Shindler's List
Schindlers List "Memory is all we have, and when the memories are dreadful- when they hold images of the pain we have suffered or, perhaps inflicted- they are what we are try to escape" (Corliss 110). Steven Spielberg captures the audience in this critically acclaimed movie about the Holocaust. Schindlers List is a movie made to induce the mind into the unknown, the horrors of World War II. David Ansen states "Schindlers List plunges us into the nightmare of the Holocaust with newsreel-like urgency- and amazing restraint" (Newsweek 113). Spielberg brings out all emotions in recapturing this monstrous time period. Schindlers List is about Oskar Schindler, a German Nazi who uses the Jews to make money off the war. At the beginning of the movie Schindler is portrayed as a womanizer, gambler, and heavy drinker. He becomes friends with some top Nazi officials to better himself. As the movie progresses Schindler begins to produce war materials using the Jews as a labor force. As he sits back and watches the various actions of the Nazis he begins to question his morals. His accountant, Itzhak Stern, begins making a list of around 1200 Jews. These Jews were to come and work in Schindlers' factory. When Germany surrendered all of the Nazis were to be hunted. Many Jews thanked him and all of the workers wrote a letter explaining Schindlers' actions. Also, a gold ring was given to him inscribed, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire" (Talmud). Schindler said good-bye to his workers and fled. Only now the Jews are liberated to have nowhere to go and nowhere to leave. Many great directors concentrate on dialogue, scenery, and plat; however, Spielberg stresses the importance of camera angles and the effect of black and white film, scenes and characters, on viewers in Schindlers List. With his outstanding work on camera angles, Steven Spielberg holds the audience at breath while waiting for the next scene. Spielberg uses a hand held camera to grasp the effects. David Denby explains how the use of a handheld camera is much more accurate. "The camera keeps moving […] moving fast, chasing corners and up stairways […]." Spielberg makes the movie look "like and advertent look of newsreel footage" (1282). Life magazine quoted Spielberg discussing the image of Amon Goeth sunbathing. A man named Raymon...
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...s that there is mass murdering going on. By looking on the walls at the shadows, the sights seen are atrocious. These shadows came from the black and white color of the film. So what caused the Holocaust? Many agree the main factor was indifference. "Schindler's List is about the triumph of the human spirit over sadism and degradation, indifference and silence" (Rader 6). Oskar Schindler saved 1200 Jews. Today more than 6000 Jews are descendants of the Schindler Jews. Spielberg ends the movie with the Schindler Jews placing stones on Schindler's grave. The movie is now in color to remind the audience that there is still mourning going on for the Holocaust victims. Someone who was dedicated to recreating an awful historical event could only do this movie. Steven Spielberg, a Jew himself, never believed he could make it through the movie. He too believed that the black and white made the movie easier to bear with, and gave it a more realistic viewpoint. "The movie ends with the final message "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." This message is true. Spielberg has constructed this movie as an educational film, so that it may never happen again.
Creative works are of use to historians to a large extent. However there is a fraction that is not completely historically accurate but simply made for the enjoyment of the audience. Schindler’s List is a film based on Oskar Schindler’s fight to save Jews during the Holocaust. Whether the film is historically accurate is determined by background information that can confirm how precise this film is. The main factors of this film were the protagonist Oskar Schindler and his transformation from a pro-Nazi to a Jewish sympathiser, Amon Goeth who is a Nazi officer in charge of the camp at Płaszów and his psychopathic routines and attitudes towards the Jews and the horrific mistreatment of the Jewish people and how they were portrayed. These aspects of the film show just how useful creative works can be for historians.
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
Schindler's List, by Steven Spielberg is an award-winning masterpiece - a movie which portrays the shocking and nightmarish holocaust in a three-hour long epic. The documentary touch re-creates a dark, frightening period during World War II, when Jews in Nazi-occupied Krakow were first deprived off , of their businesses and homes, then placed in ghettos and were then forced to labor for no consideration in camps in Plaszow, and finally they were resettled in concentration camps for execution. The violence and brutality of Nazi’s treatment towards Jews is a series of horrific incidents that are brilliantly showcased.
This list was his way of saving the lives of those affected by the Nazi organization. Although, even though their freedom was still taken away from them, those harbored under the care of Schindler, were well fed and clean. Schindler often referred to them as his "Schindlerjuden" (Schindler Jews). As the crisis grew and more Jews were prosecuted, Schindler began to create more positions within his factory, these positions were fake, so he took a great leap of faith by daring to lie to those within the Nazi party. These fake positions consisted of: typist, toolmaker, and dentist. Things that a factory may have an exact need for without the fear of the Nazi questioning his need. Although despite his best efforts to cover his tracks, the SS began to question Schindler 's motive and began to grow weary of his tales, of the huge need for more workers. He also started to come under much scrutiny by those in the non-Jewish communities, because his views were very much different in comparison to his peers. Schindler had went from a man of greed, to a man of compassion. It began to raise questions but nobody dared to speak out, on their thoughts. The end result of his selfless act being, he saved the lives of over 1,200
[War] brings out the worst in people. Never the good, always the bad. Even in the midst the devastation of a national genocide, where one race turned against another in hate, good people existed and worked to counteract the hate through love and compassion. Oskar Schindler was one of these people. World War II provided him the means to become a very wealthy and powerful man, yet he did not exploit the Jews like many other businessmen during his time. He used his money and power to save thousands. Much can be learned from what happened during the holocaust and what Schindler did to save thousands of Jews.
In Schindler’s List, as the Jews in Kraków are forced into the ghetto, a little girl on the street cries out, “Good-bye, Jews,” over and over again. She represents the open hostility often shown the Jews by their countrymen. After all, the little girl did not contain this hatred naturally—she learned it. Through her, Spielberg sends the message that the evil of the “final solution” infected entire communities.In Schindler’s List, as the Jews in Kraków are forced into the ghetto, a little girl on the street cries out, “Good-bye, Jews,” over and over again. She represents the open hostility often shown the Jews by their countrymen. After all, the little girl did not contain this ...
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.
Spielberg decided to shoot the movie in black and white for the entirety of the film to enhance scenes and foreshadow good and evil. He does, however, use color for the girl in the red coat which symbolizes the turning point for Schindler. The candles are also used as a symbol. The smoke that started in the beginning would later become the smoke from the trains and crematoriums, representing Jewish life and Jewish death. He also uses a Nazi protagonist which goes against what a Holocaust film should have as the main character. Schindlers list is an important one, and his story should always be remembered. He started off as a war profiteer and then became a savior for 1,100 Jews. Stern was beside Schindler during the War and he helped change who he was for the better. Stern is the only main Jewish character in the film. Goeth helps us understand Nazi ideology throughout the course of the film and we see in many instances how unaffected he was with each Jew that he killed. It also shows his inner struggle because of his Jewish maid but ends up beating her and letting her go with Schindler because he became more interested in money. The film touches on many important parts of the Holocaust including race. We see this when Schindler goes to jail for kissing a Jew, and how he was told that it was against the law. To further credit this movie, the use of the real Schindlers Jews at the end help increase
Schindlers List is a movie that takes place during WWII. The movie begins in Krakow, Poland just after the collapse of the Polish army, and at the beginning of the German occupation. Oskar Schindler, a tall handsome womanizer arrives in the city looking to open a factory in order to gain profits from the war. At the time, Jewish people were no long permitted to own a business, so Oskar obtains a factory from a Jewish man named Itzhak Stern, and makes Stern his accountant and manager. The two men form a strange relationship, with Oskar taking advantage of Sterns talent, and Stern distrustingly but obediently following Schindlers orders. Schindler goes to the Jewish ghetto to get the rich Jewish people to invest into his factory, and to get the poor Jews to work for him, since they can provide him with cheap labor. By way of the black market, Schindler obtains numerous delicacies such as liquor and hcocolate for the SS and German officers and sends them gift baskets to get on their good side. Schindler spent his days entertaining the Nazis, and spending time with his numerous women, while leaving the work of running the factory to Itzhak because in Schindlers mind, he was very capable.
feels he must turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. By doing so he
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.
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.
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