Schindler List Film Review

    

UNCANNY MIRACLES

            It is truly difficult to appreciate a 1993 film in the 21^st century especially when it’s in black and white. Though the cinematography’s great, I still find myself lost in tracing the characters because they all look the same to me. I find it difficult to distinguish, compare and contrast everything when I cannot even comprehend what I am supposed to understand.

            However, despite the difficulty brought to me by the inconvenient presentation of the film, I commend the touch of violence and tragedy with excellent element of sympathy and anguish that perfectly suspends the disbelief of the viewers.

            

There were three major subplots in the film. First is all about the main setting, which was the tale of the Holocaust by which it was presented in new imagery of old horror. These are as ghastly and realistic as anything previously filmed, and the director’s style emphasizes the brutality of the situation by not pulling punches when it comes to gore. The blood, inky rather than crimson in stark black-and-white, fountains when men and women are shot in the head or through the neck.

            Second, was that of Oskar Schindler who was the Nazi businessman that saved a thousand and more Jews during the outbreak of World War II. At the first clips of the film, Schindler was depicted to be a self-centered business man that doesn’t care about anything else but money. He didn’t hire Jews because he pitied them but instead he did it because they were cheap employees. But his perspective changed with the influence of his Jewish accountant, namely Itzhak Stern, and Schindler eventually risked losing everything to save as many lives as he can.

            And lastly was that of the most heartless Nazi commander of Krakow, Amon Goeth. He is a cold-blooded being who lurches on the brink of madness. I am trying to weigh if he was only just another innately inhumane Nazi or he was a psychologically disturbed creature. He is confusingly enraged with the presence of Jews however he sleeps with a Jew. However, the character tried to change at the middle part of the story yet he only proved how cruel and unchangeable his evil ego devours him.

            The casting was consistently excellent. Each actor/actress perfectly delivers the character that they portray. I was effectively disgust by the actor playing Amon Goeth and completely sympathetic over the character that portrayed Stern. Also, without the trouble of my means poor observation, the usage of black and white and touches of color in the film effectively supported the setting. One can really feel the lamenting aura of the film.

            Symbolisms were obvious yet vague. One clear usage of symbolism was the moment when Schindler was looking from the top of a hill and a little girl runs in red while the crowd is all in black and white. Apparently, that looking at the girl compelled Schindler's interest because it made a statement. The child was a literary tool for conveying innocence. Viewers may sympathetically lament with the situation given by the film but the element of bringing up innocence through one child raises the grief that the viewers will feel. I highly commend the director’s usage of such symbol.