Schindler's List

Oskar Schindler, as portrayed by Liam Neeson. | Google Images

Any Holocaust film is dense and heart-wrenching. Then came Steven Spielberg with Schindler's List: a Holocaust story that revolves around a German businessman and a member of the Nazi Party.

The film is a war story with only one side holding guns. It was shot in black and white with Spielberg saying how it was a metaphor that all Holocaust stories are void of life, and that color represents life. His first visualized approach was to make the story a documentary of the Schindler Jews, thus, the black and white theme added the element of a documentary film (also to note the epilogue where the surviving Schindler Jews visited his grave and offered stones).

The film is heavy. Most scenes are unbearable to watch but how it was presented made an artistic impression that the truth is naked and this was what happened. It presented a Holocaust story with rich symbolism and representations.

The girl in red coat

The girl in red coat appearing in some scenes all throughout the film. | Google Images

One of the well-known feats of the film was the girl in red coat, with critics debating as to what she symbolizes and how was she significant to the story. Spielberg posits that the girl represents the obvious state of the Jews (red in black and white) and that the neighboring countries, especially the United States, didn't do anything at that time to help them.

The girl's presence, for me, was an approach I rarely see in other films. Its rich symbolism was a vital element to the overall appeal of the film. At first I thought that she symbolized innocence, or hope in the least.

A rare story

The film is on the top of my must-watch list since it provided sense to a war void of it. The tale of Oskar Schindler and his epiphany is a rare story, almost fictional, that one could conclude that the world isn't as ugly as many see it. Imagine how would a well-provided German Nazi member sacrifice all his wealth to save a thousand Jews and gain nothing in return?

Although many would say that the film is a classic representation of the fight between absolute good and absolute evil, I think otherwise. It is a battle of circumstance, and that circumstance is war. The film projects a good German, the suffering Jews, and how a story of salvation occurred amid the chaos of overlapping power. There is no absolute good and no absolute evil present in the film. There is imperfection. It is imperfection in the form of Schindler, of Goeth, of Itzhak Stern, of Pfefferberg, of the girl in red coat.

Itzhak Stern and Oskar Schindler. | Google Images

You've noticed by now that the mood of this post is somewhat heavy and serious. This is what this movie did to me. I'll give it a 10/10.