"Schindler's List" (1993) - Movie Classics

Rarely have I shed tears in films. I have been moved and mingled in submission to a film but to get into the moment of the tragedy and desperation, it takes brutal realism and one man’s success in an enormous human failure, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) when he dissolves into tears in his departure to his saved Jews. He weeps for his failure to save more with his gold cufflinks or his car. He is a businessman who says his debacle of previous business lacked one thing, war. He sees it in Poland and grabs it. A business strategy of employing the Jews for less money becomes a life saving method for thousands. That is “Schindler’s List”, one of the emotionally moving and painful film I have seen.

The film is shot in black and white. And it is obvious than to question or think about the choice of it. I cannot imagine this film in colour. It would have been crippled by the modernity in it. In needs to be antique and the painful brutality cannot be watched in colour. The evacuation and massacres of the Ghetto raised questions of why would there be a recreation of this terror and inhumane act. But director Spielberg wants us to go through the ordeal, to feel the fragment of that humiliation and shame on humans. Grave stones becomes the road for their transportation, screams and shrieks are listened by the soldiers as call for execution, running away is a mere consolation for the complacency of attempting an effort and nudeness has numbed and becomes a usual spectacle. To put us right through the center of it and witness it for we get the sense of the fear and constant death the victims faced.

Three key players form the crux of this subtle orchestration. Two of them are the real caregivers who plan this; one of course is Schindler and other his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley). Other one is a ruthless psychopath who kills and sells the people as goods, Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), the Nazi Officer. Schindler is introduced as a neat dresser with an addiction to be the party man. He goes into a party room without any one noticing and within minutes, he makes friends and kisses their women. He is a true charmer. But he has been failing in business prospects. He sees Poland as the land of no competition, cheap labour and sumptuous orders of supplies. He starts an enamel ware company. He recruits Stern, a calm methodical man who is the robotic clerk of faithful adherence to his job. He is a man of indifference even in the desperate situation. He does not like or hate Schindler when he meets him. He starts pulling in people with fake cards. Schindler does not mind as it is profitable to him. But he knows the limit. Business runs prosperous for Schindler and then arrive Goeth.

Spielberg immediately runs these two men in parallel who are in the opposite end of the spectrum. Goeth asks to shoot a lady engineer who talks sense about the foundation of the construction. She tries to explain that she is doing her job and he says he is doing his. He is sincere in telling that it is not an excuse or explanation but a state of fact. But he appears to enjoy it and his victims are random. Beyond this merciless action is his tug of war of desiring a Jewish maid, Helen Hirsch (Embeth Davidtz).

Why Schindler a German and a member in Nazi Party suddenly become considerate and risk his life and fortune over them? An officer advice Schindler on being helpful and lovable towards Jewish women as this, “God forbid you ever get a real taste for Jewish skirt, there's no future in it. They don't have a future. That's not just good old fashioned Jew hating talk. It's policy now.” Hate is a policy and it is easy one too when war is happening. Yet Oskar cared and dismissed the policy. Not as a protester but as an intelligent businessman and clandestine ambassador. He used his superior’s underestimation of him to his advantage. He shared wines and cigarettes with Goeth to insert a line of proper wisdom which would have saved many the coming days.

The back ground score by John Williams with the violin solo by Itzhak Perlman is used only in crucial moments. Rest does not need it as it would steal the naked emotion in it. Most of the times the film appears as a documentary and it scare us. At the end when the survivors are addressed by Oskar, there are no applauses or tears. They are too tired to emote anything at all. The sadness and fear nullifies the gratitude and the voice to thank in words.

“Schindler’s List” is a celebration of human life and the greatest shame of humans. As much as hopeful it is in the end, it is a failure of humans. Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley give a performance which did not earn them Academy Awards but it has more than acting, it has a blend of their own emotions and perspectives into it. And Ralph Fiennes is scary and unpredictable. This is a heartbreaking and exhaustive film I have seen in a while.