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Schindler’s List Movie Review

Schindler’s List is a 1993 historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes. It’s a pretty good, but far from amazing movie.

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“It’s Hebrew, it’s from the Talmud.

It says, “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire“

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Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and member of the Nazi party, tries to save his Jewish employees after witnessing the persecution of Jews in Poland. Based on a true story and depicting real people and real events, the film clearly holds great power when it comes to history presentation. The somewhat documentarian approach to it is one of its most brilliant aspects.

Technically speaking, the film is fantastic, but more on that later. It’s also genuinely moving in that final scene where suddenly the cinematography moves from black-and-white to full color. It was a great decision that paid off emotionally and the grave scene is great as a whole.

However, the scenes before that felt overly emotionally manipulative in that typical Spielbergian fashion. On the opposite side of things, the first half of the movie is surprisingly devoid of any emotion. I found it overly cold. And that emotional connection was thus lost on me. For a film about the Holocaust, I should have been more engaged with my heart, but unfortunately that never happened in this instance. That’s why I personally find this movie pretty good, but overrated when all is said and done.

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But still, it’s a much better “serious” movie from Spielberg than many others of that type. The performances are great throughout with Liam Neeson delivering probably his career-best work in the titular role. I loved his acting, but the character I found overly melodramatic, cinematic and simply not that believable. Ralph Fiennes is suitably villainous and very creepy as horrible Nazi Amon Goth. His scenes reminded me of Frollo from ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, and probably the most interesting parts of the film belong to him.

But all of the others are quite weakly developed, though that was probably the point in a film that is more documentarian than dramatic. The scenes that showcase the brutality of the concentration camps, the executions and everything surrounding them are the best, most impactful parts of this film. However, the movie is over three hours, so I lost interest more than a couple of times as I found it overly sprawling and certainly at least half an hour could have been reduced from its runtime.

As I have already stated above, the technical aspects in Schindler’s List are truly remarkable. Above all else, the cinematography is strikingly gorgeous. Not only is the black-and-white photography polished, timeless in quality and very memorable, but the movie’s artistic touches are also apparent at times, especially in the scenes with the girl in the red coat with the red color being very effective at portraying life.

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The score is also very good and the editing is strong. I just wish the pacing was better. Spielberg’s direction is among his best, and this is certainly one of his most artistic and most accomplished films technically speaking, though not among his greatest in my opinion. It received astounding twelve Oscar nominations and I wholeheartedly agree with the technical wins, but less so for those major categories. Again, I really like this film, but I’ve just never loved it.

Technically speaking, Schindler’s List is remarkable cinema, especially in its strikingly gorgeous, artistic black-and-white cinematography. It’s also very well acted, quite memorable in some scenes and fantastic in its documentarian approach. However, it’s way too long in its runtime and not that well paced. Also, I’ve never been emotionally involved here, which is highly problematic for a Holocaust movie. This is why I personally find it very good, but far from amazing.

My Rating – 4

You can get Schindler’s List on Amazon.