed for a documentary feel, eschewing Steadicams, storyboards and zoom lenses to capture an unplanned, in-the-moment vibe. The film hits all the harder thanks to these smart directorial decisions.
So much of the film works because of its extremes. The violence is unflinching and in your face, but impactful things like the camerawork and John Williams' score are unobtrusive. The splash of red in the girl's coat is a powerful touch amid a film bereft of colour. The line between survival and death is narrow and unpredictable. And Schindler and Göth are at polar ends of the humanity scale, despite their shared love for the good things in life.
It's worth noting that Neeson and Fiennes had been longtime jobbing actors prior to Schindler's List but only achieved A-list status as a result of this film. They certainly weren't unknowns, but Spielberg definitely picked them due to their low star wattage. He could hardly have chosen better. Neeson has the requisite bravura and bluster as Schindler, without chewing the scenery, plus he makes the transition from carefree bon vivant to humanitarian utterly believable. His nervous wink towards the film's end, after asking the Nazi guards if they wanted to "return to (their) families as men instead of murderers" is under-rated acting.
As for Fiennes, his Göth is a pudgy bully but worse than that, he is an utter psychopath in the truest sense of the word. He doesn't often come to mind when we think of great movie villains, but the American Film Institute saw fit to put him high up their list of the best baddies, and rightly so. He is pure evil, but believably pure evil, which is difficult to achieve.
(They also put Schindler in the hero list, above such icons as Han Solo, Superman and Batman.)
The double act of Schindler and Göth, of Neeson and Fiennes, is integral to the film, but it's also worth noting Ben Kingsley's performance. A masterful actor who often turns up in utter shite, his barely contained look of fear throughout the film is impressive. Embeth Davidzt is also compelling, in a role that gets somewhat lost in the atrocity of it all.
I was pretty sure it was against the law to say bad things about Schindler's List; like it was some kind of cinematic blasphemy, but while researching this review, I discovered that criticising Schindler's List is reasonably common. Seems like a bunch of edgelord hipster bullshit to me. Schindler's List stares into the the darkest cesspit of humanity - the absolute worst shit orchestrated by people in the past century - and feels around to find a glimmer of hope. It does so in a very human, honourable, respectful, and sensitive way.
Spielberg best film is Raiders Of The Lost Ark (I'm with The Incredible Suit on this), but Schindler's List is his most important film. If you had to pick one perfect film to represent the very best and the very worst that humanity is capable of, Schindler's List is hard to go past. It deserves respect, accolades, and to be bowed down to.
All this makes Schindler's List the most elaborate "thank you" in history.
It also happens to be a truly incredible film. It's the kind of movie that makes your soul ache. Nothing demonstrates the horrific depths humanity has the potential to reach quite like the Holocaust, and nowhere is the misattributed quote about evil triumphing when good people do nothing more fitting than in Schindler's List.
Filmed in timeless black and white, its crisp cinematography and often handheld camerawork are never overt. Spielberg aimed for a documentary feel, eschewing Steadicams, storyboards and zoom lenses to capture an unplanned, in-the-moment vibe. The film hits all the harder thanks to these smart directorial decisions.
Schindler's List hits you because of the human glimmer of hope amid the horrendous atrocity of it all, but what really gets me about it is the slow creep of everything - the steady escalation of the violence, the gradual awakening of conscience in Schindler, the raising of the survival stakes, the progressive dehumanisation of the Jews. At the 30-minute mark, we're still wondering if Schindler is anything more than a shark or opportunist. At 40 minutes, when he meets the worker with one arm, we're wondering where his moment of revelation will come from. Just minutes later, we're shocked by sudden violence. At 50 minutes, Amon Göth arrives, and soon after that we get the "liquidation" of the Kraków ghetto. The movie slowly surrounds you, like a gang of bullies moving in one by one, before holding you down and beating you into submission.
So much of the film works because of its extremes. The violence is unflinching and in your face, but impactful things like the camerawork and John Williams' score are unobtrusive. The splash of red in the girl's coat is a powerful touch amid a film bereft of colour. The line between survival and death is narrow and unpredictable. And Schindler and Göth are at polar ends of the humanity scale, despite their shared love for the good things in life.
It's worth noting that Neeson and Fiennes had been longtime jobbing actors prior to Schindler's List but only achieved A-list status as a result of this film. They certainly weren't unknowns, but Spielberg definitely picked them due to their low star wattage. He could hardly have chosen better. Neeson has the requisite bravura and bluster as Schindler, without chewing the scenery, plus he makes the transition from carefree bon vivant to humanitarian utterly believable. His nervous wink towards the film's end, after asking the Nazi guards if they wanted to "return to (their) families as men instead of murderers" is under-rated acting.
As for Fiennes, his Göth is a pudgy bully but worse than that, he is an utter psychopath in the truest sense of the word. He doesn't often come to mind when we think of great movie villains, but the American Film Institute saw fit to put him high up their list of the best baddies, and rightly so. He is pure evil, but believably pure evil, which is difficult to achieve.
(They also put Schindler in the hero list, above such icons as Han Solo, Superman and Batman.)
The double act of Schindler and Göth, of Neeson and Fiennes, is integral to the film, but it's also worth noting Ben Kingsley's performance. A masterful actor who often turns up in utter shite, his barely contained look of fear throughout the film is impressive. Embeth Davidzt is also compelling, in a role that gets somewhat lost in the atrocity of it all.
I was pretty sure it was against the law to say bad things about Schindler's List; like it was some kind of cinematic blasphemy, but while researching this review, I discovered that criticising Schindler's List is reasonably common. Seems like a bunch of edgelord hipster bullshit to me. Schindler's List stares into the the darkest cesspit of humanity - the absolute worst shit orchestrated by people in the past century - and feels around to find a glimmer of hope. It does so in a very human, honourable, respectful, and sensitive way.
Spielberg best film is Raiders Of The Lost Ark (I'm with The Incredible Suit on this), but Schindler's List is his most important film. If you had to pick one perfect film to represent the very best and the very worst that humanity is capable of, Schindler's List is hard to go past. It deserves respect, accolades, and to be bowed down to.
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