For a movie -- or more accurately, a Hollywood-approved art movie -- this often-stunning work puts the Holocaust into bracing perspective.
Schindler's List (1993)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:57
Fresh:55
Rotten:2
Average Rating:8.8/10
Consensus: Schindler's List blends the abject horror of the Holocaust with Steven Spielberg's signature tender humanism to create the director's dramatic masterpiece.
Synopsis: Based on a true story, SCHINDLER'S LIST is Steven Spielberg's epic drama of World War II Holocaust survivors and the man who unexpectedly came to be their savior. Unrepentant womanizer and war... Based on a true story, SCHINDLER'S LIST is Steven Spielberg's epic drama of World War II Holocaust survivors and the man who unexpectedly came to be their savior. Unrepentant womanizer and war profiteer Oskar Schindler uses Polish Jews as cheap labor to produce cookware for the Third Reich. But after witnessing the violent liquidation of the walled ghetto where the Krakow Jews have been forced to live, Schindler slowly begins to realize the immense evil of Nazism. When his employees are sent to a work camp, they come under the terrorizing reign of sadistic Nazi Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes). With the help of his accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), Schindler creates a list of "essential" Jews. Bribing Goeth, Schindler manages to get 1,100 people released from the camp and brought to the safety of his munitions factory in Czechoslovakia. Spielberg's glorious film is wondrously evocative, visually stunning, and emotionally stirring. [More]
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagalle, Embeth Davidtz, Beatrice Macola, Andrzej Seweryn, Norbert Weisser, Elina Löwensohn
Director: Steven Spielberg
Director: Steven Spielberg
Composer: John Williams
Story: Thomas Keneally
Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian
Producer: Branko Lustig, Gerald R. Molen, Steven Spielberg
Reviews for Schindler's List
Schindler's List, despite blatant compromises, is a rending historical document.
The documentary style allows Spielberg to deliver his message without preaching. The clever use of light and shade also makes it visually stunning.
The result is unquestionably his most important work, his most fully realized work, his most rewarding work.
An intensely personal meditation on the nature of heroism and moral choice, rendered on the kind of rich, dreamlike cinematic canvas that only Hollywood can realize.
What is most memorable is not the tragedy of the lives lost or even the number of people Schindler saved, but how such an imperfect man could have done something so perfect
[Schindler's List] is a very good piece of cinema and those who are ready to spend three hours in front of the screen would be rewarded with a powerful, thought-provoking piece of seventh art.
Because this film touches us so deeply, the catharsis has a power that few -- if any -- other moments in film history can match.
Schindler's List is a true dramatic classic, capable of making anyone cry.
In a severe, uncompromising manner that none of his previous films has approached, Spielberg has captured the terror of the Nazi reign as well as the determination and resourcefulness of those who resisted.
Spielberg marshals all his formidable storytelling talents and puts them at the service of an epic human drama.
This is a supremely powerful depiction of the banality of evil and -- for once on film -- the seductiveness of good.
While SCHINDLER'S LIST is the least Spielberg-ian and least showy of the director's work, it demonstrates an artistry that is at times highly stylized.
Schindler's List is a ruthlessly unsentimental portrait of a German war profiteer's epiphany that inspires neither sorrow nor pity, but a kind of emotional numbness.
What is most amazing about this film is how completely Spielberg serves his story. The movie is brilliantly acted, written, directed and seen.
Spielberg has crafted a nearly perfect film, a gripping and brilliantly acted epic .
The acting is excellent. Liam Neeson is super, as is Ben Kingsley. I thought Ralph Fiennes was especially good; chilling!
Schindler's List (1993) is Steven Spielberg's award-winning masterpiece - a profoundly shocking, unsparing, three-hour long epic of the Holocaust.
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