Schindler’s List, 1993
Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is a German Nazi Party member and an industrialist who arrives in Poland during the Nazi occupation hoping to turn a nice profit. He establishes an enamelware factory, using local Jewish labor for workers. Unbeknownst to Schindler, his accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) is using the factory’s work passes to help keep various Jewish families classified as essential workers so that they will not be taken away. As the violence against the Jewish people escalates--in part under the supervision of sadistic lieutenant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes)--Schindler comes to realize he has a moral duty to help.
Masterfully balancing small-scale and large-scale storytelling, this is a compelling and heart-wrenching watch.
Throughout the film I kept marveling at just how amazing it was that so many small, powerful moments were layered into a clear and coherent account of the events that took place over so many years. There is such a deft and delicate touch to the construction of this movie that it somehow feels like a thousand tiny stories strung together.
Oskar Schindler is a complicated, often-unlikable hero. He is an unrepentant womanizer who is willing to turn a blind eye to the suffering and cruelty around him until he is finally moved to act out of compassion. But even in his compassion, Schindler is not a straight-forward protagonist. For most of the movie, Schindler is happy to live his life of luxury, watching from a horseback ride as Jewish families are killed in the streets. While most of the women choose his company, there’s a scene where he forces a kiss on a visibly terrified Jewish woman (and then on a less-terrified looking Jewish child) that demonstrates the limits of his compassion and empathy. And so while he is never a fully redeemed man, Schindler nonetheless goes to extraordinary lengths to help the workers and families that he can. This warts-and-all portrayal of the character shows that someone can be flawed but still choose to act in a moral way, even against their own self-interest. His character arc---from being aware of injustice to feeling compelled to do something about it---is slow and realistic.
Fiennes’ Goeth is a perfect foil for Schindler’s character. Like Schindler, he is a complex man, but one whose arc bends toward cruelty. There’s a sequence in the film where Schindler tries to work a little reverse psychology on Goeth, telling him that kindness and mercy is the real way to show power. And for a short time, Goeth tries forgiveness on like a new pair of shoes. But the real heart of his character is that he truly doesn’t see other people as worthy, or even really as people. There’s a stunning pair of scenes, spaced a little ways apart, in which both men interact with Goeth’s Jewish maid, Helen (Embeth Davidtz). In the earlier scene, Schindler speaks with Helen, who slowly reveals the cruelties she has borne and witnessed, including Goeth shooting an elderly Jewish woman for fun. Leaning in toward a terrified Helen, Schindler offers her comfort. Later, a drunk Goeth comes down to Helen’s basement apartment. Circling her in dizzying fashion, he monologues as if she’s replying to him, convincing himself first that she wants him romantically, and then rejecting that idea because “you’re not even human.” Sexually frustrated and seemingly disgusted at his own lustful lack of self-control, Goeth takes out his anger by beating Helen and then dropping a shelf on her. Where Schindler reaches a breaking point where he cannot take any more cruelty, Goeth comes to rely on his ability to inflict harm as a way of affirming his self-worth and masculinity.
Between the twin orbiting stars of Schindler and Goeth are the numerous citizens of the Polish Jewish city. There are quite a few characters we follow through the film, and we easily understand that these stories are just the tip of the iceberg. While at first I was a bit overwhelmed, thinking that I had to keep track of so many characters, I soon came to understand that it wasn’t necessary to exactly follow each person, but rather to experience each moment with the characters.
There are many characters we see for only a few moments, but they make a huge impact. The most notorious, of course, is the girl in the red coat. Aside from the light of candles, it is the only color in the film. Schindler sees her in the street during the scouring of the ghetto, and then much much later in the film. She is on screen for perhaps only a minute in total, but it is a powerful minute. Likewise out brief look at a doctor and a nurse who, realizing that their patients will be cruelly executed by the Nazi soldiers, gently and systematically perform euthanasia via a drugged drink. It is an act of compassion but also defiance, and meaningfully the camera cuts away before we can see what happens to the doctor and nurse at the hands of the soldiers. In another standout moment, a woman who is working as a foreperson on a construction project tells Goeth that the foundation must be repoured because it is not safe. Goeth orders her executed in front of the workforce for daring to speak up to him . . . then tells his men to re-pour the foundation.
But there is also room in this film for people we see again and again, often in glimpses, but enough to follow their stories. One woman begs Schindler to save her parents, which he later does. Through the film we track the progress of her parents, sometimes just a glimpse of them making it through a barrier or onto a train because they are on the list. Helen’s story is particularly harrowing, as she must maintain a smile and just the right notes of compliance as she lives in the lion’s den. We also follow two children, friends, as they struggle to stay alive.
Just describing the film makes it sound overwhelming, but Spielberg’s direction is truly excellent. He knows just how to alternate between the long stories of Schindler and Goeth, then give us a little character moment with one of the victims of the Nazi persecution. There is a constant sense of zooming in and zooming out---aided by low-key on-screen text to give important historical context---so that we stay immersed in the individual stories and keep an eye on the big picture.
I also think that the film walks just the right line when it comes to what is portrayed on screen in terms of the violence and psychological trauma being inflicted on the Jewish people. There are spontaneous cruelties, such as summary executions of people for minor or no reasons. And then there are the longer cruelties, such as prolonged separations of families or people like Helen who live every day in fear. So many of the Jewish people must make themselves useful to the Nazis---or Nazi-adjacent people like Schindler--so that they can survive, and yet this constantly forces them to confront the atrocities taking place around them. A jeweler is valuing watches and rings, when he is suddenly given a pile of teeth. People must spend their days carting, burying, or exhuming the dead bodies of victims. We witness violence in graphic detail, but we also see the psychological torture of their situation. In one heart-stopping scene, a group of families are separated into men, women, and children, and horrified mothers run screaming as their children are carted off in trucks, waving and smiling and completely ignorant to whatever awaits them.
I had few complaints here. One thing that I wish the movie had been more upfront about was the way that the creation of the list did not come from an entirely pure place. The main accountant who made the list was known to take bribes, and the film skips over this uncomfortable truth. That said, I understand why the change was made because of the way that Stern’s character was used as a way to goad Schindler into more moral action.
A really stunning film, and still very necessary.
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