Schindler's List
Release Date: December 15, 1993
Runtime: 195 Minutes
Awards: Won 7 Oscars-Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Screenplay
Read Jamie's thoughts after the jump!
If you're looking for a movie that will lift your spirits and make you feel good I recommend you pop in Shindler's List. Do it around the holidays and spread some cheer. Everyone will be in such a good mood when the movie is over!
........NOT.
For the longest time I have thought that House of Sand and Fog was the most depressing movie ever made. My friends, I was wrong. So so wrong. Schindler's List now holds that title. Sweet pancakes this movie was amazing. Hard to watch but also very important. Based on a true story, the movie stars Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, a German business man in Poland. He makes money off the Nazis rise to power by opening a factory that makes cookware and utensils. He brings in Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help run the factory. He hires Jews so he doesn't have to pay them. When his employees are moved to a different camp run by Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), Schindler see what is happening to his employees and realizes that his factory is the only thing keeping some of them alive. The movie was shot in black & white which I thought was so fitting. As an audience member I really felt how grim that time was. I don't think the movie would have been as effective if it had been shot in color.
The movie boasts 3 stellar performances. Liam Neesom, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes are three of the best actors to ever grace the screen and to have them in the same movie fills me with so much joy. The performance that really stood out to me was Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goethe. No one can play the villain quite like him. Am I the only one who thinks he is at his best when he is playing the villain? He gave me chills. The man was ice cold in this movie. I mean shooting at people from a bell tower? C'mon dude. He certainly deserved what he got at the end of the movie.
The big thing I'm noticing through this retrospective is how ballsy Steven Spielberg is. The man certainly doesn't sugar coat anything and I really respect that. It makes it hard for me to watch his movies sometimes but I'm learning to get through it because each moment is crucial to the overall film. For example, as hard as it is to watch it is necessary to see Ralph Fiennes shooting at random people for the hell of it because it shows who his character really is.
Spielberg definately deserved the Oscar for Best Director. He was so overdue for a win and I think it's fitting that this film would be the one to seal the deal.
What are your thoughts on the film? Comment and let us know!
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