Schindler’s List is the amazing story of Oskar Schindler, a Sudeten-German Catholic businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust. The Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Grammy winning movie was released in 1993 and directed by Steven Spielberg. It was adapted from the book Schindler’s Ark, by Thomas Keneally. The title of the film refers to the list of names of the 1,100 Jews Schindler hired to work in his factory in order to keep them from Nazi concentration camps. Schindler’s List is consistently ranked as one of the greatest movies of all time. The American Film Institute has it ranked as the ninth best domestic film.

As for the production of the film, Roman Polanski was first asked to direct the film; but, having survived the Kraków Ghetto himself, he passed. He believed it would be too personal and bring up too many harsh memories that he was not able to deal with at the time. Martin Scorsese was also asked, but he felt it should be made by a Jewish director and traded it to Spielberg in exchange for the rights to the remake of Cape Fear. As Steven Spielberg signed on to direct the film, he refused payment because he believed it would be like “taking blood money.” The movie was shot almost entirely in black and white except for the prologue and epilogue in color, a little girl’s red coat in two scenes, and color candle flames in another.

Schindler’s List is one of my most favorite films of all time. I first watched it middle school when we were learning about the Holocaust and eventually taking a class trip to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The movie is so powerful in so many ways; it just rips out my emotions. Any movie that can do that is amazing. It was also brilliant to film the movie in black and white because it brings out era of the story and adds emotional effect.

Brent Bauscher

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