Imran Hassan
Schindler’s List: Critical Review
Schindler’s List, a film loosely based on Thomas Keneally's book of the same title, released in 1993 in the United States. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the true events surrounding Oskar Schindler. The German businessman who turned his factory into a refuge for Jews saving about 1,100 from the concentration camps. The film has been praised mostly with positive reviews, even on websites like Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic. However not everyone is pleased with the movie, and also received quite a few negative reviews. Schindler’s List is certainly an entertaining film but it has deep flaws. People are primarily disappointed by the director's style, as well as character flaws, though many
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Take Resnais' Night and Fog and several other European Holocaust films, compared to Spielberg's as an example. Derek Malcolm from The Guardian commented, “ He {Spielberg} was out of his depth when it came to creating a proper film about the Holocaust.” Ultimately, the film is memorable for the cinematic art and technique. David Slocum from H-Film further adds, “Hollywood-style narrative dramatization of the Jewish genocide....a push to memorialize the Holocaust” provoked debate of its history and representation. Additonally Janet Maslin from New York Times added, “Mr. Spielberg has made Schindler's List an experience that is no less enveloping than his earlier works of pure entertainment. Dark, sobering and also invigoratingly dramatic, Schindler's List will make terrifying sense to anyone, anywhere.” Further reinforcing the films function as entertainment, instead of staying true to the people and its historical portrayal, thus reducing the Jewish tragic experience in
The poster for Schindler’s List illustrates the magnitude of the Holocaust through appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos by showing the significance of each human being, and commenting on a broken peoples hope for the future. The simplicity of the Spielberg’s poster amplifies the message being conveyed. Spielberg, through this poster, urges viewers
Directed by George Stevens, the film came out only twelve years after The Diary of Anne Frank the book was first published. The film is adapted from the real journal entries of Anne Frank, a thirteen year old Jew hiding in a secret room with her family in Nazi-invaded Holland. The journal entries are filled with stories about her parents, her time in the "Secret Annex", and honest, daily thoughts of a thirteen year old girl. The book first came out in 1947, only two years after WWII was over. After the first publishing in Holland, The Diary’s impact moved to America. "The Diary of Anne Frank evolved from a particularly European work written by a young Jew hiding from Nazis in Holland to a more Americanized, universal symbol." (Book, Doneson) EXPLAIN
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
I must say that this film is very traumatizing. There are some images in this film that will be burned and scarred into my mind for as long as I live. I have seen many holocaust films, but no one was as near as dramatic and depicting as Night and Fog. However I did like the theme of this movie. It is very sad but yet realistic. Our minds are murky and dull. We tend to only remember the important situation in our lives. Yet we don’t remember the importance of our own history. I say OUR history be cause we all are human beings on this earth. Whether we believe in Allah, Jesus, Jehovah, or whatever higher power, we are all one race, and that the human race. It is very sad to know that human beings were treated and slaughtered just because of an ideology of superiority complex. Al though the Jewish people were massacred I learned that we must always keep a sense of hope in order to assure our own survival. When I saw in the movie the moments where there were journals that read about favorite foods and important dates, my heart was filled with sadness. Not because these victims didn’t have this to eat but because of the false illusions that they had to dream in order to stay sane.
The movie “Schindler’s list” is a compelling, real-life depiction of the events that occurred during the 1940’s. It illustrates the persecution and horrific killings of the Jewish people. It also exemplifies the hope and will of the Jewish people, which undoubtedly is a factor in the survival of their race. The most important factor however is because of the willingness of one man, Oskar Schindler, to stand out and make a difference.
These ideas all correlate with how we view World War II history and how Inglourious Basterds muddles our previous thoughts on how these events occurred. Many Americans have watered down the depiction of Jewish oppression during Nazi reign to swiftly round up concentration camps. What Quentin Tarantino and the Jewish film community wanted to illustrate through this film is how this is an incorrect overgeneralization. Inglourious Basterds illustrates more realistic Jewish life during Nazi reign and the constant terror they faced. This oppression was far more personal, intimate, and cordial yet brutal altercations invoked through self-defense and hatred.
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
There was a point in time, when the Holocaust tragedy transpired where the Nazi’s committed genocide during World War II. In this day in age, the world looks back upon these ultimate crimes against humanity, where these atrocities occurred, believing this could never feasibly happen again in our time. Alain Resnais created the self-reflective documentary film, Night and Fog, to act as a warning to the audience that the tragic significance of the Holocaust was a reality that has and will always threaten humanity by its ability to return and become the present reality.
feels he must turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. By doing so he
This film follows Oskar Schindler’s establishment of an industrial factory that provides refuge to Jews during the Holocaust. However, the movie also includes a variety of characters ranging from Amon Goeth, the Nazi soldier, to a group of Jewish women surviving in Auschwitz, to deliver a more thorough perspective of Germany in the 1940s. The film captures all of these stories adeptly by involving the characters in entwined plots. By bringing forth different circumstances from many perspectives, the movie creates a rich context to the Holocaust. Schindler’s List frequently discloses the audience to the brutality and inhumanity of that time. It was commonly illustrated through the sufferers on their knees being mercilessly shot in the head by the Nazis, that brings an accurate detail to history that Hotel Rwanda lacks. Schindler’s List reveals an almost impossible accuracy to the methods of execution of the Jews, explaining the dehumanizing effects of the Nazi soldiers and the deliberate tormenting of the Jews. In addition to Schindler's List's accurate representation of history, its use of black and white filtering brings an artistic value to the film that creates a depressing effect. This absence of color, with the exception of a brief scene of a girl in a red dress, creates an effect that resembles the eerie reality of the genocide. This artistic detail helps in communicating the tone of the Holocaust to its audience. In contrast, Hotel Rwanda avoided depicting the violence that occurred in the past accurately which may appear a little indefinite and diminished. Overall, when judged on its ability to accurately portray history, Schindler's List is successful in
Schindler’s List had a great effect on me personally. I thought that Thomas Keneally did an excellent job in making the reader feel the events of the time. Perhaps what I found to be most interesting in Schindler’s List is a question of morality. I began asking myself the question, would I be as heroic as Oskar Schindler if I were in his shoes? I think that this is exactly what Keneally wanted us to do; he wanted us to look at ourselves and analyze what’s inside. Historically, I find Schindler’s List to be very important not only because it is tells of a shameful time in western civilization, but also because the events that took place in the novel occurred only yesterday. After all fifty years is almost nothing in historical terms. Perhaps the novel’s greatest strength is this feeling that the events that transpired in Schindler’s List are in fact modern history.
From the first moment of Schindler's List to the very last, you will be amazed by the strength and resilience of the Jewish people during this horrendous time in their history. You will witness and feel their pain and horror in this very graphic, yet painfully true story. Steven Speilberg deserves all of the awards this film had brought him. It is a time in history we should never forget and pray that we will never witness again.
How can someone fully understand a tragedy such as the Holocaust? Many say the event ineffable to anyone who wasn’t there to begin with, but people are still striving to achieve complete or near complete comprehension. In order to do this people have used multiple media like books and recordings but the one that gives “the greatest illusion of authenticity” is movies. The purpose of Holocaust-filmmaking is to help people get a grasp on what it felt like to be in the middle of such a horrific thing as the Holocaust. If this isn’t done, then the true emotions won’t influence the audience who won’t find a way to preserve the history of the Holocaust and memories that took place in those awful times will be lost forever. Many films of the Holocaust
I wanted to film Schindler’s List for the reason that the Holocaust was a ghastly occasion in history and should not be over and done. The Jews suffered to the highest degree, they were exposed of their soul rights, treated be fond of animals, slaughtered in the vein of animals. I Intend to remind people of what the Jews had to go all the way through , how Hitler shed them out from the social order. What happened to the Jews should never happen for a second time to anyone. I chose to spotlight Oscar Schindler, because this chap did an extraordinary thing. He saved countless Jews from foreseeable imprisonment and execution. He is evidence that one being can make a difference.
A film bursting with visual and emotional stimuli, the in-depth character transformation of Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List is a beautiful focal point of the film. Riddled with internal conflict and ethical despair, Schindler challenges his Nazi Party laws when he is faced with continuing his ambitious business ideas or throwing it all away for the lives of those he once saw as solely cheap labor. Confronted with leading a double life and hiding his motivations from those allegiant to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, Schindler undergoes numerous ethical dilemmas that ultimately shape his identity and challenge his humanity. As a descendent of a Jewish-American, Yiddish speaking World War II soldier who helped liberate concentration camps in Poland, this film allowed for an enhanced personal