Schindler's List Review: Spielberg's Devastating Masterpiece
9.5/10 — Schindler's List (1993)
Pros
- Unflinching, humane storytelling
- Fiennes and Neeson at their best
- Striking black-and-white photography
Cons
- Emotionally exhausting
- Focus on a rescuer's perspective
Steven Spielberg’s film tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved more than a thousand Jewish people from the Nazi death camps by employing them in his factories. It is one of the most important films about the Holocaust.
What works
Liam Neeson plays Schindler as a charming opportunist slowly awakened to conscience, while Ralph Fiennes is terrifying as the camp commandant Amon Göth and Ben Kingsley provides moral steadiness as Itzhak Stern. Janusz Kamiński’s stark black-and-white cinematography gives the film a documentary feel, and the restraint with which Spielberg shows atrocity makes it all the more powerful.
Where it falters
This isn’t a film you can enjoy, and it’s emotionally draining. Some critics have felt that centring a rescuer gives non-Jewish characters too much of the spotlight.
Verdict
Harrowing and absolutely essential. Watch it once, and you will not forget it.
