Schindler's List (2004, DVD)

If Steven Spielberg is remembered for only one film, please let it be this one. Adapted from the book by Thomas Kennealy, from the memories and stories told to him by Leopold Page, it's almost four hours of very intense moviemaking. Spielberg poured his heart into this film, and it shows on every sequence in the film.

Every time I see this film, I weep. It is my way of sitting shiva for my family, for the dead that I did not have an opportunity to know for themselves, but only as ghosts that my grandmother told me about. They walked the same streets as Oskar Schindler, were no doubt in the selections that Amon Goeth presided over, and they ultimately vanished, their graves unmarked, unknown, and their children and past with them.

The premise of this film is very simple. We watch people in the ordinary acts of their lives. Dressing. Eating, drinking. Making love. Having come to the Polish city of Krakow after the fall of Poland in September of 1939 is Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson). He's a Czechoslovakian of German descent, a member of the Nazi party, and he's here to make his fortune with a little money, some nice suits, and a charm that is irrepressible.

And Schindler does just that. He talks, he charms, he cajols, with a wit and presence that even makes the Nazi's soldiers take pause. As he tells a Jew, Stern (Ben Kingsley), a man needs three things, "A good doctor, a forgiving priest and a clever accountant." Stern becomes that accountant, doing, struggling to save as many of his fellow people as he can, using his wits, his daring, and everything he can to get there.

And then there is Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), the commandant of the concentration camp that is soon set up, to complete this triangle. At first you see him as charming, good looking, well-educated. Then you see those eyes that are dead, that there is a monster lurking inside. Goeth doesn't mind killing, not at all. He views it as meat and drink, drinking it all in.

We see individual Jews as well, families, lovers, children. And the question becomes, who will live, who will die, who are going to survive.

And in that triangle formed by Goeth, Stern and Schindler we see all the range of emotions that living in the midst of terror can create; from the most hideous of depravity and evil to what good can come out of horror. Ultimately, it is about the redemption of one man, Oskar Schindler, as he realizes that the Jews are not just workers, or others, but people, people that he cares passionately about, and will finally bankrupt himself for.

It's impossible to show all of the Holocaust in a single film. There's simply not enough film to do it with. But Spielberg and his associates have done a magnificent job of showing how one life was changed. Filmed in black and white, with only touches of color in it, it is stark, bringing everything to a sharp clarity.

It is not for everyone. Some people were offended by the nudity, sex, and violence in the film (for instance, when Brigham Young University tried to show the film in an edited version on their campus, Spielberg pulled permission for the film to be shown at all, telling them that it was to be shown uncut or not at all. BYU declined to show it); actually, Spielberg toned down a great deal of the film, but did film it on location in Krakow (during the liquidation of the ghetto, that's where it happened) and outside the gates of Auschwitz.

Most people associate the Indiana Jones, ET, now AI, with Spielberg, films that are noted for their innocence and happy feelings. I think in time, this will be the film that stands out the most. I can't say what you feel at the end of this one, it is a moving chronicle that shows despite all of our learning and education, the world can still be a barbaric horror, and yet there is still hope at the end of it.

Mr. Spielberg, thank you.

This is part of the AFI 100 top films of the century. Hosted by Mellkinwa to mark her 100th review here at epinions. Other participants are: willeftk, Fiona32, Mattels, deaser26, Opalman, and mellkinwa.