Schindler's List (1993)

Plot: Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a German business man, saves the lives of over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his office. I would normally like to give a more detailed plot, but I think a film running at 195 minutes is too long to summarize in just a few words.

Review: Schindler's List is hands down one of the greatest movies ever made. I'm going to start off by saying that people need to know about Oskar Schindler. They need to know about his bravery and his determination to help the Jews. The ending scene just shows how much he wanted to help and even though he did what many see as extraordinary, he still felt he didn't do enough.

The acting in this movie is simply amazing. Liam Neeson's performance as Schindler is just amazing. I cannot describe it. Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern (Schindler's accountant and business partner) is just as great. Ralph Fiennes' performance as Amon Goeth really stands out for me. His performance as a SS officer assigned to work in a concentration camp honestly sent chills down my spine.

This is a very difficult film to watch. You can feel like you're in that concentration camp. The film shows how inhuman the SS officers were and how they were in simple terms, evil. They had no soul and no conscience. When the Jews are killed in cold blood and lured into the gas chambers, you can see that they have no conscience or guilt for what they're doing.

The film being shot in black and white makes the film that much more eerie to me. I think that colors are used as some sort of comfort. I think if you're going to watch a movie about the Holocaust, you shouldn't be comforted. You should feel uneasy and uncomfortable. The only color that we see is a little girl who wears a red coat. The visual of that little girl running and hiding under a bed sticks with you. When the Jews are killed in cold blood, we do not see the color of red, of blood.

Steven Spielberg has made many movies that are considered to be masterpieces. This is his number one masterpiece. You can see the dedication that Spielberg gave to this.

The movie runs at 195 minutes, so many could find this film long. My response to that is that the Titanic runs at approximately 194 minutes, so I think people will be fine.

The ending scene with the closing credits is just genius. I don't know who came up with it, but it's simply amazing to see the Schindler survivors with the actors that portrayed them.

I cannot emphasize enough the amazement that is this movie. This is without a doubt one of the films you have to see before you die. You have to see it because if not, you might regret it.

Rating: 5/5