Rating: 
Summary: Oskar Schindler a men
Review: This movie is about a man and how he changed his views and understanding of mankind while trying to make his way in life. The setting is not light hearted and it follows into the severe atrocities committed against men, women and children without holding back. If you tour the holocaust museum in D.C. you get even a deeper appreciation for what this man did to save the few under his care. His list was truly the list of life, and this movie goes to great lengths to describe that to te viewer. It flows well, and is quite shocking if you've never seen holocaust footage. The actors have gone above and beyond to show the characters in their true light. This is an epic that needs to be told over and over again. "Those that forget the past and condemned to repeat it."
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Summary: Glad To See this Masterwork Finally on DVD
Review: Mark another film off the "why isn't this on DVD yet?" list. Spielberg's masterfully told tale of how German Oskar Schindler saved Jews from the concentration camps by employing them in his bogus crockery and munitions factory is moving, stirring, and any other superlative adjective you can think of. Although brutally graphic at times, the film accurately portrays both Jewish passivity and Nazi aggression and leaves the viewer with more questions than answers about how the world could stand idly by while the Holocaust happened. The thing I enjoyed most about the film was the subtext of power and the juxtaposition of Neeson's Schindler against Ralph Fiennes' Amon Goethe. Both men use their power to very different ends, and there are some classic cinematic moments when Neeson explains the nature of power to Fiennes. I often used segments of the film during my public speaking classes to demonstrate the point that rhetoric is a tool that can be used for good or evil. There are examples in the film of both--Goethe using the power of communication for evil, and Schindler using it for good. The film, of course, won Best Picture in 1993, and who couild blame the Academy. Schindler's list left an indelible mark on the minds of many, and that was precisely Speilberg's point. As the sign outside of Auschwitz reads, "never forget." Thankfully, this iconic film is now on DVD for us to watch again and again and keep the memory of the Holocaust alive for future generations.
Rating: 
Summary: Cheap treatment for an excellent film
Review: Disclaimer: I realize these are ONLY DVDs, shiny little discs that hold the wonder of film on them, BUT Schindler's List "is an absolute good," "it is life." No word in any language could ever express the amount of discontent I hold towards Warner Bros. for their initial treatment of Goodfellas on DVD. A 5-star film deserves AT LEAST 4-star treatment. Seriously, who wants to stop halfway through a film and flip the disc over to continue their viewing pleasure? Fortunately for Warner Bros., they are redeeming themselves by re-releasing Goodfellas in a format a film of its caliber deserves - a member of the Two Disc Special Edition set with the likes of Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and Singin in the Rain. Now, Universal? In 2004, well into the age of the DVD? Where high quality picture, special features, and two-disc special editions reign supreme? How could a film such as Schindler's List receive the treatment that Goodfellas (forgiving Warner Bros. a bit, they did release Goodfellas before the current DVD age) first received? Universal has released a 5-star film during a time when DVDs are providing the film viewer, like never before, a crystal clear, specially packaged backstage pass to experience their favorite films in a 2-star set straight out of the 20th century. The LEAST Schindler's List deserved was to have the viewer have to take a separate disc out of the package and insert it into the DVD player halfway through the film, not flip the same disc over (Geez, even the supposedly "cheap" distribution people over at Miramax had the respect for a film like Gangs of New York - not even in the same league as Schindler's List - to place the second half of the film on another disc). Seriously Universal, you had quite a few years to develop this project and offer it the treatment it deserved. It's unfortunate this wonderful film experience wasn't shown more respect and at least given two discs to share its message on. Treatments such as this were meant for "flicks" like Battlefield Earth and Crossroads.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie, poor packaging
Review: I couldn't wait for this dvd to come out. Now that it finally has, I wonder, why did they have to use such poor packaging? A regular dvd case would have been nice. Instead they slapped this two sided dvd into a slim, open "book like" package. If the packaging was any worse, I may not have bought the dvd, which would have been a shame since I have been looking forward to owning this movie on dvd...
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Summary: Schindler's List.......Spielberg's Oscar
Review: Liam Neeson is Oskar Schindler...a man of the Nazi Party who is appalled at the massacre of the Jews. He springs into action and buys "workers" for his factory by liquidating his assets to save them from annihilation...including from Auchwitz. Brilliant music score by John Williams with violin solos by Isthak Perlman. Surviving Schindler's Lists survivors appear at the end of the movie. Brilliant!
Rating:
Summary: The Movie Deserves A Better DVD Treatment
Review: Back in January of 1994 my friend Ryan and I went to the AMC theater to see the new Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List. I knew nothing about this movie. I had no idea what the title referred to. I just new it was a Spielberg movie and with the exceptions of a couple of misses such as Hook and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, that name meant quality. So I picked up a box of Red Vines, took my seat next to Ryan and sat down and watched this movie. For the next three hours I sat in my seat and my eyes never left the screen. I felt shock, anger, sadness, and dread. I cried a few times. Heck, I even giggled a few times. But I was never bored. At the end of the movie as the lights turned on my Red Vines sat in my lap untouched. Now ten years after winning the Academy Award for best picture Schindler's List is now available on DVD. The movie Schindler's List presents Oskar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, as a flawed man. Yes, he did save 1,100 Jews from death, but that is towards the end of the movie. During the first two thirds of the movie Schindler is seen as a man who is disloyal to his wife, bribes officials, and uses the tragedy with the Jewish people as a means of acquiring great wealth. Towards the end of World War II Schindler learns that the Jews are to be sent to Auschwitz to be exterminated. He devises a plan, with the help of his financial manager Itzhak Stern, played by Ben Kingsley, to purchase the Jews and save them from certain doom. As the movie opens we learn that the Jews are being dumped into ghettoes. They are arriving at more than 10.000 a day. They are robbed of their property, they homes, and their dignity. Those Jews who are skilled laborers are spared as they can serve a purpose for the Germans. Those who do not, such as teachers and musicians, are more likely to perish. An hour into the movie there is a segment called The Liquidation of the Ghetto in which those Jews who serve no purpose are murdered. This is a long, tense undertaking to watch. There have been a lot of movies in which there are long rampage scenes, but often the violence becomes repetitive and dull. This time each death is like a blow to the head. It's a horrible experience watching so many murders. Ralph Fiennes plays Amon Goth, the head of the German SS. Fiennes plays the role of Goth on the right note. His steely eyes and calculating manner are a far cry from the Nazi's portrayed in the first and second Indiana Jones movies. In those movies the Nazi's were portrayed as comic book villains. This time Goth is played as a man who will kill another without hesitation for no other reason than he had no use for them. At times he kills for his own satisfaction. At other times he kills in what he believes is part of his job. There is a scene in which he complains about the mass killing as it means more work for him He is also a man of great contradiction. As much as he hates the Jews he falls in love with on. Watching him fall for his Jewish maid is horrifying. He wants to love her but at the same time he (In his twisted mind) feels she is subhuman. Unfortunately, the maid receives many beatings at his hands because he cannot contain his feelings for her. This movie is pretty much flawless except for one detail. The movie focuses on Schindler and Goth but not on the Jews themselves. We get to know some by name, but we don't know of their lives before this tragedy took place. We know they are scared , they fighting for survival, and many of them keep hope alive. However, we don't know them. They are background characters. If you would like to see a similar movie that focuses on the lives of the Jews I would like to recommend The Pianist. Having said that Schindler's List is still one of the best movies ever made. I this movie 5 stars. Now some remarks about the DVD. Universal decided to play it cheap this time and make this a single disc set as opposed to a two DVD set. That means Schindler's List is a flipper. Titanic is just as long and fits on a single disc side. The extras are really nothing to write home about. Now this comes in two versions. The disc buy itself and a $60 collectors edition. I wish I saved my money. It comes in a Plexiglas case for reason I have no idea. I guess if there is a freak earthquake in El Paso and all my DVD's are destroyed I'll still have Schindler's List. It also comes with the soundtrack (I could have bought both the no frills DVD and the soundtrack for about $35) and a book with a bunch of pictures. If you want this movie I suggest going with just the DVD and not the boxed set. I give the DVD of Schindler's List 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: The List is Life
Review: Back in 1993, I watched this film a total of two times. Once in the theater, and once on video when it was released. After just two viewings, I knew that I was watching not only a classic, but a film that was incredibly deep and complex. It became my fourth favorite film of all time. Schindler's List is nothing short of amazing; it's a film for which films were made. Steven Spielberg took Thomas Keneally's book and adapted into it a film exposing the horror's of the Holocaust, while at the same time, giving us a candle of hope. Oskar Schindler, a somewhat lecherous character, starts out associating with the Nazi's to further his business career, to make money. But soon, he's drawn into the plight of the Jews of Poland, and soon conspires to start saving as many of them as possible. Through his machinatons, Schindler was able to manipulate a system totally out -of-control, and work within it to rescue people who have no hope of controlling their futures. One of the first images we see of intolerance occurs when the Jews in Poland are forced to relocate to the Warsaw Ghetto. Spielberg premonates the horror by having a little girl stand alongside the people carrying their belongs screaming "Godobye Jews! Goodbye Jews" as other children pelt the people with dirt and rocks. Spielberg slowly builds the atrocities to allow us to experience it, and take it in. Just when you think it couldn't get worse, it does. It's shocking, but necessary to watch: shooting people without reason, poisioning hospital patients to save them from being slautered, the separation of families. It is not easy to watch, but watch you must. Embedded in this movie are the stories of many of the Survivors. There are many small details that make this extremely real, and personal. From hiding jewelry in bread and swallowing it, to having a little boy save a mother and her daughter, these are stories that would have been lost had it not been for Spielberg or Keneally. Both Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes turn in performances that are extraordinary. Especially Fiennes, who plays Amon Goeth, a vicious Nazi who has completely lost his humanity. Schindler, in the middle of it all, makes his attempt to pull as many people from his situation as possible. Through his courage, deceit, and intelligence, Schindler manages to save many people, but he worries, not enough. This film has one of the most powerful endings I have ever seen in any film, impossible to watch with a dry eye. This is a film that everyone simply must see, and learn from it, so that we may never have to make a film like this, again.
Rating:
Summary: The Hallmark version of the Holocaust
Review: After a recent visit to the Holocaust museum in DC, I felt the desire to explore what happened further. Schindler's List, the supposed pinnacle of Holocaust cinematic representation, seemed like the natural continuation of that curiosity. After viewing this film, however, I don't feel better-informed about the Holocaust nor particularly moved. I believe the former complaint can be attributed to a confusing narrative that frequently flipflops location and focus, and a generally insular historical viewpoint. I'm hardly a historian and care little to point out factual inaccuracies. But for a film that takes place in the heart of Europe during World War II, there is no talk of the war or the politics surrounding it. For a film that deals specifically with the Holocaust, there's only one Nazi main character. Needless to say, Schindler's List does not seek to educate. Movies are rarely historically insightful, and I consider this more of a subjective disapppointment of my own historical curiosity than a weakness of the film. I believe the latter problem- that is, that this film is inept cinematically- can be attributed to Steven Spielberg's sentimentality and banality as a director. He's had a wildly lucrative and sometimes brilliant career, but here he is visually and stylistically uncertain. In going about depicting one of the 20th century's most vile, cruel events, he neither strives for unsparing objective realism nor does he develop a particular insight. The reoccurring images of huddles of Jews grimly awaiting death are simplistic descriptions- not stirring cinema- and thus convey as much emotion as contained in the Holocaust context, which- lucky for Spielberg- is plenty enough to chill in a superficial way. It doesn't resonate though. When the action moves from Plaszlow death camp to Auschwitz, there appears a glimmer of hope that Spielberg actually might be grasping the suffocatingly heinous panic of the Holocaust. As such, there is an initially very evocative scene where a group of women are herded into gas chambers. Gripping suspense and a true revulsion mounts as you wait for the gas to filter in... But he betrays his own moment when, miraculously, the showers turn on, revealing a genuine shower room, and the women rejoice while bathing themselves. The way that unrealistically happy ending simultaneously subverts such a precious, harrowing emotional moment and trivializes the true terror of these camps is contemptible. Spielberg's ineptitude is particulary distracting in that all of the prisoners with personality or detail survive, and no attention and dexterity is given to those individuals who don't. And no in my opinion, a red-garmented girl in a black and white movie, while symbolic of individuality, is not effective in conveying the individuality of the victims. The horror of the Holocaust is not just that these people were innocent, but that they were human beings, with lives, lovers, friends, family, hopes, fears, psychology of their own. Without personalities, Spielberg's faceless nondescript victims obscure this grim reality of genocide. The narrative- to varying degrees- follows humanitarian Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), his Jewish accountant, Isaac Stern (Ben Kingsley), Nazi psycho Amon Goethe (Ralph Fiennes), and Jewish maid Helen Hirsch (Embeth Davidtz)- all of whom played a role in the factory employment of endangered Jews that saved 1,300 lives. Liam Neeson as Schindler is as fabulous as his character, and saves even his terrifically overwrought final monologue. His dignity and focus easily could have subsided to Spielberg and writer Steven Zallian's pompous heroism, but he keeps Schindler grounded in his realistically sleazy humanity. Perhaps an even better character in the film is Ben Kingsley's Isaac Stern mainly because he possesses that quality foreign to Spielberg: ambiguity. Unlike the majority of the film's characters, he isn't saintly, subservient, or evil. He's a bit surly and he has dignity and he's not afraid to tell Oskar Schindler to screw off. The rapport (or lackthereof) between Schindler and Stern- the two most ambiguous characters- gives the film's first half considerable juice and drive. However, midway through, S.S. Officer, Amon Goethe (Ralph Fiennes) is introduced and a more banal image of evil cannot be found in cinema, except, perhaps in the action blockbuster genre. Supposedly Spielberg cast Fiennes because of his "evil sexuality" but here, Fiennes is fat and unkempt, an unattractive slob who pees like Homer Simpson after shooting Jews for target practice, which Spielberg inexplicably shows in a deliberately comic context. If Schindler's List was on its way to being a flawed but still amazing and good-intentioned film, Goethe's cardboard presence coupled with Fiennes' vapid performance ruins its potential to be anything more than sorely misguided. When Goethe objectifies the Jewish housekeeper, Helen (Embeth Davidtz) Spielberg crassly films the whole scene with Davidtz's Helen braless in a dripping wet shirt, as if evoking the titillation of Goethe- when really we should be focusing on the conflict in Goethe's tormented lust for Helen and his hatred for her Jewishness. Alas, Spielberg can't decide if this is a wet t-shirt contest or a psychologically insightful moment. These individual moments add up- and up and up and up- to a sub-par film experience. I do not in any way denigrate those who are touched and moved by this film. The mere fact that it has reached so many people about an important event (however superficially/ineptly it deals with that event) is commendable. But at the same time, I think our standards need to evolve, and Schindler's List is too flawed and obvious to be deemed 'masterpiece'- status.
Rating:
Summary: Speilberg's Best- Finally on DVD
Review: I missed this film when it played in theatres, and only saw the PAN and SCAN video tape. Due to picture and sound limitations, the film had nowhere NEAR the impact. Only some eleven years after the initial release can I truly appreciate this remarkable achievement. Oddly enough, the DVD eidition of this film was released with seemingly little fanfare. This really comes and no shock, as Saving Private Ryan, his second greatest feature, got similar treatment. But since Schinlder's list is the most important and personal work of Speilberg's career, one would expect him to have done more in terms of extras. From the razor-thin box to the single DVD contained inside, Schindler's packaging just FEELS wrong. But I'm really reviewing the film, and as it stands, it's one of the greatest pictures ever made. It's odd that Speilberg's greatest accomplishment took forever to make it to DVD. Two years ago I asked for this DVD at Blockbuster video, and was astonished to hear that it didn't exist. At last, we can see this all time classic at its absolute best.
Rating:
Summary: The List Is A Monumental Film, But Lacks A Bit On DVD
Review: Schindler's List is a powerful piece of cinema. Director Steven Spielberg put together a film, that takes one of humanities darkest chapters in history, and manages to tell a story of hope over tragedy. After a very long wait, Schindler's List has finally found its way on DVD, I have to say though, that I am somewhat disappointed at the overall release. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who was a member of the Nazi Party, someone quite disrespectful of women, and a man who made his money as a war profiteer. That said, he also somehow, found a way to save more than 1,100 Jewish prisoners from the holocaust, as well. Spielberg's use of black and white photography only heightens the realism of the story and kind of gives it a documentary feel. The perfomance of Neeson is just about flawless. It's interesting to see Schindler transform from "monster" to humanitarian as the film progresses It is not one that seems false or easy. When we first see him, he's not a very likable guy. Actors Ben Kingley as Oskar's assistant, Itzhak Stern, and Ralph Fiennes as Nazi thug Amon Goeth, also give stunning performances. If you have never seen the film, look for the Russian Roulette scene, there is more tense moments in that sequence alone, than in Jaws, Jurassic Park, and any Indiana Jones film combined. The movie also boasts another memorable score from composer John Williams. He is able to capture emotions and uplift the film with his haunting music. Schindler's List is a must see... I have to say that the bonus material could have been better. Sure, I have gotten used to the fact that Spielberg doesn't like to record audio commentaries, and respect his decision. While I can appreciate the 80 minute historical "Voices From the List", produced by longtime film documentarian Laurent Bouzereau, and featuring survivor stories. Well produced as usual and important history to have...But I was surprised that it doesn't have any making of information or cast/crew comments. I wanted to find out about filmming as well. You also get a look "Behind the Shoah Foundation With Steven Spielberg" and how history is being preserved. The only other extras on the double sided disc is a series of filmographies about the cast and crew and more info on the life of Schindler. There's no doubt, Schindler's List, is a must, but I still wanted more. The more expensive box set may have more collectibles in it, but I shouldn't have to pay more to learn about a film as like this.
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