Steven Spielberg Created A Phenomenally Impactful Motion Picture With Schindler's List

While watching the documentary Spielberg, which chronicles the filmography of its titular filmmaker, shortly after Schindler's List, I was struck by being reminded of how much of a departure this film was compared to everything else Spielberg had done up to this point. Both in Steven Spielberg's comments on the film and in juxtaposing footage of the feature to footage of past Spielberg movies, Schindler's List feels like a complete 180 from what had come before it. Tight, small-scale conversations had replaced the grand spectacle of his blockbuster efforts, more realistic muted character beats abounded and small touches in the lighting & and writing reinforced that this project, near and dear to the heart of its director, was being executed with a deft & thoughtful touch.

The story in question is the real-life tale of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a member of the Nazi party during the Holocaust who looks at all the anguish perpetrated by the Nazi's in World War II as simply a chance to make some more money. To that end, he starts up an abomination factory that utilizes Jewish prisoners that the Nazi's have captured, though Schindler's workplace is far kinder to its workers compared to every other location that Jewish individuals are being kept by Nazi forces. However, Schindler soon finds himself confronted with the grisly truth of the Nazi regime and see's it for what it is; a cruel force built on bigotry designed to wipe out innocent people. By simply standing on the sidelines and exploiting it for money, he has become culpable in these atrocities.

Done with indifference, Schindler, with the help of his trusted assistant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), begins to use his high-level connections to pivotal Nazi officers, including Amon Goth (Ralph Fiennes), to expand his workforce significantly and giving Jewish prisoners a place of safety amidst all the horrors of the Nazi's gruesome widespread acts of genocide. Oskar Schindler's film-long character arc is a compelling one, amounting to following a guy who goes from being an exploiter of horrific tragedies to understanding the humanity of those suffering under such tragic circumstances. It's an arc that proves to be more than sufficient emotional groundwork for the entire film which manages to also expand its scope beyond just the titular lead character.

We also get plenty of time spent from the perspective of those poor souls rounded up by Gestapo forces simply because of their Judaism as well as seeing scenes from the point-of-view of Amon Goth. Goth is a fascinating character because, like the other Nazi officers seen here, there's intentional (according to the aforementioned Spielberg documentary) effort to pain these individuals as normal human beings so that the film can emphasize how those working in the Nazi regime and those were complacent its rise were normal people. Without over-the-top personalities to provide a barrier between the viewer and the Nazi's, we are left to gaze upon the fact that the monsters behind some of the most gruesome acts of genocide in history were also human beings, a reminder of how these horrific events can spring up and be perpetrated by people who are seemingly "normal".

This is a stark departure from the typical pop culture portrayals of Nazi's (which are not inherently bad, Lord knows) that fits in with the more muted realistic tendencies of the entire production. In terms of camerawork, Spielberg, publically noting that he took inspiration for the documentary-like nature of the productions camerawork from Shoah, places the camera into the middle of any kind of chaos perpetrated by the Nazi's. Thus, the viewer is meant to be, in terms of their viewing of these events, as caught in the middle of this chaos as the Jewish prisoners. Wide shots that could provide a sense of distance between the viewer and the on-screen turmoil are kept to a minimum. This is a consistently intimate production both on a visual and narrative level.

Liam Neeson, getting his star-making turn in this project, turns in some of his finest work as an actor as he portrays a man who becomes overwhelmed with the consequences of him being complicit in letting genocide occur before his very eyes. Best of all, both he and the script penned by Steven Zaillian opt to end Oskar Schindler's journey in the movie not on a note of easy redemption but rather regret. By the time we reach the final scenes of Schindler's List, World War II has drawn to a close but that does not mean its effects on human beings have similarly gone away. There are long-term mental consequences for those who have survived all of these horrors and Oskar Schindler is no exception.

As Schindler leaves his factory with all of his Jewish workers, he goes over to the car he and his wife will use to leave this place and it suddenly dawns on him that he still has a car in his possession. Neeson beautifully delivers his characters next lines with such devastating haunting regret as he realizes that he could have traded this car for more Jewish prisoners. "Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people." As it dawns on him that even the golden Nazi pin on his shirt could have helped save one or two more lives, he becomes overwhelmed with grief and breaks down into tears. Many of these Holocaust survivors speak of Oskar Schindler in reverent hushed whispers, but here we see that he is but a man.

A man who has done a noble and brave thing, but a man with regrets, a man who only looks at what more he could have done instead of what he has done. That is what will linger in Oskar Schindler's mind now that the war is over, a well and truly fascinating concept that Schindler's List, and especially Liam Neeson in his performance, portray in a phenomenal manner. Now twenty-five years old, Schindler's List stands as a monumentally impactful movie, one so utterly devastating to watch that the moment it's over I found myself finding it difficult to stop my mind from reeling from what it just saw. Three words spoken by Itzhak Stern summarize this feature best; Schindler's List is "...an absolute good".