Critical Analysis on Schindler's List
In this assignment, I will present a critical analysis on Schindler's
List.
Schindler's List is a masterpiece, which was directed by arguably, the
greatest director of all time, Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg is
Jewish, so to recall the most tragic and horrific event in Jewish
history or you may say the history of man-kind takes a lot of guts and
determination. However, by creating such realism and effectiveness,
consequently, he won seven Oscars, including best picture, and best
Director, I applaud you Mr Spielberg.
The film was produced in 1993 and the principle actors and addresses
were; Liam Neeson, who played Oscar Schindler and became famous by his
excellent approach to this film, Ben Kingsley who played Itzhak Stern,
the accountant, he also played the main role in the film Ghandi. He
still lived to see the film and was there at the Oscars in 1994.
Equally important, Ralph Fiennes played Amos Goeth and finally,
Caroline Goodall who played the adorable Emile Schindler. Finally,
this was previously a book written by Thomas Keneally based on a true
story, called Schindler's Ark.
This film was based on a true story, of a Czech/Nazi businessman.
Oskar Schindler was a vain, glorious and gluttonous businessman, who
becomes unlikely humanitarian amid the barbaric Nazis reign when he
feels he must turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. By doing so he
managed to save over a thousand soulless Jews from the holocaust.
This film was set in Krakow one of the cramped Ghetto's around Poland.
The film was made in Poland in 1992 and released to the Public the
following year.
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...of the Jews. The Ghetto was exactly how I pictured it.
The way he expressed the evilness of the Nazi's shocked me. It made
you feel like you wanted to help even though you weren't there and it
occurred over sixty years ago. I think it was an extremely clever idea
to do it on such a diverse character. By having such a change in
personality, you don't ever know what he's thinking about, which makes
you want to see more. Finally, the way he keeps the filming in black
and white until the girl in the red coat appears he films her in
colour only, it shows how such as simple character can stand out and
become symbolic. I think this film must go down as one of the greatest
pieces of art in history.
In conclusion, I hope I have clearly displayed my critical views on
Schindler's List using references to the film were possible.
Jews, a religious group of people originating from Israel, have lived in Europe, including Germany, for about 1500 years (Carr; Shyovitz). As Jews moved away from Israel, agriculture was no longer their main form of breadwinning. They have become more educated and many acquired skilled professions. In Europe, Christians were not allowed to lend money and the Jews have become the main money lenders. The knowledge, skills, and money lending abilities that Jews possessed allowed them to become extremely prosperous. During 1000-1500, most Rulers in Europe were Christians, who disliked the Jews (Carr). Although they lived peacefully with their neighbors, Christians blamed
In the height of the war, Oskar Schindler recognized that he could use his power and prestige to do more good by saving people’s lives rather than just by making money. As the persecution of the Jews increased, Schindler felt compelled to save lives by hiring the Jewish people to work for him in his factory. If a Jewish person was not considered skilled or useful, they were in danger of being sent off to death camps. Oskar Schindler would hire many Jews (skilled or unskilled) to prevent them from being sent to their death. Not only did he employ them, he also housed...
Michael Khan was the film editor for Schindler’s List and won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. This was his second Oscar he won for best film editing, the previous was for Raiders of the Lost Ark which was also directed by Spielberg. The dominant method of editing in Schindler's List was cutting to continuity. One of the functions of continuity editing in Schindler’s List is to differentiate the condition between two circumstances in the story. This form of editing is called crosscutting. As we know that in Schindler’s List there are two groups of people involved, the Nazis and the Jews. The condition between the two groups are very different of the fact that one is colonized by the other. The crosscutting is utilized to demonstrate
Oskar Schindler was a very complex and dynamic man. When the Nazi party rose to power and began to dominate and discriminate against people of Jewish decent, he took advantage of the situation and joined the Nazi party and moved to Poland to start a new business using the cheapest labor available—Jews. Schindler became congenial with the Nazis in authority there, partying, schmoozing, and sharing his wealth with them. From this he gained influence and contracts to produce goods.
essentials of life; he never desires for more. Therefore, the war did not affect him to the same extent that it affects others throughout the story.With religion been the driving factor of the Holocaust, he refuses to waste time on any God through the difficult political, economic, and social times.
The movie starts out in a Jewish home, where a Jewish family is celebrating the Sabbath. Candles are lit while songs are sung, and when the Jews leave the house, the candles slowly burn out. The German forces have just defeated the Polish, and now the Jews are being forced out of their homes. They are reporting to the train station where they register their names, and then are shipped off to Krakow. In Krakow the Jews are gathered together in the ghetto where they are forced to live in overcrowded conditions. The Judenrat, a Jewish council, organizes the Jews into working groups according to their abilities. Oskar Schindler, a German business man, visits the ghetto to talk to Itzhak Stern, a Jew who owns a pot-making factory. Oskar and Itzhak make a deal in which Schindler will take over the factory but Stern will be the plant manager. The Jews are once again sorted according to their education and working ability, those who cannot work are sent to extermination camps while some of those who are able to, reported to Schindler’s factory. The Nazi’s decide that all of the Jews should be confined in forced labor camps. Schindler, who is now starting to feel some empathy and responsibility towards his workers, volunteers to confine his workers in his factory.
As World War II occurred, the Jewish population suffered a tremendous loss and was treated with injustice and cruelty by the Nazi’s seen through examples in the book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Victor Frankl records his experiences and observations during his time as prisoner at Auschwitz during the war. Before imprisonment, he spent his leisure time as an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, Austria and was able to implement his analytical thought processes to life in the concentration camp. As a psychological analyst, Frankl portrays through the everyday life of the imprisoned of how they discover their own sense of meaning in life and what they aspire to live for, while being mistreated, wrongly punished, and served with little to no food from day to day. He emphasizes three psychological phases that are characterized by shock, apathy, and the inability to retain to normal life after their release from camp. These themes recur throughout the entirety of the book, which the inmates experience when they are first imprisoned, as they adapt as prisoners, and when they are freed from imprisonment. He also emphasizes the need for hope, to provide for a purpose to keep fighting for their lives, even if they were stripped naked and treated lower than the human race. Moreover, the Capos and the SS guards, who were apart of the secret society of Hitler, tormented many of the unjustly convicted. Although many suffered through violent deaths from gas chambers, frostbites, starvation, etc., many more suffered internally from losing faith in oneself to keep on living.
What is genocide? “Genocide is a deliberate, systematic destruction of racial cultural or political groups.”(Feldman 29) What is the Holocaust? “Holocaust, the period between 1933-1945 when Nazi Germany systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other people.”(Feldman 29) These two things tie into each other.The Holocaust was a genocide. Many innocent people were torn apart from their families, for many never to see them again. This murder of the “Jewish people of Europe began in spring 1941.”( Feldman 213) The Holocaust was one of the most harshest things done to mankind.
In the film this was happening in Krakow Poland and Schindler had a factory. But Schindler did not come to Krakow to save Jews. He came to make money for himself. Fortunately the Jews were a part
Throughout Schindler’s list there are many different concepts of power displayed. One of the definitions of power is, “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” I think that this definition describes the way that Amon Goeth used his power. He abused the power he withheld by killing and acting in cruel ways just because he could. By acting so ruthlessly, the Jews feared him and would do whatever it took to stay alive. The power he had corrupted his behavior. On the other hand, Oskar Schindler knew the power he possessed and used it for the better. Goeth admired Schindler’s willpower while controlling his drinks but at the end of the conversation between the two, Schindler stated,“power is
Karl Stern is an artistic, lanky, beat up, Jewish fourteen year-old boy whose only refuge is drawing cartoons for his younger sister and himself. All that changes in an instant when he meets the boxer, Max Schmeling in his father’s art gallery. In exchange for a painting, Karl will receive lessons from the world renowned fighter and national German hero. Suddenly he has a purpose: train to become a boxing legend. As the years go by and he gets stronger, both physically and emotionally, so does the hatred for the Jews in Germany. This new generation of anti-Semitism starts when Karl gets expelled from school and grows until his family is forced to live in Mr. Stern’s gallery. Though the Stern’s have never set foot into a synagogue and do not consider themselves “Jewish”, they are still subjects to this kind of anti-Semitism. They try to make the best of it, but Karl can see how much it affects his family. His mother is getting moodier by the day, his sister, Hildy, hates herself because of her dark hair and “Jewish” nose and his father is printing illegal documents for some secret buyers. On Kristallnacht the gallery is broken into and the family is torn apart. Karl must now comfort his sister and search for his injured father and his mother. With the help of some of exceptional people, he manages to get over these many obstacles and make his way to America.
Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s List is the historical account of Oskar Schindler and his heroic actions in the midst of the horrors of World War II Poland. Schindler’s List recounts the life of Oskar Schindler, and how he comes to Poland in search of material wealth but leaves having saved the lives of over 1100 Jews who would most certainly have perished. The novel focuses on how Schindler comes to the realization that concentration and forced labor camps are wrong, and that many people were dying through no fault of their own. This realization did not occur overnight, but gradually came to be as the business man in Oskar Schindler turned into the savior of the Jews that had brought him so much wealth. Schindler’s List is not just a biography of Oskar Schindler, but it is the story of how good can overcome evil and how charity can overcome greed.
The film begins in 1939 with the German-initiated relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to the Kraków Ghetto shortly after the beginning of World War II. Meanwhile, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an ethnic German businessman from Moravia, arrives in the city in hopes of making his fortune as a war profiteer. Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party, lavishes bribes upon the Wehrmacht and SS officials in charge of procurement. Sponsored by the military, Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits. Not knowing much about how to properly run such an enterprise, he gains a close collaborator in Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), an official of Krakow's Judenrat (Jewish Council) who has contacts with the Jewish business community and the black marketers inside the Ghetto. The Jewish businessmen lend Schindler the money for the factory in return for a small share of products produced. Opening the factory, Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his newfound wealth and status as "Herr Direktor", while Stern handles all the administration. Schindler hires Jewish Poles instead of Catholic Poles because they cost less (the workers themselves get nothing, the wages are paid to the SS). Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed "essential" to the German war effort, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or being killed.
When a Jewish girl living in Krakow under fabricated papers visits Schindler, and she asks that he hire her parents to work in his factory. He is furious with the girl and she runs from him, fearing for her life and her liberty. Schindler expresses his rage at Stern, whom he accuses of giving refuge to Jews in the "haven" of a factory. Schindler is not angry at the idea ...
During the occupation of the Krakow Ghetto, Jews were being separated into “essential” and “non-essential” categories. Individuals selected for the “non-essential” category were to be shipped off to concentration camps. Originally completed by a Jewish accountant recruited by Schindler, “non-essential” workers were being designated as “essential” workers for Schindler’s business. Realizing he was unknowingly hiring unfit employees, Schindler berated the accountant for devising the plan and jeopardizing his profits. This incident is where Schindler is faced with his first ethical dilemma; by taking away the employment of unfit individuals, he is sentencing them to certain death, but if he allows them to remain, he is endangering future profits. By allowing the unqualified employees to stay, viewers can see a shift in his inner workings, and also a light is shown on his humanity. Furthermore, his reputation for forgiveness and mercy begins to bud, as does his slow separation from Nazi Party