Schindler's List (Spielberg, 1993)

Schindler's List (Spielberg, 1993) - TSPDT #212

A shady German entrepreneur in occupied Poland becomes a saviour of Jews.

An interesting film but has all the pitfalls of a docudrama. As all the stories told were true, and there were many, the movie felt a bit crammed at points. The pacing is surprisingly slow. It does its main job well: visualize what happened to the extent where we can still grasp the monstrosity of events.

In terms of drama Goeth could have been much stronger in opposing (or even threatening) Schindler. Even a quick Wikipedia search seems to suggest that he was by far more evil than depicted in the film. (Reason for that?)

Fiennes does a great job trying to make him look banal but the direction wanted to bring out the "crazy maniac" in him - eg in the basement scene with the housekeeper. (I understand why my mother hated the film so much - as she was in Lviv at the time. Spielberg is caught in the impossible choice of demonizing and trivializing to make this more accessible and unwillingly has to capitulate by the sheer complexity of the human and social tragedy)

Ben Kingsley was amazing. The script gave him a bit of a stereotype but he filled it with life and dignity.

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