This paper provides a close analysis of Steven Spielberg's 1993 Academy Award–winning film Schindler's List, based on Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark. The analysis covers the film's central narrative — Oskar Schindler's transformation from a self-interested German businessman into a man who risked everything to save Polish Jewish workers from Nazi persecution. The paper also examines Spielberg's deliberate stylistic choices, including the use of handheld cameras and black-and-white cinematography to evoke a documentary realism, the production design challenges those choices created, and John Williams's celebrated musical score featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman and authentic Klezmer elements.
Schindler's List is a 1993 motion picture based on the life of Oskar Schindler, as chronicled in the book Schindler's Ark. Schindler, a German businessman, employed thousands of Polish Jews in his factories to hide them from Nazi persecution. The film received seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Score, and was ranked by the American Film Institute as the 8th best film in its list of the top 100 American films of all time. With a production budget of approximately $22–25 million, the film surpassed all commercial expectations, earning $321 million as of 2009 (Schindler's List, 2010).
The story revolves around Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who bribes a local Nazi leader to secure factory contracts in the areas surrounding the Polish Ghetto. Schindler is awarded a factory that produces army mess kits. Having no business or factory management experience, he turns to Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), who has contacts and expertise in the Polish black market. Although the workers are unpaid, Schindler and Stern ensure that the documents they carry identify them as essential to the war effort, thereby saving them from the concentration camps.
Meanwhile, SS Captain Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives to construct the Płaszów Concentration Camp. Schindler watches the roundup and massacre from a window and is emotionally devastated. He ultimately bribes Goeth into allowing him to build a sub-camp for his workers. Over the course of the film, Schindler evolves from a selfish and one-dimensional opportunist into a man of deep compassion and concern for his fellow human beings.
"Schindler's List" — the roster of as many employees as possible — becomes the instrument that keeps them alive. Schindler institutes firm controls over the guards, forbids torture, allows the prisoners to observe the Sabbath, and ensures they receive as much food as circumstances permit. Just as he runs out of money, the Nazis surrender, ending the war in Europe. However, Schindler is recorded in Nazi files as a Party member and beneficiary of slave labor. The film closes with a touching eulogy to Schindler, who, through his actions, ensured that a number of Polish Jews survived the war (Overview for Schindler's List, 2010).
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film is both epic and intimate in style, shot more like a documentary than a conventional feature film. Approximately 40% of the film was captured with handheld cameras, and the modest budget required principal photography to be completed in under three months. According to Spielberg, this constraint proved artistically liberating: "It gave the film a spontaneity, an edge, and it also serves the subject…. I got rid of the crane, the Steadicam, and the zoom lenses…. Just everything for me that might be considered a safety net" (McBride, 1997, pp. 429–433). Spielberg was far more concerned with making an artistic film than a commercial blockbuster — a priority that also informed his decision to shoot almost entirely in black and white (Corliss and Harbinson, 1994).
Stylistically, the combination of documentary aesthetics and Spielberg's familiarity with the visual language of war films gives the picture a stark look — not beautiful or inviting, but deeply affecting nonetheless. Because film crews had grown so accustomed to working in color, the production designer had to rework the sets, adjusting them to appear darker or lighter in contrast to the actors when rendered in black and white. Similarly, costumes had to be chosen with careful attention to their tonal value and texture relative to the sets and performers (Schindler's List — Behind the Scenes Production Notes, 2010).
"Set and costume challenges in black-and-white filming"
"Williams's score, Perlman solos, and Klezmer integration"
The film is a powerful portrait of the intimate life of someone faced with horror. It asks us the question: "What would we do?" The film also demonstrates how the actions of a single human being can be profoundly consequential for others. Though Schindler's List is shot in black and white, one recurring symbol stands apart: a little girl in a red coat. She appears at various points throughout the film, and later — almost to remind the audience of how randomly fleeting life is — she is seen among the dead, recognizable only by the distinctive tone of her coat. This image encapsulates the film's moral core, transforming an overwhelming historical atrocity into an intimate, irreducible human loss.
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