My top 30 films - No.23

23. Schindler's List (1993) - "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

Quite simply, there are very few films like this. No other film ever released has portrayed the plights faced by the Jews during the Holocaust better than this. It is a masterpiece from Steven Spielberg and one the greatest films ever made.

As you may well know, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) was a member of the National Socialist Party and a businessman, who employed Jews to work in an enamelware factory in  Kraków, making pots and pans. This is because they cost less than Polish workers. He leaves the main administration to Izthak Stern (Ben Kingsley (Gandhi)), who ensures that as many Jews as possible get a chance to work in the factory, rather than be sent to concentration camps. Schindler also uses their contacts to procure items in order to bribe members of the SS and senior officers in the army. However, the Jews are moved to a labour camp at Paszów, which is overseen by SS-officer Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient)). Schindler convinces him to build a sub-camp for his workers, but Goeth soon receives orders to close down Paszów and ship all the Jews to Auschwitz. This is when Schindler decides to write a list of 1000 names of people to move to his hometown in Czechoslovakia and keep away from there.

I remember in GCSE English writing a piece about how the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust was depicted during The Liquidation of the Ghetto scene. I do not want to brag, but that was one of the best pieces of writing that I had ever done. The first draft was worth about a C, but I went back, re-watched that scene some many times and took note of everything that I thought was relevant. It is such a powerful and significant moment in the whole film. It is famously remembered for the shots featuring a little girl in a red coat (the only colour in the whole film). She is symbolising hope, because she is walking through the chaos of the streets, but is unnoticed by anyone apart from Schindler. During this, the audience can hear the sound of innocent children singing in the background. She then hides under a bed and the colour drains out of the coat, showing how she will soon become another victim. There is a sequence afterwards of all the remaining Jews coming out their hiding places, unaware that the Nazis are waiting for them. One particular moment features a Jew climbing out of a piano and accidentally hitting the keys before being shot. When I first watched this scene, during year 9 History, everyone in the class laughed at that moment. Looking back on that, we were a group of bastards for that.

The fact this is a monochrome film gives it a sense of place in time, also a good reference to what films of that period originally looked like. This is down to Janusz Kaminski's cinematography. It does has a documentary-style to it, but Kaminski compared it to German Expressionism and Italian Neorealism. There had to be real contrasts between characters, costumes and settings, due to the difficulty of filming a black and white film. It does feel strange in these particular films when people are either speaking Polish or German primarily, but there is also English included. It only seems to be major characters that speak English or in dramatic scenes. This is definitely Liam Neeson's best film and it makes me feel sorry for him when I see him in some blockbuster rubbish like Clash of the Titans. I also think that's good the majority of characters were played by Jews who were children of the Schlinderjuden (Schindler Jews) and there were 30,000 extras in that film.

To conclude, I would just like to say that nobody is as good at depicting the Second World War as Steven Spielberg. Not only this but he has directed masterpieces such Saving Private Ryan and been executive producer for Band Of Brothers and The Pacific. He has such a brilliant understanding of what key moments stand out and how best to portray them. One does forget that he directed this film after making Jurassic Park, so what would have happened if it was the other way round. This film, along with its amazing soundtrack, always makes me feel emotional.

By the way, my final draft for my English essay got an A*.