Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 75 years, you're probably quite aware of the Holocaust and the horrific events surrounding it. However, you may not be aware of the story of Oskar Schindler, a rich industrialist that used his production empire to save the lives of some 1,200 Jews from certain death. His astounding work is the focus of Steven Spielberg's film, Schindler's List.
At the beginning of World War II, in the Kraków Ghetto, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a businessman and member of the Nazi Party, opens an enamelware factory, hiring Jewish workers because they are cheaper labour. He appoints a local Jewish man Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) as his managerial assistant, all the while, Oskar maintains his links with local officials and members of the SS, bribing them to allow his workers to stay. A notorious womaniser and drinker, Oskar maintains a high profile and lavish image whilst many of his workers struggle to survive.
With a new concentration camp to be constructed in Kraków, SS member Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) is put in charge of the project. Goeth is relentless in his anti-Semitic actions, often referring to the inhabitants of the Ghetto as "rats" and executing people randomly for his own amusement. When Schindler meets Goeth, he forms a pseudo-friendship with the man, in the hope that he will prove useful down the line. Indeed, towards the end of the war, when Goeth is ordered to send the remaining Jews for extermination, Schindler is able to bribe him into letting him keep his workers. The names of these workers and their families, compiled by Schindler and Stern to send to Goeth, would become known as "Schindler's List".
The film was finally made, largely thanks to Holocaust survivor and 'Schindler Jew' Poldek Pfefferberg, who had been attempting to get the Schindler story made into a film for years with no success. That is, until he met Australian author Thomas Keneally. Keneally wrote the Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler's Ark, which inspired Spielberg to make Schindler's List. Keneally said that what drew him to the story was Schindler's flawed nature,"the fact that you couldn't see where opportunism ended and altruism began". Schindler is portrayed by Neeson as complex and difficult to read, but undeniably charitable. Whether his plan was always altruistic, or simply due to the transformative experience of a country deep in war, his actions permeate a sense of hope from a dark period in history and are presented through Spielberg's poignant biopic.
Presented almost entirely in black and white, the colourless imagery of Schindler's List depicts a low point in recent human history. Spielberg and his regular cinematographer, Janusz Kamiński felt that the black and white gave the film a documentary style, which they tied together with plenty of handheld shots, making it less subjective. However that doesn't make it any less of an emotional viewing experience. Certain elements of shots, including the flame from candles and the red coat worn by a little girl, were left in colour. This involved a painstaking process where the colour shots had to be greyed out, frame by frame, leaving just the desired colour. The result, given the symbolic nature of these moments, is really very moving. The musical score by, you guessed it, John Williams (Spielberg's go-to composer) seems very fitting for the sombre tone of the film and won Williams an Academy Award, one of seven awarded to the film. Schindler's List sends you through a barrel ride of emotion, and much of this is down to its superb presentation.
Spielberg couldn't have chosen a better cast with the then relatively unknown (now major action star) Liam Neeson leading the way as Schindler. Neeson's performance is crucial in creating a character that isn't simply a messiah, but rather has uncertain goals and personal demons to grapple with. Kingsley is astoundingly good as the intellectually brilliant Itzhak Stern, his performance is honest and often touching. Fiennes is very fierce as Goeth, which must have been an emotionally exhausting character to play given his horrific and heartless actions. Supporting them are Caroline Goodall as Schindler's wife Emilie, Jonathan Sagall as Poldek Pfefferberg and Embeth Davidz as Helen Hirsch, the Jewish girl that gained Goeth's admiration's whilst working as his maid.
Schindler's List is an honest look at the Holocaust, and the man that combated it with his power. Through all the haunting imagery rests a positive message of hope that leaves you both ready to mourn history's victims and celebrate those that try to make a difference. A movie for humans.
