Schindler's List (1993) Universal Pictures 📢 Director: Steven Spielberg 💰 Producer: Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko Lustig 👫 Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, Embeth Davidtz. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -66th Academy Awards: March 21, 1994. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -The Fugitive. -In The Name Of The Father. -The Piano. -The Remains Of The Day. 📕 Plot summary: Oskar Schindler (LIAM NEESON) is a member of the Nazi party who arrives in Krakow, Poland during WWII to make his fortune by running a factory producing enamelware. He crosses paths with SS officer Amon Göth (RALPH FIENNES) whom he initially befriends but starts to have reservations over his conduct when Göth's behaviour includes using Jewish prisoners as target practice and being responsible for their cruel, inhumane treatment. Using his wealth, Schindler eventually constructs a list of prisoners whom he pays to release from their torture. 💥 Standout scene(s): When most people think of a famous "shower scene" they most likely lean towards Hitchcock's PSYCHO, but the shower scene in SCHINDLER'S LIST is more powerful, more suspenseful and just as equally memorable. A herd of naked women are rounded up and led into a building, and having heard the stories of gas chamber-related murders that the Germans have been ordering on their prisoners the women await their fate. The lights go out, the screams echo and we the viewer have to endure the suspense with them before we discover the true intent of the scene. So powerful; even more so the first time you see it and don't know the outcome. The scene where they try to shoot the poor hinge-maker guy outside for working slowly but Fiennes' gun keeps jamming was one to be grateful for; but the saddest scene in the film for me was when the prisoners are told to give up their luggage and put their names on them so they can be reunited later, before we realise this is actually a con. 🔑 Facts: -The 66th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, it won 7: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (adapted), Score, Editing, Cinematography, Art Direction. -Second Best Picture appearance for Ben Kingsley (Gandhi). -First black & white film to win Best Picture since The Apartment (1960). -Ray Fiennes would star again in The English Patient in three years time. 🙂 Personal opinion: Harrowing. The treatment of human beings by other human beings just leaves me dumbfounded as to how people can be like that? Spielberg - winning his first Academy Award as a director here - intentionally brings home the awfulness of the true atrocities of suffering, abuse and war crimes committed by the bastard Nazis against the Jews during the war. No glamorising for the Hollywood studios, Spielberg gives us an uncomfortable experience and makes his point rather adequately, wouldn't you say? He makes US suffer by having to watch the on-screen drama. This evocative and disturbing movie makes it one of the most difficult I have ever had to watch. Things start to get nasty after about 45 minutes when trigger-happy sadist-psycho nutjob Ray Fiennes first shows up. As great as an actor he is, Fiennes is a true bastard of a character in this film. Of all the films Steven Spielberg has ever directed, this was the one he nabbed his first Oscar for? That fact alone is disgraceful. Had the film been presented in colour, I wonder if it would have had the same impact? It certainly isn't a film to be entertained by but goes a long way in terms of educating the viewer. Don't be too surprised to come out of this one with tears in your eyes and sadness in your heart. Bloody powerful. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. Definitely not the most enjoyable/watchable or entertaining film of 1993 but the fact Steven Spielberg finally won an Academy Award for Best Director is enough of a reason to support the film. 7/10

Review date: 24 April 2025