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By Jl87d (Jl87d) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 08:32 am: Edit

Very Boring! Mind you I was 12 when I watched it, my view might be different watching it now. I remember it being very long and it putting me to sleep.

By Luv (Luv) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 09:26 am: Edit

yah , abt 3 hours totally

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 11:38 am: Edit

Awesome movie. Haunting music score, awesome cinematography, brilliant acting (especially Kingsley, Neeson and Fiennes) and gripping story. One of the top 10 movies of the 90s.

By Marite (Marite) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 11:44 am: Edit

I agree with Alexandre. My S was 14 when he watched it with us and was incredibly moved as were we. I happened to talk to relatives of people who had been on Schindler's List after the movie and had extremely interesting discussions about Schindler and his motives.

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 12:08 pm: Edit

Fabulous film. Easily one of the best films ever made. It was long overdue for DVD when it was released last year.

Not to take anything away from "Schindler's List", but I found "The Pianist" to be a more painful film to watch. Schindler's protects the viewer by holds the audience just a little bit at arm's length, whereas "The Pianist" pulls the viewer SO close to individual characters that it becomes an intensely emotional film to watch. Spielberg does the same thing with the Tom Hanks character in "Private Ryan".

I think that Spielberg's somewhat more documentary style was essential to making "Schindler's List" viewable.

By Marite (Marite) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 02:48 pm: Edit

I agree with ID. I found The Pianist to be absolutely painful because it is so personal. Both are based on real stories.

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 03:30 pm: Edit

I saw "Schindler's List" and "The Pianist" as perfect "bookends" for the same story. Seeing one gives the breadth and the other the personal depth of the tragedy. Two very powerful, enlightening films.

By Jess13 (Jess13) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 04:19 pm: Edit

I haven't seen Schindler's List because I was always too young when the occasion came up; I have seen The Pianist which was...I don't know how to explain it, it was just incredibly painful. I agree with the the observation that it brings you so close to the characters. Adrian Brody gave an absolutely brilliant performance.

By Dudedad (Dudedad) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 05:55 pm: Edit

Schindler's List was broader in scope to me. It tried to capture the essence of Spielberg's vision of the holocaust.

Yes, Saving Private Ryan and the Pianist were very intense...like you were there.

By Vancat (Vancat) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 06:02 pm: Edit

The Band of Brothers series was possibly the greatest film about WW2 ever made.

By Dudedad (Dudedad) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 08:14 pm: Edit

Life is Beautiful...wonderful/bittersweet story of survival

By Thinkingoutloud (Thinkingoutloud) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Schindler's List was fantastic, but I could not figure out why the little girl was the only one shown in color. Can someone enlighten me.

By Luv (Luv) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 12:11 am: Edit

Thank you for your comments

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 12:48 am: Edit

On the most simple level, the girl's red coat allows us to recognize her in a mass grave late in the movie.

On a more symbolic level, the girl in the red coat personifies human qualities: innocence, personality, youth, and so and so forth. Something like the holocaust can only occur when people view it in the abstract -- abstract numbers, abstract events -- without a personal face. You can see this in Spielberg's need to hold us slightly at arm's length (and the black and white documentary style was part of that) just so that we could even stand to watch the film. The girl in the red coat puts the events in human terms.

Finally, I have read that the girl in the red coat came directly from Schindler's own accounts. As he stood on the hill watching the destruction of the ghetto, he saw a little girl in a red coat lost in the chaos. He apparently has claimed that seeing the girl was the moment he realized the atrocity of what was happening.

By 3togo (3togo) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:49 am: Edit

I think Schindler's list is a terrifc movie (I own it and I own very few dramas). I would recommend being in a pretty good mood when you see it ... because, if the movie works for you, it can drag you down a bit because it is pretty intense.

By Cyclingdad (Cyclingdad) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 12:12 pm: Edit

I agree that Schindler's List and The Pianist complement each other very well. Schindler is a complex figure who takes heroic action, and achieves a heroic goal, although his motives aren't entirely clear or entirely heroic. The Pianist survives. What struck me was that his story was one of reaction. He was helped by people (who were themselves heroic), and by accepting such help and not giving up, he survived. I saw him as close to helpless to do anything to affect his outcome. Lots of good "compare and contrast" topics in these two films.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 03:06 pm: Edit

Although not Jewish (I am Arab), it is a subject which probably impacts every race, religion and nationality. The inhumanity of the epoch must serve as a warning to all. I have seen a dozen or so films on the subject. Most were excellent. Schindler's List, the Pianist and Life is Beautiful are all excellent.

There are some excellent French movies made on the subject too. I recommend the following.

For those who want to see the ultimate cinematic depiction of the Holocaust, I recommend a French documentary on the subject. It is called "Shoah". It was directed by Frenchman, Claude Lanzmann I believe. Be warned, it is not for the faint of heart. It is a very detailed and very accurate account of the Holocaust seen by the oppressed and the oppressor. It is over 8 hours of excruciating visual and auditory torture. But it is worth watching.

Another excellent movie on the Holocaust is "Europa! Europa!" Yet another French movie that so brilliantly depicts the horrors and inhumanity of the era.

"Au Revoir Les Enfants" is yet another great French movie on the subject. The ending made me cry. I have ever only cried in two movies. "West Beirut", which is personal since I am Lebanese, and "Au Revoir Les Enfants".

By Marite (Marite) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 03:54 pm: Edit

Compare and contrast:
When Schindler's List came out, I heard discussions between two people who had relatives who had been saved by Schindler. One person argued for the goodness of Schindler. His motives may have been self-serving at the beginning, she argued, but in the end, he was truly heroic and she was grateful to him for saving her aunt. The other person said that Schindler was always motivated by his own interest; he wanted cheap labor, and he got it. She did not feel that her mother owed him a debt of gratitude because in saving his employees, he had first and foremost helped himself.
The discussion went on for several weeks without resulting in an agreement.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 05:33 pm: Edit

But Marite, didn't Schindler lose all his money bribing Nazi officials in order to keep the employees he saved? I know that Schindler was a bint of a ladies man and a gambler. Maybe even a rogue. But didn't he die pennyless as a result of his effort.

By Marite (Marite) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 06:01 pm: Edit

Alexandre:

I was just reporting two very different views by two children of Holocaust survivors. The person who expressed gratitude for Schindler was herself hidden by polish gentiles for two years (she was a young child) and tends to see good in other people. The other person is by nature a bit more hard-bitten. I was on the side of considering Schindler a hero (in my book, heroes do not have to be perfect human beings or have the purest of motives).

By Fabrizio (Fabrizio) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 07:29 pm: Edit

Very good film.