FILM REVIEW: Schindler's List (1993)

''Whoever Saves One Life, Save The World Entire."

Oskar Schindler was a German business, a member of the Nazi Party, and considered a Righteous Among the Nations (a title used by the State of Israel to honour non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis for altruistic reasons). In fact, Oskar Schindler is the only Nazi to hold this distinction. 

Originally employing Jewish workers at his Polish enamelware factory due to them being cheap labour, he later changed his views and began to actively save Jewish people from extermination in the camps by bribing German officials claiming that the Jews (even children and disabled people) were essential labour. By the end of the war, he had saved the lives of around 1,100 Jews, and as of 2012 these "Schindler Jews" were estimated to have over 8,500 descendants all of the world. 

Because of all the money he used to help the Jews and the fact that he was technically a war profiteer (and the member of the Nazi Party), by the end of World War II, Schindler was left destitute and was considered a war criminal. When asked why he saved the Jews at the expense of his personal life, Schindler said "I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them; there was no choice." Despite being a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler was by no means a bad man and he truly was a hero to all who did what he felt like he had to do.

In this review, I'm going to focus on just two things from the movie that spoke to me the most. The first is going to be this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIp_8RNNX4k which is the scene where the quote "He Who Saves One Life Saves the World Entire" comes from and I found it to be a very emotionally moving scene with great acting all around and it really shows I think the importance of what Schindler has done. The second thing I'm going to discuss is actually the character of Commandant Amon Göth (portrayed by Ralph Fiennes), a Nazi officer who ran the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp; his character I felt was actually more deep and complex than any other character in the film and I wanted to discuss him more in detail.

The quote "He Who Saves One Life Saves the World Entire" is a line from the Jewish text the Talmud and it was engraved into a gold ring given to Schindler as a gift by his Jewish workers. I always thought this quote was great because it reminds of a quote from Lord of the Rings by Samwise Gamgee who says "There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for." It's a great message to remember in general, but especially so in the difficult times we're facing right now with the COVID-19 Pandemic: We have to remember that good things still exist and we can't ever give up; Schindler's actions is an act of bravery that shows people that even the smallest act of selflessness can change the world for the better by helping people and inspiring others to do good themselves. The quote I also found was just a great summary of what Schindler did. Although he only saved 1,100 Jews in compared to the millions more killed by the Nazis, his actions still saved the potential lives of the descendants of these Schindler Jews. 

The acting in this scene is also superb in my opinion. The moment Schindler realizes that he had been living an extravagant life while people were dying around him and that he could have done more to save them and breaks down is just beautifully acted out. Liam Neeson's acting is absolutely phenomenal in this scene and this is the one scene that really makes me sad the most out of all the other scenes because you can really see the emotion building up from start of the scene all the way to the end where he begins to feel guilty, despite the fact that he saved the lives of 1,100 people at the expense of his own life (remember he was left virtually penniless and considered a war profiteer for making supplies for the Nazis). And while he probably could have done more, 1,100 people alive is still a lot, and as his personal accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) says, "There will be generations because of what you did", and he was absolutely right. Generations of people does exist now because of what Schindler did. 

I also want to discuss Amon Göth (portrayed by Ralph Fiennes), a Nazi officer who ran the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. I found his character very interesting because it reminded me of a poem called All There is to Know About Adolph Eichmann by Leonard Cohen which describes Eichmann (one of the major organizers of the Holocaust) as just a very average person to show that evil isn't evident all the time and even the Nazis were human beings. And I feel like the movie humanized Göth to some degree by making him a conflicted character to some degree. There is absolutely no doubt that Amon Göth was despicable human being who was an active participant in the slaughtering of Jews, but this movie reminds us that he is a human being.

Göth's humanity is always expressed in his relationship with Helen Hirsch, a Jewish woman who becomes his housekeeper. Göth clearly falls in love with Helen, and throughout the film you can see the struggle between his desire to be with Helen, and his beliefs that Jewish people are subhuman. This is best outlined when he makes advances on Helen and says: "I realize that you're not a person in the strictest sense of the word. Maybe you're right about that too. You know, maybe what's wrong isn't – it's not us – it's this. I mean, when they compare you to vermin and to rodents and to lice, I just, uh … you make a good point, a very good point." This scene really emphasizes the fact that while Göth IS a horrible person, he IS still a human being. You can tell that he's just slightly beginning to question the Nazi ideals and wonders whether the Nazis are wrong and the Jews are just human beings. However, the scene continues and Göth decides against kissing and beats her mercilessly, claiming that she tried to seduce him on purpose. You can see that Göth loathes himself for falling for a woman he can't be with and he also loathes Helen because she was there for him to fall in love with. It's interesting that although Göth is most definitely portrayed as this evil person, there is still a sympathetic side to him where you can see love almost winning him over.

Many people have disputed whether Göth actually loved Helen or if he just lusted for her sexually. I personally think that while it wasn't anything like true love, it seems to me that Göth did have affection for her that went beyond the basic sexual lust. At one point in the film, Göth says to Schindler "I want her to come back to Vienna with me. I want her to come to work for me there. I want to grow old with her." This to me implies that Göth doesn't just lust for her in a purely sexual sense but he does feel something more akin to love, but because of his hatred of the Jews and his status as a Nazi, he is very conflicted by it, which I believe is the reason for his violence towards her. He hates that he loves a Jewish woman who he considers to be subhuman and he hates that she doesn't love him back as well because of what he is. Although I think whether Göth loved Helen or not if definitely up to dispute, I don't think you could argue the fact that Göth was not just a one-dimensional villain, but a complex, very much human figure in the film.

As far as I'm aware Göth in real life never had any feelings for his Jewish housekeepers and was extremely abusive and cruel to them (although we could never really know what Göth's mind was like). I think that the film was made much better by not making Göth into a one-dimensional psychopath and instead giving his own character and making him more nuanced. It really emphasized the fact that as much as we want to paint the Nazis as some monsters, they still were human beings and that these evil, destructive people really aren't 100% evil and that they're more complex than just murderous psychopaths.

Overall, I really loved this movie. It was very well made film showcasing not only the heroic acts of Oskar Schindler, but also the horrors of the holocaust, and most importantly the duality of man in Amon Göth's very complex character. I also thought that it was a very clever idea to film it all in black-and-white because it does add more gravitas and seriousness to the film. The entire cast acted superbly and I personally found Ralph Fiennes as Amon Göth the best acting because he portrays both the cruel psychopathic side and the more humane side of Göth that makes you question whether Göth was actually evil or if he was just set on a misguided path at a young age.

I think that we all have something to learn from Schindler. It is true that his original intention for saving the Jews was to make money, but eventually he decided to save them, even if that mean he would be left completely destitute. The 1,100 he saved may not be very much compared to the around 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, but there will be generations of people who exist because of all that he did. So really, he didn't save the lives of just 1,100 people, he saved the lives of their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and on and on and on. 

For my next review, I think I'll be doing an adaptation review for once and I'll be covering an adaptation of the works of one of my favourite authors, Dan Brown. As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!

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The Connoisseur