Schindler's List [1994][VHS tape]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Steven Spielberg had a banner year in 1993. He scored one of his biggest commercial hits that summer with the mega-hit Jurassic Park, but it was the artistic and critical triumph of Schindler's List that Spielberg called "the most satisfying experience of my career". Adapted from the best-selling book by Thomas Keneally and filmed in Poland with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, Spielberg's masterpiece ranks among the greatest films ever made about the Holocaust during World War II. It's a film about heroism with an unlikely hero at its center--Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who risked his life and went bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps.

By employing Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army, Schindler ensures their survival against terrifying odds. At the same time, he must remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) and negotiate business with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. Schindler's List gains much of its power not by trying to explain Schindler's motivations, but by dramatising the delicate diplomacy and determination with which he carried out his generous deeds.

As a drinker and womanizer who thought nothing of associating with Nazis, Schindler was hardly a model of decency; the film is largely about his transformation in response to the horror around him. Spielberg doesn't flinch from that horror, and the result is a film that combines remarkable humanity with abhorrent inhumanity--a film that functions as a powerful history lesson and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the context of a living nightmare. --Jeff Shannon

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Both an artistic and a commercial triumph, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List manages to find some small glimmer of hope for the human spirit amid the abomination that was the Holocaust. The true story of flamboyant entrepreneur Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) and his attempts to save Jewish lives under the very noses of his Nazi associates gives Spielberg a focal point of conscience and humanity in an otherwise unrelentingly grim depiction of mankind's worst traits, here memorably embodied by Ralph Fiennes as the sadistic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth.

Spielberg's determined and unflinching vision is supported by a dignified score from regular collaborator John Williams, and evocative black-and-white cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, which alternates a semi-documentary feel for the harrowing ghetto and concentration camp sequences with an altogether more decadent sensibility for the Nazis. The single use of colour tells of horror more shocking than any words could convey. It's true that towards the end Spielberg lets his sentimental streak off the leash when he chooses to focus on Schindler's grief, but otherwise this is filmmaking of the highest kind: compellingly dramatic, profoundly educational, and unfailingly emotive in the very best sense.

On the DVD: Schindler's List is thinly spread across two discs, with a break at just over two hours into this three-hour movie. It's a little surprising that the feature could not have fitted onto one disc, especially given the absence of commentary or other additional tracks. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture is fine, though displaying the graininess of the original film stock. Sound is available in highly detailed DTS. Extras on the second disc are limited to Voices from the List, a 77-minute documentary featuring the personal testimony of Schindler survivors, and an 11-minute feature on Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. There's nothing at all about the making of the movie. --Mark Walker

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Customer reviews

review by: seth date: 2008-02-17 rating:
Overly long and self indulgent
In telling Schindler's story the director chose black and white and the beginning intimates that it might be in the great tradition of 'The Third Man' etc. Unfortunately the film meanders astray into detailed descriptions of the holocaust and the dynamic of the film is lost. Instead of a tense 1 hour 50 minutes of cunning,guile and threat there are literal hours when almost everything is 'spelt out' in many long takes and diversions. The great film techniques of suggestion and inference are little used as almost every action is shown literally and dramatic movement is lost to history lesson. It seems to me important that the dramatic 'backdrop' of any artistic production has to be understood and accepted for the story using that scenario to be successful and not 'told' as the film proceeds. Given the many favourable reviews that this film has received it must be that be that expectations of film have changed and long elaborate explanations and reconstructions are now the required item. If this is the case then it is a change of taste that I cannot share.

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review by: date: 2008-01-09 rating:
Powerful and emotional epic
This has to be one of the most thought provoking films I have ever watched. The story and the way it has been filmed totaly draw you into the film. A classic piece of modern cinema, portrayed on DVD. A real must for any war film enthusiast.

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review by: bob date: 2007-10-29 rating:
Haven't made it yet...
When I first saw this it was at the Leicester Square Odeon cinema. When we all left we were in a state of shock and genuine anguish and I clearly remember that as we all filed out we had to pass those who were waiting to come in for the next viewing. I still to this day remember the faces of those people as they looked at our own faces. This is more than a film - it is an experience and a harrowing and disturbing one at that.

I have seen this film many times and one day I will watch it without having to stop the film to wipe the tears away. Haven't made it yet.

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review by: Gina Pacino date: 2007-08-28 rating:
Every human being must watch this film.
I dont want to say the word 'film' because from the moment the film starts, you are not watching a film, YOU are transported to a terrible time in history. You are there in the moment. My heart beat so fast. My chest was full of every emotion, fear, absolute sadness, anger, and sheer horror. I knew about the holocaust in my mind, but after watching this film... 'I truly 'GOT IT'.

I didn't just watch a film and neither will you... Steven Speilberg will take you back in time, and you WILL be there!!

I cried during the film and after. I felt the film in my heart for days, and it will stay in my mind forever.

Steven Speilberg is an absolute Genius. Filming in black and white was very important. You dont need colours. You are educated with the horror of this awful Holocaust. No amount of colours will change anything.

The Actors are FIRST CLASS.

At the end, seeing the real people who were portrayed in the film was so emotional and gave me some comfort.

This will always be my top film. I cannot praise Steven Speilberg enough. Thank you for taking me there, and for letting my eyes see the TRUTH.

You must watch this film. It will stay with you forever.


review by: s.vernon date: 2007-08-27 rating:
A BRILLIANT MASTERPIECE ON EVERY LEVEL
The Holocaust is undoubtedly one of the most significant and horrifying events of the twentieth century. Between 1938 and 1945, the Jewish population was segregated and persecuted, culminating in the merciless slaughter of approximately six million Jews (this figure is quoted in the film, though most historical estimates vary between five and seven million). Amidst all this butchery, one man decided to make a difference, famously saving the lives of more than 1100 Jews- men, women and children who would otherwise have been killed.

Oskar Schindler (played brilliantly by Liam Neeson, "Batman Begins") was a Sudeten German industrialist, a wealthy womanizer who wasn't afraid to throw his money around. Always bearing his Nazi Party badge proudly, Schindler would often frequent nightclubs, extravagantly showering high-ranked Nazi officers and their girlfriends with champagne and caviar. With impeccable connections in the black-market, there was little that he couldn't get his hands on, and he was a good person to know. Buying friends was something that Schindler could do well, and he would often use these newfound alliances to aid his own business ventures. When thousands of the Polish Jew population was relegated to the Kraków Ghetto in 1941, Schindler saw an opportunity for further success, enlisting desperate Jewish investors and employing Jewish workers (who were substantially cheaper to employ) to open an enamelware factory. His connections in high places ensured lucrative army contracts, and Schindler need only have watched as his personal fortune grew, despite doing little to run the company beyond offering it "a certain panache."

It is clear from the beginning that Oskar Schindler does not harbour any racial prejudices. When Schindler requests the services of Itzhak Stern (a superb Ben Kingsley, "Gandhi"), a clever, humanitarian Jewish accountant, Stern declares that, "By law I have to tell you, sir, I'm a Jew." "Well, I'm a German, so there we are," replies Schindler indifferently, before getting straight to business. It is not race that he is concerned with, it is himself... and, of course, his money. Stern does not enjoy running Schindler's business, and he initially acquires little satisfaction from it. When Schindler attempts to convey his genuine gratitude for his profitable services with a glass of whiskey, Stern absentmindedly refuses to drink it, and an embittered Schindler drinks it himself before ordering Stern to leave.

With the arrival of Amon Goeth (played as the epitome of evil by Ralph Fiennes, "Red Dragon"), a Hauptsturmführer of the SS, the hopeless plight of the Jews grows darker. In a harrowing extended sequence, largely based on the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, the Jews are mercilessly "liquidated" from the Krakow Ghetto, many simply shot on the spot. "Today is history," proclaims Goeth. "Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it.... For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history."

This sequence also marks the celebrated appearance of the little girl in the red coat. An ingenious plot device, the character was based upon a real girl named Roma Ligocka who, unlike her film counterpart, survived the war, and wrote a memoir entitled "The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir". The embodiment of innocence, Schindler spots the small girl wandering amongst the black-and-white chaos of the Krakow Ghetto, and we follow her as she retreats into a building and takes shelter under a bed. When Schindler later notices her disheveled corpse carted past him to be incinerated, he is understandably horrified, unable to understand how the soldiers could possibly destroy something so innocent. This event memorably signifies the turning-point of Schindler's attitudes towards the carnage, fuelling his desire to save as many Jews as possible.

Long known as a "blockbuster" filmmaker - with such adventure classics as "Jaws," "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to his name - "Schindler's List" was - and remains - Steven Spielberg's most mature directorial effort. Working with a screenplay that Steven Zaillian adapted from Thomas Keneally's Booker Prize-winning 'Schindler's Ark,' Spielberg treats the subject matter with the respect it deserves. Wisely choosing to depict the events as realistically as possible, Spielberg allows the images to speak for themselves. Flawless acting, stunning cinematography and a haunting John Williams score excel this film above all others of the 1990s. This is the powerful story of the difference that just one man can make, and it is a story that deserves to be seen by all. We can only feel grateful that it was Steven Spielberg who chose to be at the helm.

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