...Schindler’s List: A true masterpiece of cinematography rated number 8 on the Top 100 American Films of all time, recipient of over 20 awards and nominated for over 35. Schindler’s List is debatably one of the overall best films of the 20th century. Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Brisbane Film Festival for 2015. Schindler’s List was released in 1993 produced by legendary director Steven Spielberg and is a film about the horrors the Jewish people faced during the late 30s and early 40s, mainly focussing on the Holocaust and the part Oskar Schindler, a German businessman, played in freeing and saving over one thousand Jewish lives. Oskar Schindler starts off as a wealthy business owner and entrepreneur who is an acclaimed member of the Nazi Party at the beginning of the film who is interested in making more money for himself. He purchases an Enamelware factory in Kraców with the help of Itzhak Stern, a local Jewish official, who has contacts with black marketeers and the Jewish business community. With the help of Stern and the business...
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...Schindler’s List was released in 1993 and directed by Steven Spielberg. Based on historical events it’s set during the Holocaust and about Oskar Schindler, a man who saved many Jews from death. Night was written by Elie Wiesel about his life when going through the Holocaust as a Jew. These two forms of art about the Holocaust are similar when looking at the big picture, with self conflict, violence, and optimism, but once you get down to the details they definitely have their differences. Schindler, the main character of Schindler’s List, has a conflict within himself when it comes to saving the Jews and having money, girls, and alcohol. While Elie’s obviously in a different situation because he’s the oppressed, not the oppressor, so he doesn’t have enough power to actually be able to save anyone. But his conflict also lies within him. Throughout the entire book he’s moving back and forth in his belief of God....
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...Schindler’s List is a movie taking place beginning in September 1939 during World War II in the Nazi infiltrated Krakow, Poland. Beginning with a character named Oskar Schindler who was a Nazi businessman interested in becoming a war profiteer. Schindler capitalizes on the changing economic times and war with a goal of economic gain. He begins this scheme by befriending the Nazi SS officers and later to befriend a well known successful Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern. Schindler’s goal is to take over a confiscated pots and pans company and turn it into a manufacturing company to provide cookware kits for the troops. Manpower for such a plant is more profitable with Jewish employees that get paid less than the Polish. The Jewish employee’s compensation is being paid back in products that can be traded on the black market as well as safe keeping from becoming shipped off to concentration camps. As time goes on and the Nazi’s force the Jews into small walled-in areas referred to as ghettos. The only was to leave the ghetto was to have worker paperwork. Without your paperwork you were subject to consequences to include execution. With Schindler’s factory becoming known as a safe place, more people wanted to work for him in any capacity. With the influence of Stern and the increasing gravity of the situation in Krakow, Schindler seemed to become more protective over the Jewish especially his employees. A keen example of this is when Stern was placed on a cattle...
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...Schindler’s List Essay Oskar Schindler would never have been anyone’s ideal savior, especially for the Jewish community. He was an open member of the Nazi party, a womanizer, a gambler, an alcoholic, and an extremely money hungry man, but insight of all of this he was successfully able to rescue over twelve hundred Jewish men and women from death. Schindler was a very tall and handsome man. Needless to say, he was adored by all the young women he met eyes with. However, Schindler fell for a beautiful young girl named Emily. After only six weeks of courtship, they were married. Sadly, after only a few months of marriage, Schindler began to heavily abuse alcohol. He also had several affairs resulting in two children out of wedlock. In 1929, during the Great Depression, the Schindler family business went bankrupt. At this time, Schindler’s father left his mother, and she died soon after. Finding himself jobless, Schindler sought work in nearby Poland as a machinery salesman. The saving of the first Schindler Jews began in 1939, when he came to Krakow in the wake of the German invasion. In Krakow, he took over two previously Jewish owned companies that dealt with the manufacture and sales of kitchenware products. In one of the businesses, however, Schindler was merely a trustee. Looking more for his own power, he opened up a small enamel shop right outside of Krakow near the Jewish ghetto. Here, he employed mostly Jewish workers. This in turn saved them from being...
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...[SCHINDLER’S LIST BY KAREN JØRGENSEN] 1 Schindler’s List The movie, by Steven Spielberg, stretches over 6 years, from 1939 to 1945, at the beginning World War II to the end of the Nazi regime. The movie follows Oskar Schindler, a Nazi made famous by saving 1.100 Jews from Auschwitz IIBirkenau. In 1939, the Nazis relocated the Polish Jews to the Krakow Ghetto, divided into two sections: A (Jews able to work) and B (Elderly and the infirm) as World War II began. Oskar Schindler comes to town in hopes that he can make money on the war, and he starts out by making many important Nazis his friends. Schindler starts up an Enamelware fabric, using Jews instead of Poles, because they are cheaper. He hires Izthak Stern, a Jewish accountant, to basically run his business, and as Stern hired the Jews, he made sure they were made Essential Workers, meaning they would be spared from concentration camps and/or death. Amon Goeth arrives in Krakow, where he will be overseeing Plazów concentration camp, a camp for the Jews of the Krakow Ghetto. Goeth orders the Krakow Ghetto section B to be exterminated and sends the section A Jews to Plazów. Schindler watches as the Nazis kills and terrorizes the Jewish Ghetto and obviously gains sympathy. Schindler befriends Goeth and talks/bribes him into letting some of the Jews work in his factory/sub-camp, this allows Schindler to both have his business run smoothly (by the help of Stern, who also helps Schindler bribe SS officials)...
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...Schindler’s List During the 1940’s the Holocaust stood in full effect, taking millions of Jews and placing them in concentration camps. By the end of the Holocaust the Nazi’s had killed over 6 million Jews. Resulting in only a small population of four thousand Jews left in Poland today, but to this day a generation of six thousand Jews lives because of one man. This man took into his safety 1,100 Jews, keeping them alive past the Holocaust, allowing them to grow and start new lives. In the movie Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg, Oskar Schindler risks his life to save the Jews not only for his own egotistical needs, but to also help the Jews he has come to know. For Oskar Schindler, saving the Jews comes as an act of egotism, saving them for his own personal gain. In the beginning, Oskar solely operates on popularity, gaining his power and prosperity in this manner. The movie introduces Oskar as a “victimizer” (Ebert), gaining his popularity by conning and bribing the Nazi’s. By giving the Nazi officers lavishing gifts such as champagne and cigars, Oskar works his way up the social ladder, making himself quite known in the Nazi community. In addition, with this respect, Schindler starts to use his power and popularity to his own advantage. As commented in Ebert’s review, because of Oskar’s popularity the “authorities are happy to help him open a factory to build enameled cooking utensils that army kitchens can use.” This allows Oskar to set up his factory and...
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...One of the greatest historical novels to be written in the 20th century, Schindler’s List is a true masterpiece written by Thomas Keneally several years after World War II. The book is set during World War II when Germany was under the reign of Adolf Hitler. Keneally, an Australian based writer was inspired to write the book by Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. Published in the year 1982, the book is a remarkable piece of literature that has won many awards including the Booker Prize in 1982. Keneally began his writing career as a writer who wrote ordinary books until he met Poldek Pfefferberg, the man who encouraged him to write Schindler’s List. Pfefferberg met Keneally in one of his stores and requested him to write the book, to raise awareness relating to the Holocaust system and the misery of thousands of Jews under the Nazis. At the same time, Keneally wanted the world to know about the good deeds of one man over evil. It was later made into a film in 1992, which won many academy awards as well. Schindler’s List tells the tale of a remarkable German businessman, Oskar Schindler, who with his wealth and manipulating abilities helps save the lives of thousands of Jews from being terminated by the Nazis. Keneally takes us back to 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and occupied its territory. Their extreme hatred towards the Jews forms one of the themes of this book. The Nazi soldiers were ordered to round up the Jewish families, separate the men and the...
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...Paper HUM/150 December 01, 2012 Film Viewer Opinion Paper In this paper I will talk about why I choose this film. With the Movie Schindler’s List your imagination has no limits while watching it. Schindler’s List might just be one of worst movies to watch because of the horrific events that happened to the Jewish people during World War Two. A businessman named Oskar Shindler goes to a new city in Nazi-occupied Poland with the dreams of making a lot of money off the Nazis by making products with Jewish slave labor. After starting the plant Oskar start to understand what the Nazis are doing to the Jewish people and then starts to help them save their lives. I would have to say I do not think there is nothing enjoyable about the movie but was a great movie. Even with the horrific and terror on the people it was meant to be done for the reason that to give it a documentary-style of cinematography and the timeless sense of the film (Wikipedia, 2012). It was the understanding of ones love of historical films which make it enjoyable to watch. This is one of the best films ever that conveyed the real horror of the Holocaust by the Nazis. “Schindler's List blends the abject horror of the Holocaust with Steven Spielberg's signature tender humanism to create the director's dramatic masterpiece” (Rotten Tomatoes 2012). The violence in Schindler’s List is unenjoyably, which makes a lasting impression on you after watching the movie. The violence in the film is trying to divulge the...
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...things, a black-and-white Holocaust drama. This came as a surprise, but it could never have prepared us for the experience of Schindler's List. And what an experience it is. It's not just another day at the movies, another piece of escapist fare. It is entertaining to be sure, but it is much more than that. It is gut-wrenching, emotional, and visionary. Sitting in the theater, I knew this was something special, a film and an experience I would never forget. Schindler's List is the true story of Oskar Schindler, an undeniably flawed man. A native German, he relocated to Cracow, Poland after it fell into German hands so he could capitalize on Jewish labor at slave wages. There he established an enamelware factory and made obscene amounts of money while wining, dining, and bribing Nazi officials to get his way. But while Schindler was profiting from the Jews' work, he was disgusted by the way the they were treated. He underwent an important change, slowly realizing that this was wrong and that he could do something about it. He began to use his money and influence to bring more Jews to his factory, a haven where they were not beaten or killed. By the end of World War II, Schindler's list of Jews to be saved had grown to over 1,000, and he had spent his entire fortune to buy their lives from the Nazis. To put it quite simply, the acting in Schindler's List is perfect. There is a literal cast of...
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...What is the theme of the movie? It is a 1993 American drama film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand (1100) Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust of World War II by employing these people in his factories. Oskar is just like most men. He has a love for good wine, beautiful women, and pursues happiness through the success of his business. But on his journey to a successful business, millions of Jews (6 millions) were being killed during a time which most label as one of the darkest periods of human history. What does “Schindler’s List” stand for? It stands for the Jewish workers that Schindler bought from the German officer, Goeth, to work in his factory, the 1100 Jewish people that he saved eventually. Who were the best performing characters of the movie? Liam Neeson does well (as Oskar Schindler), but in particular I liked Ben Kingsley (as Istak Stern, Schindler's accountant) and Ralph Fiennes (as Amon Goeth, the camp commandant). All of the performances were very convincing and reflect the good casting. What was the color of the movie? The color of the movie was mostly in black and whit. Black and white give a historical connotation to the movie which in my opinion made it very distinctive. There were a very few colorized scenes though (the Jews praying at the beginning/ the Jews putting small rocks on Schindler’s grave) Why do we still make movies about world war II? The story of the Holocaust needs...
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...Character types in Schindlers list: Oskar Schindler: Oskar Schindler, war profiteer, womanizer, and Nazi Party member, becomes the unlikely hero and savior of about 1,100 Polish Jews during the Holocaust. He is essentially a con artist and moderately successful businessman who recognizes the potential for profit in wartime. He buys a formerly Jewish-owned enamelware factory and uses bribery and ingratiation to procure military contracts to make war supplies. At the beginning of his quest to become rich, he is indifferent to the Jewish situation, which he sees as merely an unfortunate result of war. A playboy with a large ego, Schindler routinely cheats on his wife and joins the Nazi Party not for ideological reasons but because it will help him make more money. Although he purchases the factory after it has been confiscated from Jewish owners and is given an apartment appropriated from wealthy Jews, Schindler feels no remorse and does not consider the origins of his good fortune. Schindler, initially concerned only with himself and the success of his moneymaking scheme, undergoes a change that prompts him to spend his fortune to save the lives of those he once exploited. His motive is never completely clear—and indeed, the real Schindler never revealed his motivations. However, the film does suggest that at least one of his incentives was obvious: Schindler simply could not sit by and watch people he knew be sent to death. His metamorphosis from a man of indifference to one...
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...Auteur Theory says that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur" (the French word for "author"). In spite of the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process.” Auteur is a french word meaning ‘ Author’ Arising in France in the late 1940s, the auteur theory it was dubbed by the American film critic Andrew Sarris was an outgrowth of the cinematic theories. The features of being an auteur include; 1 having a recognizable style, 2 repeatedly returning to the same subject mater, 3 habitually address a particular psychological or moral theme, 4 employ a reoccurring visual and aesthetic style, 5 constantly work with the same actors or cinametogarphers or editors…ect , or demonstrate any combination of the above. Steven Spielberg is an auteur and today I am going to prove it. I will show you through his use of themes, subject matter, visual style, Collaborations, and Institutions. Steven Allan Spielberg was born to parents Arnold and Leahanni Spielberg. The older brother to three younger sisters, Spielberg began experimenting with film in his early teens making movies he would show at his family house. At 13, Spielberg was already showing glimpses of future greatness, even winning a prize for his 40-minute war film 'Escape to Nowhere'. The family often moved with his...
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...The germans occupation of Poland was an ideal situation for a man like Oskar Schindler, a businessman and opportunist. Krakow was made seat of government for Nazi-occupied Poland. As more Officers and SS troop entered the city, new ways to profit from the conflict arose. One of the first scenes in the movie shows Schindler for the opportunist he was. He is shown drinking, laughing with and befriending high ranking Nazi Officers. The Nazis brought new opportunities for profit and Schindler makes sure to cultivate the right contacts to assure that he will secure his share. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. In real life, within a week of the invasion, Schindler moved to Krakow to find a way to benefit from the Nazis occupation. During this time he met Itzhak Stern. With money he borrowed from aquaintences of Stern’s, Schindler purchased a kitchenware factory and opened it in 1940 He hired Stern as his accountant and used Jews from Kracow ghetto as his work force. During this time Shindler had cultivated friendships with Officers in both the German Army and the SS. Through these friendships and with a few bribes, Schindler was able to secure numerous army contracts for pots and pans manufactured in his newly opened kitchenware factory. The persecution of Jews began immediately after the German Occupation. The Germans took over Jewish properties and seized companies, houses and valuables. The Jewish living quarter, know as the Krakow Ghetto was created on March 3...
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...Schindler’s list The movie began in 1939, and Schindler was very into alcohol, womanizing, and making money. He bought a Jewish factory in Krakow called Deutsche Email Fabrik. In order get the resources necessary; he talked to his key contact throughout the entire movie, a Jewish accountant by the name of Itzhak Stern. Stern informed him that Jewish labor was cheaper than Polish Labor. Schindler, of course being interested in having a higher profit, went and hired the Jews, thus beginning his relationship with them. The produced pots, pans, basins, and other items as such, and then later on, munitions. At certain points in the movie, it was hard to tell that he was changing. At certain moments, it seemed like he was, but then the next second, he would turn around and act the same as he always did. Such as when Stern brought in the one-armed Jew to thank him for giving him a job, and while he was there, he seemed happy to be able to be helping this man, but as soon as the man left, he turned around to Stern and said, “Don’t ever do that to me again. That man has one arm, he is of no use.” There were many other moments in the movie though when you could tell that he was changing, such as when he was convincing that Nazi soldier friend of his’ slave/mistress that he actually does care about her and then kisses her on the forehead and tells her that everything will be okay. He eventually then buys her from him to save her. Another scene was the girl in the red coat...
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...Journal Entries: Reflection and Reader Response • Journal Entry 1: “What does it mean to be a soldier?” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry 2: “Only the dead see the end of war…” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #3: “How does being a solider change a man (or woman)? Are people changed for better or worse or both? What is the effect on the person, and what is the effect on the nation?” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #4: “Reflect on the duality of words. How do words hold infinite power in their ability to simultaneously create and destroy? How do words affect conflict? How do they affect people?” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #5: “Who or what determines our respective identities? Who or what makes you who you are? Why? How? Is it fair? Do we have control over who we are? Who we are perceived to be?” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #6: “What does Oscar Schindler prove about people amid war and destruction? What characters have we encountered thus far in the semester who could also fit into this category? Why is it so important we remember them and tell their stories?” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #7: “What does it mean to have courage? Is it truly more honorable to die than to live? Is this always the case? If not, reflect on the ambiguity of such a statement.” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #8: “What tangibles and intangibles do you carry with you every day? Why are they important to you?” (Reflection/RR) • Journal Entry #9: “In your opinion, can there...
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