I am in a Visual Culture Class as a Graduate Student at NIU. Below is a critique of the movie "Schindler's List." I would appreciate your feedback and any influence or comments this critique has on your thinking related to the movie or the events portrayed within the film.
Thanks,
Rick
Schindler’s List
Schindler’s List was a highly influential and emotional movie. It was a serious movie from director Steven Spielberg. It was a departure from his earlier films like Jaws, Back to the Future, E.T., and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film was shot in black and white and I think that helped to create a somber mood in the film. This type of cinematography enhanced the film and helped create the emotion Spielberg was intending. One of the most effective scenes was when there was a flaky substance coming down from the sky, I thought it was snow, but in actuality it was ashes from the Jewish prisoners being burned. This was a horrific thought to me and made me angry and sad for the cruelty against humanity. Spielberg captured the realism and the significance of Nazi Germany and the Jewish prison camps by showing what the Nazi’s did to the Jews. He portrayed random shooting, the burning of bodies, cruel treatment, the marking of the Jews with the Davidic Star, etc. This movie was an awareness piece. It was produced to make us aware of what happened during the Holocaust. However, I think it may be watered down somewhat because of Spielberg’s own influences and backgrounds in Judaism.
Within the film you see a structure of good and evil. The evil was found in the Nazi Party and the good was within the Jews. However, the structure was upset because Schindler joined the Nazi party. Schindler joined the Nazi’s because he wanted to prosper as a businessman. Schindler was moved and troubled by the treatment of the Jews and he devised a plan to help them. Spielberg wanted to emphasize there were some good decent people in the Nazi party. However, the life of Schindler was downplayed from what is actuality. He was more a womanizer and hedonist than Spielberg portrays. Spielberg may have done this on purpose to make Schindler have more of a perfect role as a “savior.” The movie gave us a depiction of the Holocaust, but I think it is limited in scope because the focus seemed to be on Schindler and the Jews he was saving rather than all the millions of people that were killed. However, the movie did move me to tears when viewing the atrocities, even though the movie depicted them on a smaller scale. Though I was not around during the Holocaust, I felt like there were some connections I could draw. Previously, I had some knowledge of the Holocaust and what happened to the Jews, but seeing some of the other acts of violence sickened me. There were shootings of random Jews just for fun by the Nazi Commandant. Because a man was old the soldiers killed him. There seemed to be no logic as to the killings or the cruelty. It saddened me to see what the Jews went through.
There were many signs and symbols within this film to create or portray certain ideas and thoughts. The Jewish children hid under floors and some even hid in a toilet. I think this is symbolic of what the Nazi’s thought about Jews. They thought they were the scum of the Earth and not human. They thought they belong with all the slime and dirtiness. Schindler saw that this wasn’t the case. He saw that these people were beautiful and they were significant. Within this film I saw many other symbols. The little girl in the red coat symbolized innocence and purity. She did not know anything was wrong or that she was bad in any way. It was sad toward the end to see her being carried away as dead. That was one of the few parts of the film that was in color. In the beginning they start the movie with candles and a Jewish ceremony. Toward the end Schindler encourages one of the workers have a ceremony again with the candles. The candles are in color. It seems the candles and ceremony symbolize going back to traditions and starting anew. As the movie is closing you see survivors and descendants from Schindler’s Jews placing stones on his gravesite. This part is shown in color and I think it represents life and new beginnings.
Overall, I thought this was a well-done film. The cinematography and music score added to the feelings and emotions evoked by the film and the narrative of the Jews in the prison camps. While I think Schindler was very important in saving some of the Jews, I think Spielberg was lacking in his portrayal of what happened to the millions of Jews that were murdered. At one point it seemed like the only focus was on the 10,000 that had to move into the Ghetto. I also think that because Spielberg needed a hero in this movie he de-emphasized Schindler’s lewd behavior. While Schindler was doing good things for Jews he was being immoral and wasteful on his “live-it-up” lifestyle. Personally, I would have liked to see more background into the whole of the Holocaust and stories of other people who tried to help the Jews, not just Schindler. I would encourage you to see the film if you haven’t and it will give you a good base on some of the things that took place during the Holocaust. But if you have already seen the film, I would encourage you to do some more research on the Holocaust and learn more about what happened to all the Jews, not just the few that were saved by Schindler.
