Review of Schindler's List (1993) by Huraxdax — 03 Jan 2018

This is one of those movies that I just have to give a 10. The actors, the visuals, everything is on point.

Liam Neeson plays a fantastic Schindler, delivering a sense of power and superiority in a situation where those two things are almost impossible to attain against the ruthless dictatorship. For me, this is his best role to date and it will likely remain at the top spot.

Ben Kingsley fits perfectly into the role of Schindler's partner who just so happens to be jewish. Throughout their cooperation, he always remains faithful, having to rely on Schindler's good reputation several times, mostly in order to escape cold-blooded death.

My favourite role in the Film is Amon Göth, played by Ralph Fiennes. He is the one who controlls the Concentration Camp. He is the one standing on a hill with his sniper rifle in the morning, shooting people's head off for fun. He lives an excentric lifestyle and even falls in love with a jewish girl. This type of affection makes even clearer one of the main messages of the film: The pure nonsense of the Holocaust. And the fact that even when a Nazi fell in love with a victim, it didn't make him or her question anything.

Not only the actors are great though. Also the look of the film. In 1993, during the rise of digital filmmaking and exciting visual effects, to make a film black-and-white, is very daring. And boy does it pay off. I couldn't imagine this movie in colour. It wouldn't be as authentic. Furthermore, the use of black-and-white enables Steven Spielberg do something very clever, which is to incorporate color as a sparsely used stylistic device. The girl in the red coat is literally the only stain of colour in the movie, but what it does is very powerful. Amongst the thousands of anonymous victims shown, the girl in the red coat creates personality where there should be none. It illustrates the development and change of views of Schindler in a subtle, yet drastic way.

Through these little things, the movie creates a very depressing, yet fascinating mood. There are moments where you see the people crammed together in the camp, being full of hope, convincing themselves that the worst days are over and from now on it will only get better. The viewer knows that there will be no improvement (further stressed through the massive running time of 3 hours and 15 minutes) and thats what makes it so depressing.

All in all, there's nothing I would change about this movie. Everything was put together just right to create a cinematic, thought-provoking masterpiece that can only be made once.