Noble heroes are easy to root for and vile villains are fun to hate, but
characters who are somewhere in the middle can be a lot more interesting. Oskar
Schindler, the subject of Steven Spielberg's award-winning film Schindler's
List (1993), is a man who could easily deserve the title of hero since he
helped save more than a thousand people from the Nazi death camps during the
Second World War. Yet by his own admission he was a member of the Nazi party, a
war profiteer and a criminal. I would say these flaws, and others, humanize him
and highlight the possibility that in times of great evil any person can choose
to do something for the good of others.
This is certainly a tough movie to watch, but it is essential viewing. I
have seen it a couple of times, once with a family member as well as during a
history class. Most recently I did a re-watch with my fiancée who is very interested
in that period of history, so I got her an anniversary edition of the DVD for
Christmas. This version has some very good extras, such as documentaries about
the production and about Schindler himself, as well as a reunion between
Spielberg and some of the cast members. The shoot was apparently so difficult
for the director that Robin Williams would call him and did stand-up over the
phone. That was awfully good of him because between the many deaths depicted on
screen and the appropriately haunting music by John Williams, this is
Spielberg's saddest movie.
However, when his film’s protagonist is first introduced it is far from
the horrors of the Holocaust. German industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson)
is a charismatic man intent on making a lot of money. In a room full of Nazi
officials and other important people having a good time at a nightclub he is at
first an unknown. Yet over the course of the evening after having bought
drinks, shaken the right hands and told colourful stories everyone will
remember him. Next, we see he is a smart opportunist who zeroes in on the cheap
labour that becomes available once the Jewish population of Krakow in Poland is
forced into a ghetto by the Nazis. There are not allowed money anymore so they
will not need a paycheck if they start working for him at a pot and pan
factory. In lieu of payment they will receive pots they can use in their
overcrowded apartments.
To manage the plant, Schindler appoints Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern
(Ben Kingsley) even though he is a prisoner in the ghetto. In one of the film's
few humorous moments, Stern asks Schindler if the plan is really that the
Jewish workers will do all the work, Stern will manage the operation and then
Schindler will keep all the money. So, what is Schindler's job exactly? His
answer: presentation. Schindler is essentially the face of this company even
though he has no intention of doing any real work. As he puts it to his wife
Emilie (Caroline Goodall), all he needed to be successful in business was war.
The introduction of Emilie also introduces more of Schindler's flaws as
she walks in on him with another woman, clearly not for the first time. Sadly,
she is used to this and doesn't scream as Schindler says she would like this
woman if she would get to know her. He even goes as far as using the factory to
get to know other women by holding various job interviews for a new secretary.
During a montage we see Schindler get closer and closer to each applicant, but
then turn his gaze away when faced with one he deems unattractive. Afterwards
Stern tells him he must choose one, but Schindler says he cannot, as though he
was a kid in a candy store.
Stern meanwhile is also cleverly using the factory, but to help others
instead. By using a forger, he gives a license to a history professor so this
man can work in the factory and be deemed valuable by the Nazis. He even
somehow gives a job to a one-armed man. Unfortunately, when the Nazis see that
man in the streets, they do not believe he is useful, and Jews who are deemed
useless are shot without remorse.
These brutal acts of random violence occur frequently throughout the movie
and increase ten-fold once the ghetto is emptied so the Jewish population can
be relocated to the Plaszow concentration camp. This awful place was run by
Nazi commander Amon Goth, bravely played by Ralph Fiennes. The flaws Schindler
has as a human being are meaningless when compared to Goth because that man has
so much blood on his hands that one wonders whether he is a human being. He
sees his job as a chore, complaining about the weather while being driven
through the ghetto where people are living in squalor. Under his orders, the
ghetto is evacuated, and entire families are forced into trucks or shot when
they try to escape. From atop a hill Schindler bears witness to this and sees a
little girl in a red dress walking amongst the devastation. Her red dress makes
her stand out in the film's black and white colours, making her easily
recognizable once her sad fate is revealed.
Having his workers moved to a work camp does not deter Schindler’s
business acumen who convinces Goth to let the work continue in a shop within
the camp. The relationship between Schindler and Goth is an interesting one
since Schindler always has to convince Goth that this is all about greed even
though over time it becomes about something else. The two of them have a
conversation over drinks about the intricacies of running the camp, and later
Schindler hears horror stories about Goth from his workers. This is a man who
would wake up in the morning and randomly shoot people in the camp from his
balcony with a sniper rifle. To temper the horror Schindler tries to manipulate
Goth by telling him true power lies in granting life, not taking it. That trick
only lasts for a short time.
It is hard to tell when exactly it happens, but at some point a shift
happened within Schindler and the factory stopped being about money. Perhaps it
was the sight of the girl in red, although one of my history teachers said it
could have been his relationship with two Jewish women. Whatever the reason, at
some point it becomes personal.
When Goth gets orders to evacuate the camp so all its inhabitants can be
sent to the Auschwitz to be killed, Schindler has his defining moment. If he
truly had been a stone-cold capitalist as he had been acting for the whole
movie, he would have simply taken his money and run. Instead, he argued to Goth
that he could not make-do without his Jewish workers because of their
experience. Goth might have suspected Schindler was growing attached to the
workers, but a suitcase full of money made him look the other way. This allowed
Schindler to come up with a list of every Jewish man, woman and children he
needed for his new factory near his hometown.
This film was truly a big shift in Steven Spielberg's career. While he
was busy working on the finishing touches of Jurassic Park, which became
one of the biggest blockbusters of all times, he was working on bringing the
horror of the Holocaust to life. Schindler's List features some of the
most mature and heart-wrenching scenes he ever shot, such as the scenes in
Auschwitz after a train full of Schindler's workers is sent there due to a
clerical error. The train is full of women and children, who must have felt as
though they had reached hell once they disembarked in the death camp. Having
heard stories of Auschwitz, they were convinced they would be gassed to death in
the camp's shower room. That scene was so raw that some of the actresses were
apparently affected by the experience days after the shoot.
Unlike Jurassic Park, Schindler's List is obviously not a
fun movie to frequently revisit. Yet it should be revisited, not only for the
strong performances of the actors, the beautiful black and white cinematography
or the direction by Spielberg at his best, but because this is history. Some
people deny the holocaust ever happened while others do not even know it happened.
It did happen, similar events have tragically happened since and there is
always a possibility it could happen again. Hatred, for the Jewish people or
any other group of people, has not gone away. This movie should be shown in
history classes as a reminder of that, and as a reminder that amidst all this
madness there is always the possibility someone will decide to do the right
thing.
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