IrishCanadian25
Going on 10 years with WrestleZone
In the wake of the first ever WZ Movie Tournament, I have watched Schindler's List make it to the Elite 8 - the finals of the 1990's region - and had several people come out of the woodwork to say that they'd never heard of the film. This shocks the living hell out of me.
So, I wanted to dedicate a thread to the film to provide some of you with a little perspective before blindly voting for Forrest Gump and missing out on this movie. And let me sum it all up in one sentence for starters...
Schindler's List is the most important film made in the last 30 years, and it should be shown in every school to every child.
Schindler's List follows a few years in the life of Oskar Schindler, who was at first nothing more than a failed German businessman who went to Germany-occupied-Poland seeking a chance to profit from the war. Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party, and uses bribes to open a factory to make mess kits for the German troops. He hires Itzhak Stern, a Jew, as his accountant, since Schindler knew little of how to run the business. Stern convinces Schindler to hire Jews to work in the factory, since they'd be cheaper than non-Jews.
As Stern is making phony documents to list each of the Jewish workers as "essential to business," thus keeping them from being sent to ghettos or concentration camps, Schindler watches from a hill as the ruthless and evil Amon Goth starts to create a new concentration camp in Krakow, and begins murdering Jews who protest the movement, those who appear old or infirmed, or those they just damn well please. Despite Schindler's emotions after seeing this genocide in action, he shrewdly befriends Goth.
Schindler's factory is quite profitable, but with the visions of what he's seen in his head, his view switches from money to lives, and he orders the loyal Stern to do the same. Meanwhile, Goth receives a dictum from one of Hitler's higher-ups to destroy the remains of the murdered Jews and ship the living off to the worst place imaginable - Auschwitz.
Working around the clock, Schindler and Stern spend Schindler's entire fortune on adding workers and creating factory sub-stations to keep Jews off of the trains to Auschwitz. Schindler's bribes and friendship with Goth pay immediate dividends. Everyone on Schindler's List arrive at the factory safely - except one train of female Jews. In likely the most famous scene of the film, a pack of the nude Jewish females stand hysterically crying in what they feel is a gas chamber - only for relief to rush over them as the water comes on and showers them. Schindler got word to the camp, and the next day the women arrive for work.
As Schindler goes through the last of his money, the war ends. To this end, a new Schindler pledges lifelong allegience to his wife (he'd been blatantly unfaithful in the past) and starts to retreat. With the Red Army closing in, Schindler as a Nazi Party member and war profiteer must flee, or be arrested or killed. The last scene of the biography is Schindler breaking down, crying, damning every possession he still has in terms of the number of lives he could have saved had he sold them. He throws his watch to the ground and curses his car, calling the auto "10 lives."
The film cuts to the present (1990's) day, with Schindler's grave, and a line of 1,000+ ancestors of "The Schindler Jews" placing a stone on his grave in memorium of his heroics.
Facts about the film:
1. Director Steven Spielberg waited more than a decade before starting the film, which was aided by several of the surviving Schindler Jews.
2. Speinberg tried to give the job to Roman Polanski, who turned it down because his own mother had been gassed as Auschwitz.
3. Part of the deal for making Schinder's List required Speilberg to make Jurrasic Park first, because after Schindler's List, Jurrasic Park never would have gotten made.
4. Mel Gibson auditioned to play Oskar Schindler. Draw your own conclusion.
5. After watching Ralph Feinnes audition for Amon Goth, Speilberg nicknamed him "sexual evil."
6. The film was shot directly in Krakow, Poland.
7. During filming, several incidents of anti-semitism took place, but the night of passover, the German actors showed up, put on Yarmulke's, and participated in the Jewish holiday.
8. Actors, Actresses, and Speilberg himself described filming as "unbearable," since so many of them were holocaust survivors or had been born to holocaust survivors.
9. Robin Williams called Speilberg every week or so to cheer him up.
10. Speilberg refused a salary for the film, calling it "blood money."
11. While the original plan was to shoot the entire film in German and Polish language with subtitles, Speilberg decided to highlight the particularly dramatic parts by having them done in English, which forced those watching to see what was happening on screen, and not allowing them to "escape in the reading of subtitles."
12. The film won 7 Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture. Liam Neeson (Schindler) and Ralph Feinnes (Goth) were both nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, but lost. That year, Tom Hanks won best actor for "Philadelphia," and Tommy Lee Jones won for "The Fugitive."
13. Most of the film was shot in Black and White, except for a few scenes and "The Girl in the Red Coat." This prevented it from becoming the first Black and White film since 1960 to win Best Picture.
14. The US Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and currently preserves it in the National Film Registry.
15. In 1998, AFI named it the 9th greatest film of all time (behind: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Wizard of Oz, The Graduate, and On the Waterfront), and on the AFI List of 100 greatest heros and villans, Schindler's character was the #13 hero, and Goth's character the #15 villain.
16. Finally, the film was aired in 1997 uncut and uncensored, and was the first program aired in the US with a TV-M rating. The nudity, violence, and language caused many evangelicals to protest, but many later recanted due to the mature subject matter.
Folks, I hope this synopsis and dissertation provides some insight to the film, and encourages all of you, whether you've seen the masterpeice or not, to go rent it and watch it.
So, I wanted to dedicate a thread to the film to provide some of you with a little perspective before blindly voting for Forrest Gump and missing out on this movie. And let me sum it all up in one sentence for starters...
Schindler's List is the most important film made in the last 30 years, and it should be shown in every school to every child.
Schindler's List follows a few years in the life of Oskar Schindler, who was at first nothing more than a failed German businessman who went to Germany-occupied-Poland seeking a chance to profit from the war. Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party, and uses bribes to open a factory to make mess kits for the German troops. He hires Itzhak Stern, a Jew, as his accountant, since Schindler knew little of how to run the business. Stern convinces Schindler to hire Jews to work in the factory, since they'd be cheaper than non-Jews.
As Stern is making phony documents to list each of the Jewish workers as "essential to business," thus keeping them from being sent to ghettos or concentration camps, Schindler watches from a hill as the ruthless and evil Amon Goth starts to create a new concentration camp in Krakow, and begins murdering Jews who protest the movement, those who appear old or infirmed, or those they just damn well please. Despite Schindler's emotions after seeing this genocide in action, he shrewdly befriends Goth.
Schindler's factory is quite profitable, but with the visions of what he's seen in his head, his view switches from money to lives, and he orders the loyal Stern to do the same. Meanwhile, Goth receives a dictum from one of Hitler's higher-ups to destroy the remains of the murdered Jews and ship the living off to the worst place imaginable - Auschwitz.
Working around the clock, Schindler and Stern spend Schindler's entire fortune on adding workers and creating factory sub-stations to keep Jews off of the trains to Auschwitz. Schindler's bribes and friendship with Goth pay immediate dividends. Everyone on Schindler's List arrive at the factory safely - except one train of female Jews. In likely the most famous scene of the film, a pack of the nude Jewish females stand hysterically crying in what they feel is a gas chamber - only for relief to rush over them as the water comes on and showers them. Schindler got word to the camp, and the next day the women arrive for work.
As Schindler goes through the last of his money, the war ends. To this end, a new Schindler pledges lifelong allegience to his wife (he'd been blatantly unfaithful in the past) and starts to retreat. With the Red Army closing in, Schindler as a Nazi Party member and war profiteer must flee, or be arrested or killed. The last scene of the biography is Schindler breaking down, crying, damning every possession he still has in terms of the number of lives he could have saved had he sold them. He throws his watch to the ground and curses his car, calling the auto "10 lives."
The film cuts to the present (1990's) day, with Schindler's grave, and a line of 1,000+ ancestors of "The Schindler Jews" placing a stone on his grave in memorium of his heroics.
Facts about the film:
1. Director Steven Spielberg waited more than a decade before starting the film, which was aided by several of the surviving Schindler Jews.
2. Speinberg tried to give the job to Roman Polanski, who turned it down because his own mother had been gassed as Auschwitz.
3. Part of the deal for making Schinder's List required Speilberg to make Jurrasic Park first, because after Schindler's List, Jurrasic Park never would have gotten made.
4. Mel Gibson auditioned to play Oskar Schindler. Draw your own conclusion.
5. After watching Ralph Feinnes audition for Amon Goth, Speilberg nicknamed him "sexual evil."
6. The film was shot directly in Krakow, Poland.
7. During filming, several incidents of anti-semitism took place, but the night of passover, the German actors showed up, put on Yarmulke's, and participated in the Jewish holiday.
8. Actors, Actresses, and Speilberg himself described filming as "unbearable," since so many of them were holocaust survivors or had been born to holocaust survivors.
9. Robin Williams called Speilberg every week or so to cheer him up.
10. Speilberg refused a salary for the film, calling it "blood money."
11. While the original plan was to shoot the entire film in German and Polish language with subtitles, Speilberg decided to highlight the particularly dramatic parts by having them done in English, which forced those watching to see what was happening on screen, and not allowing them to "escape in the reading of subtitles."
12. The film won 7 Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture. Liam Neeson (Schindler) and Ralph Feinnes (Goth) were both nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, but lost. That year, Tom Hanks won best actor for "Philadelphia," and Tommy Lee Jones won for "The Fugitive."
13. Most of the film was shot in Black and White, except for a few scenes and "The Girl in the Red Coat." This prevented it from becoming the first Black and White film since 1960 to win Best Picture.
14. The US Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and currently preserves it in the National Film Registry.
15. In 1998, AFI named it the 9th greatest film of all time (behind: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Wizard of Oz, The Graduate, and On the Waterfront), and on the AFI List of 100 greatest heros and villans, Schindler's character was the #13 hero, and Goth's character the #15 villain.
16. Finally, the film was aired in 1997 uncut and uncensored, and was the first program aired in the US with a TV-M rating. The nudity, violence, and language caused many evangelicals to protest, but many later recanted due to the mature subject matter.
Folks, I hope this synopsis and dissertation provides some insight to the film, and encourages all of you, whether you've seen the masterpeice or not, to go rent it and watch it.
