As the Germans are relocating the city’s Jews into a self
contained ghetto, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) arrives in Krakow to make his
fortune from war profiteering. Having lavished gifts and charm on the ruling
Nazis, Schindler persuades the influential Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben
Kingsley) to oversee his business of manufacturing mess kits. By hiring Jews,
Schindler has a seemingly ever lasting supply of cheap/free labour and gets
rich quick but his attitude towards the treatment of the Jews changes when he
witnesses the clearing of the ghetto. While before he turned a blind eye, he
soon became more interested in the plight of his workers until finally trying
to save over a thousand from certain death at great cost and risk to himself.
Undoubtedly one of the most powerful and films of the last
twenty years, Schindler’s List has
become the foremost film for telling the story of humanities darkest and most irrepressible
days. Despite incredibly moving films such as The Pianist and Life is
Beautiful, Schindler’s List
stands alone at the top as not only a moving and distressing portrayal of
humanity at its worst and best but also as a sublime exercise of film making.
For me Schindler’s List of one of the rarest of films for which I have no criticism
whatsoever. I can’t think of a single shot, line or movement which could be
improved.
