Schindler’s List

Directed bySteven Spielberg

Main Cast• Liam Neeson – Oskar Schindler,

– a German Nazi businessman who saves the lives of over 1,100 Jews by employing them in his factory.

• Ben Kingsley – Itzhak Stern, – Schindler's accountant and business partner.

• Ralph Fiennes – Amon Goeth, – the main antagonist in the film; Goeth is an SS

officer assigned to build and run the Płaszów concentration camp, and is befriended by Schindler, though he grows steadily suspicious of Schindler's true aims as the film progresses.

• Embeth Davidtz – Helen Hirsch, – a young Jewish woman whom Goeth takes to

work as his housekeeper, and finds attractive.

Genre · Docudrama; epic Language · EnglishTime and place produced · Kraków, Poland, 1993Date of release · 1993Producers · Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko LustigSetting (time) · 1939–1945Setting (place) · Kraków, Poland and Schindler’s home town of Czechoslovakia (which was occupied by Germany)

Awards1994 Academy Awards: • Winner, Best Picture • Winner, Best Director (Steven Spielberg)• Winner, Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski)• Winner, Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn)• Winner, Best Music, Original Score (John Williams)• Winner, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or

Published (Steven Zaillian)• Winner, Best Art Direction, Set Design (Allan Starski, Ewa Braun)

1994 Golden Globes: • Winner, Best Motion Picture, Drama • Winner, Best Director, Motion Picture (Steven Spielberg)• Winner, Best Screenplay, Motion Picture (Steven Zaillian)• Nominated, Best Original Score, Motion Picture (John Williams)• Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama (Liam

Neeson)• Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion

Picture (Ralph Fiennes)

Introduction (Copy this)

Schindler’s List, the award-winning film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian based on the book by Thomas Keneally, tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a war profiteer and member of the Nazi party who saved over 1,100 Jews during World War II. The movie explores our capacity for monumental evil as well as for extraordinary courage, caring, and compassion.

Steven Spielberg said this about the film:

“The film Schindler’s List focuses on the years of the Holocaust—a time when millions of Jews and other men, women, and children were murdered solely because of their ancestry. It is one of the darkest chapters in human history. Yet an appalling number of people, young and old, know little if anything about it. Even today the world has not yet learned the lesson of those terrible years. There are far too many places where hate, intolerance, and genocide still exist.

Thus Schindler’s List is no less a “Jewish story” or a “German story” than it is a human story. And its subject matter applies to every generation. Schindler’s List is simply about racial hatred—which is the state of mind that attacks not what makes us people but what makes us different from each other. It is my hope that Schindler’s List will awaken and sustain an awareness of such evil and inspire this generation and future generations to seek an end to racial hatred.”

To study the film• When studying Schindler's List it is important to

appreciate the way the film has been constructed and the decisions that Spielberg made as the film's director.

• The film is a text like any other Year 10 text in terms of plot, setting, narrative, characterisation, themes etc.

• How has Spielberg selected certain techniques in order to enhance dramatic effect and meaning?

Key film techniques in Schindler's List(Give examples of each)

• Black and white photography • Hand-held camera shots • Positioning of the viewer by the camera so as to take

in a particular perspective • Juxtaposition of scenes eg. Fading, cross-cutting etc. • Recurring musical themes and overlays • Recurring visual images eg. smoke, lists, candles, the

girl in the red coat. • Historical representation of events with the aim of

authenticity

Key Scene in Schindler’s List

A key scene in the film is the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto. We see that Oskar Schindler is out riding and that he is accompanied by his mistress. From a hill, he sees the evacuation of the Ghetto. Until that point, the film is in black-and-white, however, in this scene Schindler suddenly sees a girl wearing a red coat.

What do you understand from this scene? What did Schindler see?

Schindler sees a young girl walking with the Jews, in a red coat, then later she is walking alongside the Jews being loaded into a truck before going inside a building. There is constant cutting between the high angle shot of the Kracow ghetto and the low angle shot of Schindler. This shows that Schindler is a high ranking official and they are only Jews. He is literally and figuratively on his ‘high horse’ looking down on them.

However, Schindler’s reaction to the little girl shows Schindler’s growing humanity. His eyes are constantly following the little girl. Close-up shots of Schindler allow the audience to ponder the emotion he is feeling. Point of view shots help the audience realise the empathy Schindler is beginning to feel for the Jewish people.

We see that he can no longer view the Jews as a group, they are individuals. All to easily the Jews were being lumped together as one ‘thing’ that was to be exterminated. This appears to be the first time Schindler has really thought about the people. We watch Schindler as he comes to realise that innocent, harmless people are being killed, just because they are Jewish.

Another answerBefore this point in the film, everything was in black and white. This conveys Schindler’s “black and white” train of thought: that the way the Jews were being treated was the only “right” way, and this is how he justified his manipulation of them. Black and white are also opposite shades, which illustrates how he saw the Nazis and Jews as totally different and opposite beings. The appearance of the girl in the red coat symbolizes how he stopped seeing in this sense, and began to appreciate the Jews as individuals. The fact that she is wearing a RED coat, may represent Schindler’s newfound “love” for this race. Or it could be foreshadowing the danger she is in.

How did he change after the scene?

Schindler immediately warms as a character, he is transformed in an instant from a cold hearted Nazi, with a desire for money, into someone who sees the Jews as people, just like him – he sees the person, not the star. From this point on, Schindler’s focus becomes less and less on exploiting the Jews, and more and more about saving them from their imminent death. So much so that by the end of the film Schindler has lost all he has in monetary wealth, in order to save people he truly cares for.Schindler’s sight of a small, innocent girl conveys how he now sees the Jews as innocent and vulnerable people. After this scene, he gradually begins to show compassion and respect towards the Jews.

ThemeMessage/purpose/main idea

The Triumph of the Human Spirit In the face of overwhelming evil, the Jews in Schindler’s List exhibit an unbroken spirit and will to survive.1. When do we hear them say that things could be worse? 2. What event perhaps best illustrates this triumph of spirit?The wedding in the Plaszów labour camp. Even with the constant fear of death, two people manage to fall in love. With possibly no future to look forward to, they marry in the hope that they will survive. 3. How do they complete the tradition of smashing a wineglass? They use a lightbulb. Not only does the couple wed, but they stay true to Jewish traditions, which symbolizes hope for the survival of the Jewish race.

The Difference One Individual Can Make(Or human’s capacity for good)

More than six thousand descendants of the Schindlerjuden might never have been born had one man not chosen to take a stand against evil. Oskar Schindler risked his life and stood alone against the overwhelming evil of the Nazi Party. The powerful idea that one man can save the life of another underlies the entire film.• Describe and explain at least 4 different moments

when we see Schindler’s goodness.– Include film techniques and quotes

Human’s capacity for evilThe Third Reich sanctioned and encouraged violence against the Jews as well as seeking the ultimate destruction of the Jewish race. In Schindler’s List, as the Jews in Kraków are forced into the ghetto, a little girl on the street cries out, “Good-bye, Jews,” over and over again. She represents the open hostility often shown to the Jews by their countrymen. After all, the little girl did not contain this hatred naturally—she learned it. Through her, Spielberg sends the message that the evil of the “final solution” infected entire communities. • Describe and explain at least 4 different moments when

we are shown the true terrors of the Nazi regime.– Include film techniques and quotes

Lists• At the beginning of the film, close-ups of name upon name being

typed into the list of Jews registering in Kraków demonstrate …..• But this first list only scratches the surface of danger and destruction.

The lists become increasingly ominous during sorting exercises to determine…

• Stern’s name appears on a list sending him to Auschwitz. When Schindler saves him, an SS officer mentions that it doesn’t matter which Jew gets on the train, and that keeping track of names just means more paperwork. This disregard for names shows us …

• The Nazis’ lists represent evil and death, but Schindler’s list represents pure good and life. (Quote)

• In an ironic twist, the final list in the film is a list that Schindler’s workers give to him—a list of their signatures vouching for Schindler as a good man, to help him if Allied soldiers catch him.