Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
Ideas for a film about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963. Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden, made it his life's mission to tell Schindler's story. Spielberg became interested when executive Sidney Sheinberg sent him a book review of Schindler's Ark. Universal Pictures bought the rights to the novel, but Spielberg, unsure if he was ready to make a film about the Holocaust, tried to pass the project to several directors before deciding to direct it himself.
Principal photography took place in Kraków, Poland, over 72 days in 1993. Spielberg shot in black-and-white and approached the film as a documentary. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński wanted to create a sense of timelessness. John Williams composed the score, and violinist Itzhak Perlman performed the main theme.
Schindler's List premiered on November 30, 1993, in Washington, D.C., and was released on December 15, 1993, in the United States. Often listed among the greatest films ever made the film received widespread critical acclaim for its tone, acting, atmosphere, score, cinematography, and Spielberg's direction; it was also a box office success, earning $322.2 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. It was nominated for twelve awards at the 66th Academy Awards, and won seven, including Best Picture. The film won numerous other awards, including seven BAFTAs and three Golden Globes. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked Schindler's List 8th on its list of the 100 greatest American films. The film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress in 2004 and selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.
Plot[]
In Kraków during World War II, the Nazis force local Polish Jews into the overcrowded Kraków Ghetto. Oskar Schindler, a German Nazi Party member from Czechoslovakia, arrives in the city, hoping to make his fortune. He bribes Wehrmacht (German armed forces) and SS officials, acquiring a factory to produce enamelware. Schindler hires Itzhak Stern, a Jewish official with contacts among black marketeers and the Jewish business community; he handles administration and helps Schindler arrange financing. Stern ensures that as many Jewish workers as possible were deemed essential to the German war effort to prevent them from being taken by the SS to concentration camps or killed. Meanwhile, Schindler maintains friendly relations with the Nazis and enjoys his new wealth and status as an industrialist.
SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to oversee construction of the Płaszów concentration camp. When the camp is ready, he orders the ghetto liquidated: two thousand Jews are transported to Płaszów, and two thousand others are killed in the streets by the SS. Schindler witnesses the massacre and is profoundly affected. He particularly notices a young girl in a red coat who hides from the Nazis and later sees her body on a wagonload of corpses. Schindler is careful to maintain his friendship with Göth and continues to enjoy SS support, mostly through bribery. Göth brutalizes his Jewish maid Helen Hirsch and randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa; the prisoners are in constant fear for their lives. As time passes, Schindler's focus shifts from making money to trying to save as many lives as possible. To better protect his workers, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp at his factory.
As the Germans begin losing the war, Göth is ordered to ship the remaining Jews at Płaszów to Auschwitz concentration camp. Schindler asks Göth for permission to move his workers to a munitions factory he plans to build in Brünnlitz near his hometown of Zwittau. Göth reluctantly agrees but charges a huge bribe. Schindler and Stern prepare a list of people to be transferred to Brünnlitz instead of Auschwitz. The list eventually includes 1,100 names.
As the Jewish workers are transported by train to Brünnlitz, the women and girls are mistakenly redirected to Auschwitz-Birkenau; Schindler bribes Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, for their release. At the new factory, Schindler forbids the SS guards from entering the production area without permission and encourages the Jews to observe the Sabbath. Over the next seven months, he spends his fortune bribing Nazi officials and buying shell casings from other companies. Due to Schindler's machinations, the factory produces no usable armaments. He runs out of money in 1945, just as Germany surrenders.
As a Nazi Party member and war profiteer, Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army to avoid capture. The SS guards at the factory have been ordered to kill the Jewish workforce, but Schindler persuades them not to do so. Bidding farewell to his workers, he prepares to head west, hoping to surrender to the Americans. The workers give him a signed statement attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives and present him with a ring engraved with a Talmudic quotation: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire". Schindler breaks down in tears, feeling he should have done more, and is comforted by the workers before he and his wife leave in their car. When the Schindlerjuden awaken the next morning, a mounted Soviet officer announces that they have been liberated but warns them not to go east because "they hate you there". The Jews then walk into the countryside.
An epilogue reveals that Göth was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed via hanging, while Schindler's marriage and businesses failed following the war. In the present, many of the surviving Schindlerjuden and the actors portraying them visit Schindler's grave and place stones on its marker (a traditional Jewish sign of respect for the dead), after which Liam Neeson lays two roses.
Cast[]
- Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler
- Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern
- Ralph Fiennes as Amon Göth
- Caroline Goodall as Emilie Schindler
- Jonathan Sagall as Poldek Pfefferberg
- Embeth Davidtz as Helen Hirsch
- Małgorzata Gebel as Wiktoria Klonowska
- Mark Ivanir as Marcel Goldberg
- Beatrice Macola as Ingrid
- Andrzej Seweryn as Julian Scherner
- Friedrich von Thun as Rolf Czurda
- Jerzy Nowak as Investor
- Norbert Weisser as Albert Hujar
- Albert Misak as Mordecai Wulkan
- Michael Gordon as Mr. Nussbaum
- Aldona Grochal as Mrs. Nussbaum
- Uri Avrahami as Chaim Nowak
- Michael Schneider as Juda Dresner
- Miri Fabian as Chaja Dresner
- Anna Mucha as Danka Dresner
- Adi Nitzan as Mila Pfefferberg
- Jacek Wójcicki as Henry Rosner
- Beata Paluch as Manci Rosner
- Piotr Polk as Leo Rosner
- Bettina Kupfer as Regina Perlman
- Grzegorz Kwas as Mietek Pemper
- Kamil Krawiec as Olek Rosner
- Henryk Bista as Mr. Löwenstein
- Ezra Dagan as Rabbi Menasha Levartov
- Rami Heuberger as Joseph Bau
- Elina Löwensohn as Diana Reiter
- Krzysztof Luft as Herman Toffel
- Harry Nehring as Leo John
- Wojciech Klata as Lisiek
- Paweł Deląg as Dolek Horowitz
- Hans-Jörg Assmann as Julius Madritsch
- August Schmölzer as Dieter Reeder
- Hans-Michael Rehberg as Rudolf Höß
- Daniel Del Ponte as Josef Mengele
- Adam Siemion as Adam Levy
- Jochen Nickel as Wilhelm Kunde
- Ludger Pistor as Josef Leipold
- Oliwia Dąbrowska as the Girl in Red