John Goldner Schindlers List Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson) is anything but an ordinary German.

At

the outbreak of WWII, Schindler uses his gift of schmooze with high-ranking Nazis (particularly the SS= to put himself in a favorable light and receiving favors); gaining control of a bankrupt formerly-Jewish-owned factory that was used to make pots and pans. Being an opportunist, Schindler converts the building into a munitions factory and makes large sums of money with the help of his Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern. He also contracts Jewish labor through the Nazis since they are cheaper than Poles. Stern makes use of this by rescuing Jews marked for death by forging papers that make them essential workers. Schindler gives Stern a free hand but does not care one way or the other about the fate of the Jewsall that matters is that they can work. This attitude drastically changes when Schindler witnesses the liquidation of the Krakw Ghetto, where he is exposed to the full horror of Hitlers final solution. He is mesmerized by the sight of a little girl walking through the chaos of the streets in a red dress. Witnessing this event is clearly a turning point; because Schindler burns through his fortune doing whatever he can to help the Jews; it is also the impetus that leads to the creation of Schindlers List, a lifesaving manifest of his workers. Shindlers greatest accomplishment is when Germany begins losing on the eastern front, he convinces the SS to allow him to move his entire factory (and bring along all of his workers), saving them from the fate of the other Jews of the Krakw Ghetto.

The real Oskar Schindler was an enthusiastic, albeit failure, of a businessman in the 1930s. He was also notorious for womanizing (which was captured well in the movie). He joined the Nazi party when it was popular and quickly befriended numerous high ranking SS officers through favors and bribes (it is also believed he worked as German spy in Poland). Schindler quickly became wealthy after opening his munitions factory utilizing Jewish slave laborers; he then used this money to protect his Jews after witnessing the events at the Krakw Ghetto. The movie stays very close to history; Neeson does an excellent job playing the ebullient and womanizing businessman who saves over 1000 Jews for the audience, Neeson is Schindler. The most striking aspect of the film is that it is recorded entirely in a crisp black-andwhite. Director Steven Spielbergs reasoning for his choice of cinematography was that he wanted it to be like "virtually everything I've seen on the Holocaust... which have largely been stark, black and white images. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiski said that he wanted to film it in a way in which the audience would not have an idea of when it was made, to give it a feeling of timelessness. Both of these men succeeded in their goalsit seems as if you are watching a documentary, made during the holocaust. I think filming this story in black and white was a very brilliant move on the part of Spielberg; contemporary audiences are comfortable with movies in color, they are familiar with the warmth of the colors. Filming Schindlers List in black and white strips the audience of this familiarity and acts as a splash of cold water to the face, going hand in hand with the shocking brutality and atrocities seen on screen. Interestingly, the black-and-white cinematography is interrupted twice during the film, both times by a little girl wearing a vivid red coat. She is seen by Schindler while she is walking the streets of the Krakw Ghetto as Jews are beaten and shot around her. Schindler (and the

viewers) dont see her again until Schindler is watching SS soldiers burning the bodies from the Krakw Ghetto; her red coat is visible at the top of a pile of bodies, and the sight has a very strong effect on Neesons character. Spielberg explains: America and Russia and England all knew about the Holocaust when it was happening, and yet we did nothing about it. We didnt assign any of our forces to stopping the march toward death, the inexorable march toward death. It was a large bloodstain, primary red color on everyones radar, but no one did anything about it. And thats why I wanted to bring the color red in. Schindler was not the only one who was affected by this little girlit is hard for the viewer not to watch her because the color makes her stand out in contrast to the stark black and white around her. This was a skillfully executed visual metaphor on the part of Spielbergshe is easy to spot and see, yet no one around her attempts to help her or talk to her (much like the Allies lack of action to help the clearly visible plight of the Jews). For me personally, the first thing that came to mind was loss of innocence and of blood. It is a pivotal scene where Schindler no longer has plausible deniability to what is going onhe loses his innocence and begins to change his ways. The idea of blood is the obvious one; the girls death (and of Jews collectively) is on the worlds hands. Although the allies didnt participate in killing Jews, they were willing bystanders, and that makes them guilty. The color red is often associated with guilt, i.e. being caught red handed. While there may have been only one intended reason for the use of red, there are a plethora of interpretations as to what it meanswhich is good, few movies actually make people think nowadays.

The purpose of making Schindlers List, according to Spielberg, was to show and educate audiences about the Holocaust, intolerance, bigotry, and hatred. During an MSNBC interview, he explained why it interested him its an extraordinary story about an extraordinar y time you know? One of the most hateful and devastating times in human history. And one righteous man, among others all over the world, did a very righteous thing by saving 1200 of his Jewish workers. Spielberg used the profit earned from Schindlers List to create the Shoah Foundation, with the purpose of honoring and remembering the victims of the Holocaust. Both the foundation and the film were part of Spielbergs goal of try[ing] to teach the facts of the past to prevent another Holocaust in the future The impact of the Holocaust on the world would be impossible to quantify or qualify, but Schindlers list is a clear byproduct of it. Coined as a watershed event in human history by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, one of the changes brought on by the Nazis atrocities was that of increased awareness, concern, and action towards genocide and the factors that cause it (i.e. racism). While the Holocaust is currently a common topic taught in school, people are easily numbed by the numbers and statistics of what happened. Still pictures and silent documentaries may affect some viewers, but it is easy to distance oneself from them. Schindlers List puts the audience in the Holocaust, breaking through the constraints of a documentary by using Hollywood filmmaking to make it personal. This film serves to teach the lessons and warnings that come directly from the Holocaust but are often forgotten. Some of the most powerful scenes were the hardest ones to watch. There are many parts in the movie where a Jew is brutally executed by a German soldier. Even in todays society, where kids are desensitized very early by television and video games, Schindlers List is able to evoke strong emotions of horror and revulsion. The part of the film I will never forget is when

the Nazis were clearing out the remaining Jews from the Krakw at night. The camera is at a birds eye view, and in every house in the ghetto you can hear gunfire and see muzzle flashes from every window and as innocent people are being gunned down, the audience hears a piano being played by a German soldier in one of the houses. This juxtaposition of Mozart and mass murder is indelible. Schindlers List is an excellent movie. Its not a summer blockbuster or action movie that will have you leaving the theater all pumped up. On the contrary, the theater you watch it in will empty out in contemplative silence. Few movies can actually leave an impression on an audience as this one does; unlike other movies where the only difference between entering the theater and leaving is less money and time than when you came in, Schindlers List will leave you with an inability to take anything for granted (for a little while anyway). Spielberg set out to make a film that would remind and educate the public about what happened in reality less than 70 years ago, and is very successfulanyone who watches Schindlers List is bound to have thoughts and/or questions instilled in them about the Holocaust. It is an instant classic and will continue to be a timeless film, because its lessons will always be valuable. Its a work of Hollywood, but it stays incredibly faithful to the actual events it portray, and it strives to show us the difference one person can make; All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.