Oscar Schindler saved hundreds of Jews during the events of World War II. He had them be his workers because that was the best way to protect them.
Blaine: Steven Spielberg was attached to “Schindler’s List” for a decade. It started in 1982. The President of Universal was pleased that Steven had already given the studio hit films like “Jaws” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and Universal had bought the rights to this book, “Schindler’s Ark”, the story about how a German named Oskar Schindler was able to save the lives of Jewish people during the Holocaust. There are a lot of stories about things that took place during the second world war and survivors of the Holocaust have shared their stories with the world. Oskar Schindler was a new history lesson for Steven and he was really up for the project, but he couldn’t do it at that time because he had a busy schedule. Universal was very patient with Steven and eventually Steven did make the film.
Everyone knows Steven is a genius when it comes to filmmaking. His mind is full of great ideas when bringing a movie to life. Like many of his movies, Steven Spielberg gave “Schindler’s List” so much and made it a powerful movie. This movie was powerful enough to take a strong effect on Steven himself. He had a vision that was beyond his expertise. “Schindler’s List” is more than just a movie, it feels like the real thing.
As soon as the film begins you are already seeing a piece of creative genius. There’s smoke from a burnt out candle rising and then it cuts to steam of a train. My dad pointed that out the first time he showed me “Schindler’s List”.
Liam Neeson had never worked with a director as hard working as Steven Spielberg before. Liam didn’t like it that Steven was making him feel like a puppet during the shooting. Steven was telling Liam how to move and everything, including how he should smoke in a scene, and it made Liam feel like he had no control of himself. Liam’s co-star, Ben Kingsley, understood what an actor must do to make a director happy because he’s had more experience as an actor then Liam has. It also was for the best in creating something very unique and Liam must have gotten a real lesson about the art of filmmaking through his experience on “Schindler’s List”. Photographers are always telling their models how to pose for a shot and Steven is the photographer and Liam is the model. There’s a lot of great shots that I like of Liam in “Schindler’s List”. The camera was making him look good in this film.
“Schindler’s List” is both a powerful and well crafted film. It’s style is very strong, believable and beautiful. When I say beautiful I mean the cinematography work. “Schindler’s List” was shot in black and white and there’s a lot of heavy lighting in these shots. For example the shot of Liam Neeson’s Oskar Schindler when he’s at a restaurant. The camera is focussing on Liam’s face and my dad said there’s lighting coming from different directions. The light is hitting his forehead to lightens up his eyes, while the rest of him remains in the shadows. There’s also light hitting Liam from behind in that shot and giving Liam’s left side an outline.
Oskar Schindler’s scenes begin without seeing his face. You don’t see his face until he’s at the restaurant. When Oskar arrives at the restaurant, the camera is following him from his backside, and then when he gets his table the camera follows the waiter as he is circling the table to leave and the camera catches Oskar’s face.
Here’s another thing my dad pointed out. There’s a tight shot of Liam’s hand holding a cigarette and then up flips money in the hand which was well lit. It’s cool the way Liam’s hand was choreographed in that scene. Must have been one of those moments where Steven was telling Liam how to move.
Nazis are evil, they hate Jews, but they love Oskar Schindler. He was very liked by the Nazis. Oskar treats them with nice things and they like being treated with respect. My dad said Oskar Schindler is like an animal stalking other animals during the restaurant scene because he needs the Nazis in order to make money, so he’s setting them up to meet with him, take his money and become friends. He is turning the restaurant into a party and he knows how to plan things out, after all he is a businessman.
Oskar’s eyes are also focussed on the women for their beauty because he also was into women and he was a womanizer. Thing is the guy is already married to woman named Emilie since 1928, and she is aware that he is fooling around with other women and it doesn’t bother her, but she is also not fond of it either. Thing about Germans is they always did as they please.
Another great thing about that restaurant scene is the way it is edited. There’s a woman going around taking flash photography of people getting together and having fun and every time the camera flashes it cuts to another shot.
When the war began, Germany had defected Poland in just two weeks. The Polish people believed in their soldiers, but they failed and Germany took over Poland and forced the Jews out of their homes. Nazis were also after Jews as if they were hunting animals.
You see the Jews moving in a parade as they are exiled from their homes. Oskar is checking out his new place, that was originally owned by Jews. Oskar says “It could not be better”, then it cuts to the previous owner saying “It could be worse”. The reason I mention that is because it’s another good example of the editing because the subject is how life is treating these people.
Oskar has a solution for the Jews and that is they work for him. They wouldn’t get payed, but they would be in safe hands. It was a good way for them to avoid death. They did however go through rough times, and they did live in fear as they watched others being gunned down. Oskar lost one of his workers, but he made sure that a bullet would never get inside the others’ heads.
Itzhak Stern, played by Sir Ben Kingsley, is a Jew who helps Schindler arrange his business and works closely with Schindler as if he is his partner. Schindler trusts Itzhak with everything because he is well organized when it comes to business and always gets the job done for Oskar. Schindler is closer to Itzhak more than any other Jew. Itzhak looks worried a lot because these are dangerous times and he wants to make sure that he doesn’t end up with a bullet in the head. But even though he is scared, he is also brave. He makes sure that he says the right words that won’t piss off the Nazis. Nazis hate Itzhak for being Jewish, but he has proven himself useful. Oskar on the other hand, Itzhak can say whatever he wants to him because he listens. Itzhak is also thinking about others. He is making sure the Jews make it through the Holocaust too. Steven thought Itzhak should be the conscience of Oskar Schindler and that’s why he is looking after the Jews. If anything goes wrong, he’ll report it to Oskar Schindler.
My favorite scene with Itzhak is when he is aging a piece of paper that’ll help save a Jews life by saying he works in metals. Everything on that paper is good, it just needs to look like it has been around for a while.
A woman wants to apply for a job at Schindler’s factory. She is asking if Oskar Schindler will see her, and Schindler is all the way up the staircase from a short distance away and is a silhouette.
There are also a lot of shots in the film where a shaft of light is coming through the window. There’s a scene where Oskar is visiting one of his Nazi friends and Oskar is standing in front of a window. The light is so bright in that window that it’s nearly turning Oskar into a silhouette.
Oskar needs a secretary and he tests a lot of women out by seeing how they can type on a typewriter, but they are so slow at it. Of course that doesn’t matter to Oskar because he is blinded by their beauty. The camera is in the same position, but every time it cuts to a different shot there is a new woman and Schindler is in a different position. It’s another part of the editing process that I like.
Jews were living in a ghetto, a slum area, and then the Nazis show up to either round them up or kill them. Schindler’s workers are living in that area and they all managed to survive because they have papers to show they are workers. The other Jews, they aren’t so lucky. The Nazis use a lot of bullets on the Jews. Ben Kingsley didn’t have to act afraid in that scene because shooting it felt very real to him. There’s a Nazi yelling in front of Ben’s face and Ben felt like he was being threatened. There’s Nazis shooting at people, even though it’s all fake, but it looks very real. It was unlike anything Ben had experienced before in his career.
Schindler is riding his horse with a woman and they watch what is going on in the ghetto from a hill. Schindler notices a little girl in a red coat and her coat is one of the two things in this movie that’s in color. The reason she is the only thing that's in color during that scene is because you need to know who is catching Schindler’s eye. The real Oskar Schindler did notice there was a little girl in a red coat during the round up and his eyes were focussed on her the most. This little girl manages to be invisible while chaos is happening all around her. This girl is really opening Schindler’s eyes. He sees murder happening down there and this little girl looks sweet and innocent. He knows she is going to get caught eventually, or worse. Later on, the Nazis are burning a mountain of Jew bodies and throwing all the corpses in it. Schindler sees that red coated girl again, only now she is a rotting corpse about to be thrown into the fire. You can tell it’s her because the coat is still red. Her corpse takes an effect on Schindler and Schindler is starting to change because of this little girl.
A lot of Jews were hiding while the round up was going on. The Nazis managed to find them during the night to kill them all. There’s a shot of the Nazis marching and it’s a little hard to see them because it’s so dark. They are slightly outlined by the light.
Oskar meets another Nazi, Amon, played by Ralph Fienness, and he is very dangerous and twisted inside. Amon will shoot at Jews for no reason, but what Nazi hasn’t done that. Like one Jew is just tying her shoe and Amon shoots her in the head. Amon has a woman shot in the head when she is trying to explain the best way to architect because she has the experience in architecture. Amon takes her advice and still he has her shot dead. A few Jews have been telling Oskar the cruel things Amon does. A lot of the Jews fear Nazis, but Amon they fear the most.
There’s this one close up shot of Ralph Fiennes that I really like. He shows a threatening look on his face all the time, but you can’t always be smiling for the camera. It’s showing his mood. My reason for liking that close up is because his face is very sharp in it.
Germans hardly listen to reason, but Schindler has a way of making some of them think. He really gets to Amon when he says the Jews think of the Nazis as monsters. Amon doesn’t want to be thought of as a monster. Amon is thinking "maybe I have been too hard." He tries to calm down and be a little bit more nicer after that. Nothing about him will change, there's too much hate in his system.
Amon hires a Jew, Helen Hirsch, to be his house maid. Oskar quickly realizes how beautiful she is and listens to her about how she feels about Amon. She’s going through a difficult time. She’s terrified of Amon. Amon is in love with this woman, but he is asking himself if it’s possible for him to fall in love with a Jew? He’s a Nazi and Nazis are supposed to hate Jews. Amon does admit to himself that she is a beautiful creature, probably the most beautiful he’s ever seen. This really messes with Amon’s head. He’s a Nazi and believes hating Jews is in his nature.
All the Jews are to be sent to a concentration camp in Auschwitz. In the beginning what Schindler did was just part of business, but now he is really listening to his heart and realizing he actually cares. With the money he made from the factory, Schindler was able to buy every single one of those Jews, so they could remain as workers and not end up in some death camp.
Amon is asking Schindler why he wants to save the Jews and he says it’s good for business. If Schindler told Amon the real truth then Amon would think he’s crazy. Of course Amon does care too. I mean the only Jew Amon doesn’t want to let go is Helen, but he has no choice. He was going to lose her anyway and Oskar is the only one who can stop her from going to Auschwitz. Amon wants there to be another way like taking her to Vienna with him, but he would get in serious trouble if he did that. Both Oskar and Amon can agree on one thing, they both care for Helen.
During the scene where Schindler is discussing business with Amon, the camera is inside the house while focussing on Liam and Ralph through the door windows while they are outside.
Schindler puts a list of Jews together with his trusted colleague, Itahak Stern, and it feels exciting because they are saving lives. It is now officially Schindler’s list. There’s an interesting shot of Liam Neeson in that scene. He’s a silhouette, but his forehead and nose are outlined by the light.
Another thing I like about the editing work is seeing each face of every Jew as you are learning every single name. A Jew says their name, then it cuts to the next one and so on.
Schindler welcomes the Jewish men to their new sanctuary, and is looking forward to welcoming the women as well. Problem is the women are accidentally sent to Auschwitz where there is a death camp and Schindler has to go all the way down there to get them out. Those women have been hearing stories about what happens at death camps, like being put in a gas chamber. The hair of the Jewish women gets cut off and they are put in what could be a gas chamber. The Nazis close the doors and the camera focusses in on the door window and you can see the women on the other side. They are scared of what’s to come and fear death is on their shoulders. They are thinking this is the end for them. Schindler spent a lot of money on these women, but more importantly he is trying to save their lives. If they die then he fails. As luck would have it they are being showered off, and it’s not too late for Schindler to save them.
Schindler has to deal with Nazis who aren’t his friends. Oskar is finding himself in a danger zone, but he is brave and smart enough to handle things.
Schindler is talking with the Nazi in charge, telling him that his workers were sent to Auschwitz by mistake and that they are his property. The Nazi looks both serious and mysterious. The upper half of his face is in the dark, while his lower half is being lit up by the lamp on the table. Interesting how that is shot. Normally the eyes would be the only thing lit up in order to make a person mysterious in a shot, but it’s his mouth that is being lit up. You can still see his eyes slightly and they are just staring.
A lot of the areas they shot “Schindler’s List” in were the actual real locations the movie takes place in and that’s because Steven wanted that. Steven wanted to make “Schindler’s List” feel real and one of the things he did was follow the footsteps of Oskar Schindler and the Jews he saved. The first place they shot the movie was in Auschwitz, and Steven sort of realized he was in over his head. Just standing in that area made Steven feel like his soul had been torn out.
One of the Jews you see a lot of is young lady named Danka. She sticks really close with her mother a lot. The Nazis try to take Danka and the other girls away from their mothers, but Oskar stops them. When they arrive at Schindler’s new work place, Schindler walks with the group of women, not as a playboy, but as a hero. Danka is looking back at Schindler for a few seconds because she is grateful to him for stopping the Nazis from taking her away from her mother. The way Schindler dealt with that Nazi was like he scared away the boogieman.
Oskar is going through changes and becoming a better version of himself. For one he is done having affairs. He wants to stick with his wife, Emilie, from now on. She knew their was a reason she loved him and she is proud for what he is becoming.
Oskar is letting his good side take control of him, and he’s showing it to his Jews. He offers Rabbi Menasha Lewartow to have a drink with him. Even allows Rabbi Menasha perform a Sabbath, a day of religious observance and abstinence. The Nazis can hear Rabbi Menasha Lewartow singing in the other room and I think the singing is opening their minds. They look as though they are realizing that Jews aren’t so bad. They spent so much time hatting Jews just because they are of a different religion that they never asked what is about Jews that they don’t like.
Schindler told Itzhak that the war would be over some day, and now that time has come. Germany has surrendered and the war is coming to an end. It’s good for the Jews because then they will be free. Oskar Schindler on the other hand, because he’s a member of the Nazi party he will be hunted down. Oskar is brave enough to accept that. What’s important is his Jews won’t need protection anymore because they’ll be safe.
Schindler does feel guilty that he didn’t save enough Jewish lives even though he saved several of them, but it’s not enough to him. Oskar Schindler wishes he could have saved at least one more Jew and I think I know the Jew he has in mind. It's that little girl in the red coat. Schindler is a new and more carrying man because of her and he wishes he had done something the first moment he saw her.
Schindler breaks into tears and the Jews gather around him to hug. The Jews feel Schindler’s pain and they don’t blame him for anything. They wouldn’t have made it through the Holocaust alive if it wasn’t for him. It’s possible that they would be ashes.
Reflections are very rare to shoot. You have to make sure the person you want the camera to focus on is the only thing being reflected and nothing else is in that reflection. At the end as Schindler is looking at each life he has saved through the car window, the camera focusses on him, then changes it’s focus on the window where you see the Jews reflected on it, then goes back to focussing on Schindler again. To me that is saying that those Jews live within Oskar. In the end, what Oskar Schindler feels for these people is love.
The Jews were able to rebuild their lives after the war was over. While shooting “Schindler’s List”, Steven Spielberg had an idea that the movie could end with things going to color after being black and white, and the Jews Oskar had saved would go to his grave and honor him by putting rocks around it.
Steven Spielberg really outdone himself with “Schindler’s List”. I mean he’s done a lot of great things through his career as a director, like “E.T.”, “Indiana Jones” and “Jurassic Park", but this one felt so real. It was also an emotional journey for Steven.
My rating on “Schindler’s List” is five out of five stars.
Music score by John Williams
South Park
Plot: Stan, Kyle, Eric and Butters can’t accept that their teacher is gay, even though what he does is very inappropriate. The parents think the boys are accusing him for just being gay and they can’t accept his nature, so they are sent to a Tolerance camp to be taught a lesson.
Blaine: The boys experience at Tolerance Camp is in black and white. They are also treated like the Nazis did with the Jews. When they leave, everything goes back to color just like the ending to “Schindler’s List” when it shows all the surviving Jews of today.
Family Guy
Blaine: This “Family Guy” parody is supposed to represent the scene where Ralph Fiennes is looking at the Jews from his bedroom while holding a rifle.
