Skip to main content

Schindler's List (1993) - Review

"Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't."

So I finally got around to watching this classic by Steven Spielberg. For a long time it has been sitting in my HDD, and I even forgot about it. But watching Bridge of Spies recently, another Spielberg movie, reminded me that I definitely have to watch this now. And I'm glad I finally did.

Schindler's List is movie based on a true story about Oskar Schindler, a Nazi German business man, who saved many Jews during the Holocaust. Liam Neeson plays as Schindler and at the time (1993), he was mostly unknown in the business, and gave his career defining role. He was brilliant as Oskar Schindler, and perfectly captures his transformation from a businessman profiting over war to a savior.

Neeson is accompanied by a great supporting cast, all delivering great performances. Special nod to Ben Kingsley, who plays the Jew accountant for Schindler. I loved their chemistry and how it grew. And another nod to the show stealer Ralph Fiennes, who plays the Nazi commandant of the concentration. The dude just killed it. He was despicable, he was evil and he was plain brilliant. Every scene he was in just oozed with his Nazi-ness. And at the same time, you could see some glimpses of him being a human being and not all evil. Great stuff.

Spielberg took this opportunity to not only show Schindler's story, but also give audiences some view of the horror of Holocaust. There are some truly unsettling scenes and content in the movie. You see the brutality, the horrors and suffering without it going overboard. And it flowed perfectly with the Schindler's story-line, as to give us a view of how he must have felt at times. The movie is over 3 hours long but great editing and pacing made me never feel like it. The movie is filled with great scenes. It never felt tedious or overly long.

The movie is shot beautifully with great sets, on-location shots and cinematography, and all in black and white. This gives the film a timeless feel and often feels like you're watching documentary, that is how authentic it feels. Along with that we are accompanied by beautiful score by John Williams, which is haunting and beautiful, perfectly complementing the scenes and scenario.

There were still some issues with the film. For the most part in the movie, it just didn't felt like Schindler had any particular difficulty in his role and doings. It all felt kinda easy, the way movie depicted it, which in turn lowered the stakes. Plus, the emotional attachment to Schindler wasn't that strong for me to the level movie wanted it to be, which in turn made the whole emotional weight of the movie a bit lesser. That's not to say there wasn't any weight, because there certainly was, especially in the end. But I just felt like the movie somewhat failed to get me involved to the extent it wanted me to. Also, it felt odd seeing how everyone spoke English most of the times but you would sometime see Nazi soldiers speaking in German

Overall, it certainly is a great classic. It is hopeless and yet hopeful too. And I'm glad I finally experienced it. Great film making by Spielberg. And to thing that this came out in the same year as Jurassic Park, it just doesn't get any higher than this for a director. No wonder he is considered one of the greatest director in Hollywood.

9/10
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baywatch (2017) - Movie Review

Baywatch is a movie based on the old TV series of the same name. It's about a bunch of lifeguards on a beach who try to uncover drug smuggling in their area...yeah, that is the plot. It's dumb, it's stupid, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not good, but it wasn't horrible either.  The movie actually had some fun in it. The Rock, as always, was charismatic, funny and likable; and Zac Efron, surprisingly, was similar to that. He got ripped AF for the movie. Alexandra Daddario was fun as well, although any movie gets bonus points for just including her in my book. Priyanka Chopra was in it as well, and between her in this and Deepika Padukone in XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, Priyanka definitely was the better one.  There were legit funny scenes sprinkled throughout, but there were also a shit ton of scenes that tried too hard to be hilarious but fell flat instead. Baywatch also had a large dosage...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Wick 2 (2017) - Movie Review

John Wick 2 is a sequel to the 2014 surprise hit John Wick, and it follows him as he is forced to return to his former life once again. The trailers did a good job of not giving much away, so I'll keep it vague as well. The first one was great, so naturally, I was hyped for the sequel, and suffice to say it delivered where it mattered.  Keanu Reeves once again reprises the role of ultimate bad-ass assassin John Wick, with different character motivations this time around, resulting in a more subdued performance than last time, which nonetheless works for the story, and it's just great seeing Keanu again in style. There are some familiar faces from the previous film like Ian McShane (Winston) and Lance Reddick (Hotel Manager), giving similarly good performances. And new ones like Laurence Fishburn, resulting in a reunion of Neo and Morpheus, which should make any Matrix fan cheer up inside, and he gave a good performance as well. One of the things that stood out to ...
1 comment
Read more

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) - Movie Review

The Hitman's Bodyguard stars Nick Fury and Deadpo-I mean Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds in a buddy action-comedy where Reynolds is a professional bodyguard who gets tangled up with a hitman portrayed by Jackson.  What worked for me in this movie were the scenes with Reynolds and Jackson together. Their performances were what you'd expect them to give in a movie like this. Not breaking new grounds or anything like that but being their usual comedic personas, and they both were entertaining....well for the most part anyway. They had a nice chemistry, and they worked off each other well. And most of the action scenes were enjoyable, one in particular, which was a long take including Reynolds. The problem with The Hitman's Bodyguard, though, was that it had a lot of other stuff going on as well which just wasn't interesting enough for me to care because not only did it detract from the fun of the main duo, the movie took it way too seriously. It ...
Post a Comment
Read more