Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List is based on the true story. The director presented a great tribute through this highly acclaimed movie to the sufferings that Jewish came across during the era of World War II. The movie succeeds in delivering the intended massage with a brilliant piece of story, marvelous technical work, amazing direction and the stunning acting. The movie is shot in black and white along with the fine use of shades and lights to give it a complete holocaust makeover. Apart from attracting a huge number of audiences at the ticket window, movie grabbed dozens of awards including seven academy awards, seven BAFTA awards and three golden globe awards. This paper discusses the movie, Schindler’s List and talks about several other related aspects of the movie.
The heart-rending story of this movie is based on the novel written by Thomas keneally. The screenplay is done by Steven zaillian in this masterpiece of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg has used some genuine photographic records related to the people as well places to make the scenes livelier. The movie appears to be a strong realization of the occurring that took place in the Holocaust. Spielberg has successfully related the incidents of the holocaust and established a connection between the viewers, the characters and the real incidents that took place at a point of time in the history. The director by this movie conveys a massage that it is not that easy for anybody to imagine the pain that the Jews and their family suffered when more than six million Jews were murdered. Portrayal of death is an important aspect of the movie. Several scenes, images portray the death in the most horrifying form like shooting in the head, pouring blood from the head of dead. The scenes of executions are also frightening and used at several places.
The story of Schindler’s List revolves around Oscar Schindler and the role of Oscar Schindler is amazingly played by Liam Neeson. Oscar opens a factory in Poland around the beginning of Second World War and hires the Jews in his factory at very low wages. Oscar is a cunning business man who manages his business by making connections with the Nazi officials. Oscar bribes and flatters the Nazi officials in order to growing his business and making the money and procures several contacts to supply wartime supplies to the Nazis. Oscar also joins Nazi party just as a part of his strategy of making more money and make good relation with the Nazis. He earns good money, enjoys all the amenities and concentrates on himself only but suddenly he changes and becomes a rescuer of eleven hundred Jews from the mouth of death. The role played by Liam Neeson is very challenging yet interesting because the character is not like other conventional heroes who fight for their principles. In this movie the hero is an egoistic person, a gambler and womanizer who is driven by a motive of money, lust and greed. This man was changed at the end of the movie and put his life and everything at stake to rescue the Jews from the Nazis who used to be his friends. The role of this character is very exigent and it was as expected played by the Liam Neeson.
The selection and portrayal of the characters is terrific. A Nazi commandant, Goeth has been portrayed as the hypocrite who uses to shoot Jews for his target practicing and on the other hand he falls in love with his maid, Helen Hirsch. The character is played by Ralph Fiennes who himself is a very good actor and made this role a prodigy. Through this character, the hypocrisy of the Nazis has been portrayed who prefer their own interests over their ideas. They make rules for others but in their personal life and conduct, they make themselves as an exception to their own principles. There are many other characters that are very importantly portrayed in the movie and all of them have done justice with their roles. The one aspect of the movie that slowdowns its contentment is the comic aspect. In such holocaust movies comedy scenes seems to be like unwanted intruders and interrupts the gravity of the movie. These humorous scenes lighten up the gravity of the scenes and moreover annoy the people or the community who are affected with the holocaust.
After having observed the above mentioned analysis of the movie Schindler’s List, it is good to conclude that the movie is utterly successful in conveying the massage for what it was made. Spielberg is a genius and what is his smartness is that he conveys that it is not possible to fathom the pain of Jews and their families from reading books and watching movie. Every aspect of the movie is well organized and compels the audiences to watch the movie with inquisitiveness. Schindler’s List is one of the real holocaust movies that stand different from others because of the massage, quality and creativity.
Works Cited
Gallagher, C. (2001, January 25). Movies. Retrieved March 24, 2012, from bbc: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/01/25/schindlers_list_1993_review.shtml
JanetASLIN. (1993, December 15). The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2012, from nytimes: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F0CE2DE1F39F936A25751C1A965958260
