"This list... is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf. "

     Considering that my last post was about equality and the fight for justice, I find it only fitting to dedicate this next entry to one of the most epic and powerful movies in all of film history:Schindler's List. Released in 1993 under the direction of Steven Spielberg, the movie stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley. Spielberg directed the film of the premise of Thomas Keneally's novel Schindler's Ark. Both the book and the movie tell the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman, who saved more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. After it's release, the film won seven oscars. Some of the oscars won were best picture, best original score and best director. The American Film Institute in 2007 selected the 100 greatest movies ever made- Schindler's List was in eighth place. 

Part of what makes this movie so memorable, aside from the fact that is about genocide, is both the music and the cinematography. Spielberg decided to forgo storyboards when planning this film out, because he decided to shoot the movie as if it were a documentary. Forty percent of the cameras used in the film were handheld. Spielberg also decided to film in black and white because he wanted the film to appear timeless. Also, most of the images of the Holocaust are only seen in black and white, so Spielberg only found it fitting to film in black and white. John Williams produced the score for the movie, and he at first was so overcome by the film, that he felt a better composer was needed to accurately compose music for this film.

However, the most griping part of the movie for me was the little girl in the red coat. I don't think anything else in any other movie has moved me so much as seeing that little girl, my eyes are even welling up now, as I write about her. The little represents the change in Schindler, not to mention the many other people who watch the movie. To me at least, the little girl represents the importance of equality, justice, wisdom, peace and tolerance. More often then not, when people discuss this movie, they always mention the little girl.

There is nothing glamourous about this film, nothing that gives you hope, it is a war story and true war stories are not supposed to leave you uplifted. This a story of the war between humans. The movie ends letting the audience know that at the time of the release of the film there were fewer then 4,000 Jews left in Poland while there were more then 6,000 descendants of Schindler Jews worldwide. This is an emotionally-draining film, but a film that everyone sound view.