![]() Israelis and Palestinians warring over a homeland is far from unique ![]() It was written by: Ben McCann, University of Adelaide. A unique collaboration between academics and journalists. This article is republished from The Conversation is the world's leading publisher of research-based news and analysis. Read more: 1973: a golden year for film that rewrote the rules of cinema When he returned to college in 2002 to completed a bachelor of arts he had started – but never finished – in 1969, he submitted Schindler’s List for course credit. Its message of courage in the face of tyranny seems just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.Īnd it would have another role to play for Spielberg. War of the Worlds (2005), The Adventure of Tintin (2011) and Ready Player One (2018) all remind us of “early Spielberg”, but Schindler’s List was the film that finally convinced Hollywood to take Spielberg seriously. Spielberg has not entirely turned entirely turned his back on his blockbuster entertainment roots. Schindler’s List paved the way for Spielberg to engage with other important historical events in Saving Private Ryan (1998), Amistad (1997) and Bridge of Spies (2015). He also became a vocal champion for the teaching of history in American schools, with the film used to illustrate the importance of bearing witness to historical atrocities and hatred. In 1994, with the proceeds from the film, Spielberg established the USC Shoah Foundation, an institute dedicated to collecting interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. Jean-Luc Godard was particularly caustic, while Stanley Kubrick argued the film’s chief failing was its humanising of Oskar Schindler and Spielberg’s relentless need to create a flawed, but human, hero. Bill Clinton implored audiences to see it.īut it was also condemned for being didactic, emotionally manipulative and a crass oversimplification of history. Roger Ebert called it the best Spielberg had ever made. The film was widely praised on its release. Read more: Jurassic Park at 30: how its CGI revolutionised the film industry Spielberg was working on two epoch-defining films simultaneously, yet they were completely different in tone, visual style and cultural impact. Spielberg shot on location just outside Auschwitz in the winter of 1992 during the day, and at night worked on the post-production for Jurassic Park, which he had shot in Hawaii six months earlier. In another, Schindler celebrates his birthday while Göth beats his maid and a wedding takes place inside a labour camp. A mass killing scene is interspersed with footage of an SS officer playing Bach on a piano. Spielberg’s use of cross-cutting is meticulous. ![]() It marks a radical turning point in Schindler’s moral development. As Schindler looks on in horror, he spots a young girl in a red raincoat. It also suited the sober approach to the unfolding of devastating historical events.įamously, the film’s centrepiece – a shattering 15-minute scene in which the Nazis ferociously liquidate the Kraków ghetto – contains the film’s only use of colour. But the choice of black and white did not just suggest “the past”. He and his trusted cinematographer, Janusz Kamiński, wanted the film to resemble archival footage. Apart from a brief opening and coda, the film remains the only black and white film Spielberg has ever shot. There are no zooms or dolly shots, no smooth Steadicam tracking shots or soaring soundtrack. The director’s trademark flourishes are absent. Much of the film details the personal interactions between the two men as Schindler observes the cruelties visited upon Polish Jews and sacrifices his fortune to save as many of them as he can.Īt over three hours long, Schindler’s List remains Spielberg’s longest film. He picked the then largely unknown Liam Neeson as the charismatic Schindler and Ralph Fiennes as Amon Göth, the vicious SS commandant. By the early 1990s, dismayed by what he perceived as a rising tide of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, Spielberg understood it was finally time to make the film.ĭespite containing a few historical inaccuracies, Schindler’s List was instrumental in creating what historian Peter Novick called a “ Holocaust consciousness”.
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