Rating: 
Summary: How do you keep a classroom full of teens quiet . . .
Review: . . . for two weeks? Easy. Show them Schindler's List. Every day, we would race to English class, go immediately to our seats, and sit spellbound for 45 minutes until the bell rang. Watch the movie. Get the storyline down, and cry, cry, cry. Then watch it again. Keep an eye on character interaction this time. You want an idea of what kind of person Schindler was? Don't watch him with the other Nazis. Don't watch him with Goethe, or with Helen Hirsch, or with his endless parade of lovers, or with his wife. Watch him with Itzhak Stern. Watch the eye contact, watch the expressions on their faces. Watch their relationship evolve from mere tolerance to something above and beyond friendship. Watch, watch, watch. And as the last scene rolls around for the second time, keep your eye on Stern and Schindler, and if you don't cry, go to your doctor immediately, because I'm pretty sure you're no longer alive.
Rating:
Summary: A lesson for us all.
Review: The horror of what the Nazi's did during World War II leaves us wondering how any group of citizens could ally themselves with such attrocity. It makes us wonder what we would have done if we had been there. It shows up the darkest parts of human capability. That said, Schindler's List is NOT about the Holocaust. It's about a greedy, instinct-driven Nazi, who becomes a true human being, only after having the truth forced down his throat again and again to the point that he can no longer deny it. It's a simple, yet effective film, in which Speilberg mixes all his veteran cinematic skills, without being afraid to take independant risks (black & white, girl with the red coat, etc...). If you watched this film once, and were depressed by it, please watch it again. It's a triumph of humanity for anyone who is willing to wade through darkness to see the light. Granted, the Holocaust is an important part of the film, however in my opinion it's not the main theme, as evidenced by the fact that the hero is a Nazi and not a Jew (in film directed by Speilberg who is Jewish). The film is more of a lesson, then an attempt at depicting the absolute truth of what happend, and for this Speilberg has taken some undue criticism. Schindler's List is a wonderfully brave, and hopeful piece of cinema that should be appreciated by all.
Rating:
Summary: Great Film and Authenic History
Review: The real life story of a German industralist (Liam Neeson) who saved over a thousand lives from the Nazi death camps, by having them work in his factories is given a real historical treatment in this epic 1993 movie. Should take it's place beside Saving Private Ryan has one of the most accurate films ever done on World War II.
Rating: 
Summary: Its not that great
Review: Oh my, should someone dare say this is not a great film. Well its not. This film is too, I don't know, good and evil is too simplified. This movie looked too much like a movie.I want to recommend another movie, that is lightyears above this one, its called Come and See. Spielberg ripped off this one big time. Come and See is more human, realistic, and horrifying than this overproduced drivel.
Rating: 
Summary: ABYSMAL
Review: In which Steven Spielberg replicates Ophuls's "Sorrow and the Pity" with all the subtlety of "The Color Purple" or "1941." This film proved to be the signpost of the decade, in which technical superiority reigns over the film itself. Spielberg grabs the audience and forces emotion down it's collective throat. Vile, insincere, and a thin-veiled attempt at an Academy Award (albeit successful). Spielberg is saved by his ace cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, and a top-flight cast.
Rating:
Summary: When a name on a list was a life that was saved
Review: "He who saves a single life saves the world entire." This was the Talmudic verse that Itzhak Stern, the bookishly serious accountant/friend/conscience of Oskar Schindler quoted to him in one of the movie's final scenes. On the face of it, Oskar Schindler was the most unlikely hero one is ever likely to hear about. Lusty, earthy, and sensual, he was a reckless philanderer, a gambler, a member of the Nazi party and someone who saw the war as an opportunity to become wealthy. But to the Jews who were fortunate enough to encounter him, he was quite literally their saviour. Spielberg succeeds with this film on two stupendous levels. Firstly it is with the documentation of the humanisation and conscience of a man who originally saw the war as a personal opportunity and who, at the end of the 6 years, had gone bankrupt in his mission to save "his" Jews. Secondly, and most disturbingly, it is with the graphic re-creation of some of the most horrific and barbaric acts ever committed by mankind, all in the name of prejudice and oppression. Such is the reality of these scenes that viewers will feel outraged, afraid, paralysed, and oppressed. Most of all, they will feel as if they too, had the supreme misfortune to be European Jews living under the dark cloud of prejudice and hatred that permeated the globe during the interminable period of the second world war. And it will leave us asking the one answerable question - "Why?" Perhaps, as Oskar Schindler viewed these scenes firsthand, that is how he too felt. An odd dichotomy in his character enabled him to fraternise with high ranking Nazi officials, especially the demonic Amon Goeth, while, unlike Goeth and his peers, treating "his" Jews with the humanity and civility that was so scarce during this age of insanity, of loss, of suffering and death. Never before or since has ethnic cleansing succeeded so brutally in decimating the population of an entire race. We must pray that it never does again. Schindler's story has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of this dark time. It is a story of hope, courage, and survival. But more than that it is the story of a man who chose good over evil, who chose love over hate, who chose understanding over prejudice. Is it any wonder that a tree on the Avenue of the Righteous bears his name? There are a few names which have become branded in our psyche as being synonymous with the horrors of the Holocaust. Anne Frank, whose diary etched her life and death into the hearts of millions, Simon Wiesenthal, himself an Auschwitz survivor who lost over 80 family members in the death camps, and now of course, there is Oskar Schindler, a man who was far from saintly, but a man whose deeds guaranteed him a place in heaven. A man who "saved the world entire."
Rating:
Summary: 3/4
Review: Why, oh why, isn't this movie available on DVD? I do realize that it is filmed in grainy black and white and the visual advantage of DVD would be under-utilized, but such a powerful story needs bonus materials to satisfy and educate the viewers. Most aspects of this movie have been well covered by other people writing some fine reviews here, but one aspect that everyone seems to overlook is the side story where Amon falls for a jewish girl and has conflicting thoughts. He can't understand his desire for her, when he has long accepted the treatment of the jews as animals. In a scene where Schindler is trying to buy her from him, Fiennes does a very good job of portraying his grief of dealing with his own changing views. Also in this scene, he makes Schindler realize that he is aware of what Schindler is doing, but will turn a blind eye to it anyway. So not only has Schindler been mellowed out by the racial environment, but it was obvious that it was starting to affect the monster that Fiennes portrays as well. If things had been allowed to progress as they were, perhaps Amon would have curved his own anti-semitic views under the influence of Schindler.
Rating:
Summary: Mr.Blackwell eat your heart out.
Review: This movie is the most diturbing one in the last millenium. This movie has triumphal motion picture photography, I have half a brain , this movie is the product of that irresistable boy-wonder George Lucas, I am a mindless twit. On the contrary , I was particulary amused by schindler's scathing remarks regarding whoopi goldberg on his worst dressed list, oh you cat meow!However I thought Madonna wasn't that bad, come on she just had a baby, she has to wear baggy clothes, mr. schindler you are absolutely bad. Although I will agree with you on Sharon Stone's wardrobe, she nasty.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: I saw this movie first in 7th grade for social studies class years ago, and ever since, i have loved this movie! It was the first to have a real dramatic impact on me. The acting is unreal, the script is amazing, the camera, direction, and effect on your heart and soul are all phenomenal! This film is no joke, it is graphic and surreal and should be viewed by everyone to see the effects hatred can have on the world. One requirement for this movie is that you must be able to take alot of violence and carnage(especially in the part when they liquidate the jewish ghetto). This film is not ment to exploit, but to teach. Watch it, but be prepared, especially for thr overwhelming tear-jerking conclusion. A milestone for movies! 20 out of 10!
Rating:
Summary: Great, but with one reservation
Review: It would be silly of me to attempt to suggest that Schindler's List is anything but the most suprising masterpiece of Spielberg's career. And yet, one tiny detail always makes me pause. We're all familiar (or should be) with the magnificent D-Day scene from Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. Only an ambitious filmmaker like Speilberg, always striving to out-do himself, could have conceived and executed such a superb seat-of-your-pants battle sequence. It is by now the standard against which we will measure all future battle scenes. And yet, it was maginificent precisely because it brought out the boy-wonder in Speilberg, the film-school student who knows every battle scene since The Birth of a Nation, and must find ways to surpass them. In Schindler's List, the boy-wonder emerges, discreetly, in the myriad displays of Nazi murder. "Squibs" are the tiny explosive devices attached to actors and scenery that simulate the impact of bullets. Spielberg uses squibs so often, and with such obsessive detail, that it becomes slightly distracting. Of course, a crucial part of Schindler's story is how he became humanized when faced with such Nazi brutalities. Yet, if you begin to count the number and variety of Spielberg's squibs - from the machine-gun scoring of walls to the often explosive execution of innumerable Jews - you begin to feel the intrusion of the boy-wonder filmmaker, creator of Jaws and Indiana Jones, finding far too much pleasure in such technicalities. Irresistibly, you begin to notice the actors with the lumpy scarves as the ones who will be shot in the head next. Or the ones with too much padding at the waist. It is a tiny complaint, I admit. But Schindler's List is generally so pure, so unswerving, that such obsessive details become distracting.
|
