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Summary: FANTASTIC AND EYE OPENING
Review: This is one of the best and yet saddest movies that I have ever watched. It is definitely nice to know that someone had compassion during a time like that.
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Summary: not on DVD? now THAT is a crime!
Review: A true masterpiece and of such nature that one must own it and show it to anyone who will watch...
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Summary: absolutely amazing
Review: Beautifully written, directed and carried out. Very realistic. Absolutely everyone should have to see this movie. No one should ever be allowed to forget what took place during that time, no one should be allowed to ignore it, and whatever restitution we can manage should be done. I hurt for all of the families that suffered, as should we all.
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Summary: Spielberg's Flawless Epic....and a Deeply Flawed Protagonist
Review: Nearly a decade ago, I sat in a darkened theatre in Kansas City, attempting to view Steven Spielberg's brilliant "Schindler's List" for the first time. Highly respectful of the director's factual (and unflinching) presentation of a world plunged into madness, I nevertheless fled the auditorium little more than halfway before the film's conclusion. A scene involving a cherubic Jewish child - and the lengths to which the frightened boy took to escape certain death at the hands of Nazi barbarity - so overwhelmed me that I could remain in my seat no longer. Weeping and shaking with revulsion and sorrow, I eventually regained my composure with great travail and returned home - and resumed my place amidst a generation that had never directly known war. I recently purchased the VHS version of "Schindler's List" - and was at last able to view the film in its entirety. Spielberg's masterwork boasts two bravura performances: Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler and Ralph Fiennes as Nazi kingpin Amon Goeth. In Neeson's capable hands, Schindler emerges as a man of deeply rooted flaws - and an ultimate redemption of staggering resonance. The paradoxes are abundant: Schindler is a member of the Nazi party - yet he saved many Jews from certain death in the gas chambers. A practicing Catholic (a religion which purports to champion the sanctity of all human life), his initial fealty to a genocidal racist (Hitler) is somehow swept under the vestments. A keenly savvy businessman, he was also a profiteer of slave labor. Possessed of sexual magnetism and evident charisma, he nevertheless conducts his casual assignations with thinly veiled arrogance. (Early in the film, Schindler is seen complaining about the need to replace his workers when one of them is shot or deported. He is not so much sorrowful as he is petulant. In another scene, Schindler's wife literally walks in on one of his plethoric affairs. He is not so much regretful as he is annoyed at being caught, somewhat akin to an adolescent when his lollipop and/or outer infant is removed and he has to look for yet another opiate.) Like many of his fellow Nazis, Schindler is a man of extravagant appetites - whoring, drinking and eating with a great deal of noise - and little subtlety. (Spielberg deftly juxtaposes these scenes against portrayals of the deprivation and suffering inflicted upon the Jews.) Schindler's dichotomy is so pervasive that, even when he attempts to be compassionate (such as his obvious concern for Goeth's long-suffering female servant) - the audience (not to mention the servant herself) is initially on edge - half expecting him to molest her - and the other half breathing a sigh of relief at his sympathy. Fiennes is simply astonishing in his portrayal of the murderous Goeth. In a Nazi party boasting a surfeit of bestiality, Goeth was particularly snake-like. In an early scene, the sadistic assassin stands idly on the balcony of his sumptuous villa, coldly perusing the mournful parade of half-starved Jewish laborers. Soon, pre-alcoholic senility and post-coital torpor surrender to action: Amon has an itch. His copious gut jiggling southward like an epileptic jello-mold, the porcine pasha reaches for his rifle. Goeth then randomly shoots two Jews before slithering into his bathroom to ciphon the python. In another seminal scene, Fiennes brilliantly portrays the conflicted desire Goeth harbored for his Jewish housekeeper and cook. "Is this the face of a rat?" the tortured Goeth asks himself while contemplating animal coupling. (Mercifully, the helpless servant wasn't forced to engage in this act of obscenity, but was nonetheless beaten by the beast.) As anyone who has observed Fiennes in interview montages is acutely aware, the talented actor is a genteel, sensitive artist, with eyes and expression of manifest sensitivity and intelligence. That Fiennes was able to transform himself into a murderer of such unspeakable evil is a truly stunning feat; his performance is astounding. With all due respect to Tommy Lee Jones - Fiennes should have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1994. (As a testament to his acting chops, five years later the versatile actor would portray a Nazi victim in "Sunshine" - with equally disarming skill.) "Schindler's List" also gives the lie to a pervading myth surrounding Hitler and his henchmen: The familiar theme of regarding the Jews as somehow "subhuman" or "nothing creatures" who could (and should) be exterminated at will. Was Hitler ever able to explain how a non-entity could work at a factory for little or no wages - often during ungodly long hours and under deplorable conditions? How can one exploit a "nothing" for one's own personal gain, as so many Nazis did with manipulation and cunning? The answer, of course, is that they couldn't have. Cruelty, man's inhumanity to man, and the primacy of personal choice and conscience (or lack thereof) were at the fore here. Hitler was, in essence, a liar. Tragically, he was a particularly convincing one for far too many. Thankfully, the conclusion of "Schindler's List" reverberates with poignancy and reverence. The accomplishment of the perplexing Schindler cannot (and should not) be downplayed: He saved countless lives, and for that he deserves profound respect. However, this film is, chiefly, a triumph for humanity and a great, great accomplishment for Steven Spielberg. For this viewer, Schindler's victory is somewhat ambiguous - and his dichotomy too troubling - to rescue him completely from the shadows.
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Summary: Extraordinary
Review: The seven Academy Awards and virtually unanimous acclaim accorded to Schindler's List were entirely merited. Director Steven Spielberg has achieved something close to the impossible, a morally serious, aesthetically stunning historical epic that is nonetheless readily accessible to a mass audience. In 1941, the Jews of Nazi-occupied Kracow are dispossessed of their businesses and herded into a tiny, squalid ghetto. Smalltime entrepreneur Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a gentile, conceives of a get-rich-quick scheme that involves Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), an accountant and member of the local judenrat (Jewish council), and an enamelware plant where cheap labor is supplied by ghetto Jews. Stern sees a way to save Jewish lives: factory employees, classified as essential workers, are exempt from "resettlement" in concentration camps. Against his better judgment, Schindler looks the other way as Stern adds musicians, academics, rabbis, and cripples to the factory rolls. Within a year, the Final Solution is well underway, and a monstrous Nazi commandant, Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), brutally liquidates the ghetto and ships surviving Jews to a forced labor camp. Schindler bribes the cynical Goeth to permit re-establishment of the factory within camp walls, and business continues more or less as before. But Schindler is changing, and at great risk to himself, he begins to take an active role in protecting his workers. Though based on fact, Schindler's List is neither history, nor the "definitive" film version of the Holocaust some reviewers wanted it to be. It's an intensely personal meditation on the nature of heroism and moral choice, rendered on the kind of rich, dreamlike cinematic canvas that only Hollywood can realize.
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Summary: A lost generation
Review: This movie depicts all the facets of how simple persecution of a religion can change the world. A scene in which Spielberg was able to summarise the movie involved the "little girl in red". Here he shows the innocence as this one child is a symbol of all the 6.000.000 victims, exposed to ruthless slaughter.
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Summary: Spielberg's one truly serious Masterpiece....
Review: Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most famous and richest director the world has never known, didn't get that way by making art films. He will never be mistaken for Akira Kurasawa and even Stanley Kubrick. These people were not disturbed by how their films did at the box office. Spielberg, just before 'Schindler's List' arrived in theatres, didn't care if it didn't make a dime. It was a movie he needed to make, and indeed he did make it. 'Schindler's List' is a flawed masterpiece. But how many movies can you think of that aren't slightly flawed? I can perhaps name a few, but I won't. John Williams didn't duplicate his 'Star Wars' theme here. His score was appropriate. The scene involving Schindler (Liam Neeson) weeping because he feels he could've given more to the Jewish cause. Perhaps this was a little overdone. The ending, when many of the Holocaust survivors (not actors) lined up to place a rock on Schindler's resting place. Some critics have found fault with that scene. But let's not get over-critical. The picture as a whole was brilliant. Probably Spielberg's best film ever. The man is so talented, audiences and critics EXPECT excellence from him. ... So when Spielberg made 'Schindler's List', there was no way he expected it to bring in the kind of money Jurassic Park made. But 'Schindler's List', standing on its own, with all of its' brilliant moments, turns out to be a true masterpiece. I don't care if the German people did come across as very one-sided. I know that about Spielberg. He emphasizes the heroes, and down-plays the bad guys (Spielberg's Nazi's, aside from Ralph Feinne's character) lacked strong character. My only concern is that a film should be well-balanced....The passion behind filmmaking, songwriting, writing books, making speeches, or just doing something nice for somebody - that passion must come from within. 'Schindler's List' came from one man's passion. I dare you to make something just as passionate, just as heartfelt as 'Schindler's List.' Hat's off to this dynamic director.
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Summary: Best movie I have ever seen
Review: I couldn't say it any better!
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Summary: Beyond The Awards...Beyond The Words..Beyond The Imagination
Review: This review refers to the Universal Widescreen VHS Edition of "Schindler's List".... When imagining how I would write this review of "Schindler's List" I was thinking of all the awards it had won and been nominated for. Not just all the Oscars(Best Picture/Best Director, etc 1993) but all the international awards as well.
It's a film though , that goes beyond the awards. It's much more than just a movie. I have watched it many times, but put it on for another view before sitting down to write this. It wasn't the awards I've been thinking of since then, but of the people, the place and the time,of the events the film depicts. Steven Spielberg has brought us many fine gifts of filmaking that we may enjoy for years to come, but this is one that goes beyond words.He brings to the screen a gift a remembrance. A sad and horrific time in the history of the world that should never be forgotten. A tribute to the milllions of human beings that were tortured and murdered in the Nazi Concentration camps during WWII. And he enlightens us as well, with the story of one man. One man who made a difference. Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party. He was an opportunist, who seemed to have no interest in anything but himself and money. As Jews were being taken away to work camps by the Nazi's, he began hiring them to work in his factory. They become "Schindler's Jews", and although he only sees them at first as a way to make money, they see him as a savior. As long as they work for him they are safe from the horrors the Nazi's may have in store for them. As circumstances escalate, Schindler becomes aware of these horrors. Being a member of the Nazi party he is often witness to the torture, the raids of the homes and all the murder. What he sees is beyond the human imagination. He then uses his own money and puts his own life in danger to save the lives of over 1100 people, by securing a place for them in an ammuninations factory,of which he makes sure that none of the ammo is usable. He looses everything he owns, but gains everything that is important in life. As I mentioned above the film itself was honored with numerous awards. as well it should have. But it really does go beyond the awards.It gives us a look at this time in history as no other film has done before. It's history and it's cinematic history as well. Filmed in Black and White,it gives you the feeling of the seriousness and starkness of the events. You have the feeling of being right there and witnessing the atrocities committed, and it will stay with you for quite some time afterwards. A stellar cast makes you forget they are actors. Liam Neeson turns in the performance of a lifetime as Schindler. Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Embeth Davidtz, and Caroline Goodall, all turning in exquiste performances as well. The cinematography, the music, the screenplay, all just beyond words. This is a must see, must have film. This VHS tape(set of 2) is in the original theatrical widescreen image. We may view it exactly as the director intended. I did notice a full screen version also available to those who prefer. The Black and White Images are really nice. It is digitally mastered in THX Stereo Surround.All in all the quality of the tape is very good but I'm looking fowrard to a Special Edition DVD of this film...Universal? Thank you....Laurie
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Summary: A Thrilling Masterpiece!
Review: This is my all time favorite movie! I've read the book about Oskar Schindler and about every part that was in the book was in the movie. Though I must warn you, this is such a disturbing yet wonderful masterpiece. Children are shot dead in the streets, families seperated and everything else you could imagine. This movie is definitely recommende, if your of age though.
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