The film "Schindler's List": reviews and reviews, plot, actors

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Every year more and more good and not so good content is added to the treasury of cinema. The film industry continues to gain momentum, constantly coming up with new special effects, as well as filming remakes of old productions.

However, there are masterpieces created only once, which are unlikely to ever be decided to reshoot. One of such achievements of cinema is the film "Schindler's List" in 1993.

Making the Movie: Getting Started

In 1983 Steven Spielberg (director and producer) gets a book called Schindler's Ark. Its author is Thomas Keneally, who took a story from the real life of Poldek Pfefferber, a Jew who was saved thanks to the German industrialist Oskar Schindler.

Poldek was burning with the idea of revealing to the whole world the name of the savior of the Jews, because the first attempt to shoot an autobiographical work was made back in 1963 by screenwriter Howard Koch. However, this did not take place.

Continued: 10 years later

StephenSpielberg, having read the novel, was inspired, but the decision to create a project dedicated to the Holocaust was rather difficult for him. Despite the fact that Universal Studios acquired the right to implement this project in the same year, the director took up work only after 10 years. During this period, Spielberg repeatedly tried to pass the work to others, this list included: Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski. Each of them refused for personal reasons.

The filming of the film "Schindler's List", reviews of which are presented in the article, lasted a total of 72 days and was completed 4 days ahead of schedule.

Storyline

In 1939, by order of the Nazi command, Jews were required to arrive in big cities for registration and resettlement in ghettos (places for isolating Jews from all others).

At this time, German industrialist Oskar Schindler arrives in Krakow to set up a factory that will produce enamelware.

After obtaining all the permissions for the desired idea, Oscar only needs to back it up with a monetary base. Starting from the poor situation of the Jews driven into the ghetto, Schindler makes a profitable offer to the rich Jews, which they cannot refuse: due to the inability to use their money (due to the ban imposed by the Nazis), they exchange them for goods offered by Oscar.

The very management of the factory Schindler gives into the hands of Itzhak Stern, who at that time ismember of the local Jewish council. The people willingly decide to work for a German industrialist, because in this way they can leave the hated ghetto at least for a while. To help his brothers, Stern skillfully forges documents that confirm their professional skills.

Things are going uphill, and Schindler is swimming in money. He is convinced of his theory about the war: it is precisely such cruel conditions that guarantee the prosperity of business.

However, the views of the protagonist begin to change precisely at the moment when the German officer Amon Geth arrives in Krakow. The purpose of his arrival is the order to liquidate the ghetto.

Schindler, increasingly filled with humanism, specifically enlists the support of Geta to further save his workers.

When Amon receives another order to close the Plaszow camp and send the Jews from it to Auschwitz for extermination, Schindler uses his previously acquired useful connections, thus persuading him to leave his workers alive. Schindler, along with Stern, begin to draw up a list of those who will have to avoid one of the most terrible deaths - Auschwitz. It was this picture that served as the title of the film, the slogan of which reads: "This list is life."

Most of his workers get to Czechoslovakia without any problems, where they will have to continue to work in Schindler's hometown of Zwittau-Brinnlitz. However, allgoes wrong when a train full of women and children is mistakenly sent to a concentration camp. Everything would have ended in tragedy if it were not for the main character who gave a bribe to a high-ranking official.

All the money that the factory brings to Schindler, he spends on bribing the officers guarding his enterprise, until the war ends and Germany surrenders.

As a "fascist and slave owner" Schindler needs to go on the run. In parting, the saved Jews give him a letter and a gold ring made from the dental crowns of one of the workers.

The next morning, a Red Army officer arrives with good news, announcing that the Jews are now free. Workers are sent to the nearest settlement.

Latest episodes

The end of the film "Schindler's List" penetrates to the depths of the soul: real shots are shown in which the saved Jews and their descendants lay stones on the grave of their hero. In the most recent episode, a man whose face is hidden places flowers on the monument. This person is the actor who played Schindler himself.

The original list of saved Jews was found only in 2000, 7 years after the picture was taken. It had 800 men, 300 women and 100 children.

Oscar Schindler died in 1974 and was buried in Israel - in the place of the people who survived thanks to him. The phrase from the film is posthumously carved on the grave: "He who saves one life saves the whole world."

The actors of the film "Schindler's List" 1993

Large scalethe picture has about 150 roles, it took the dubbing actors about 4 months to translate into Russian to complete the dubbing.

William John Neeson took charge of the lead role of the German industrialist and savior of Jewish souls and was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a British Academy Film Award for Best Actor.

The role of Itzhak Stern was played by the already Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley, also known for the film "Shutter Island", "Slevin's Lucky Number" and others.

The main anti-hero in the film "Schindler's List" in 1993, Amon Goeth, was played by Ralph Fiennes, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The actor was so similar to his prototype that when he met the former prisoner of Auschwitz, Mila Pfefferberg, the latter could not help trembling with excitement.

For this role, Rafe even specially recovered by 13 kilograms. According to Spielberg, he invited this actor because of his sexuality, which is the devil himself.

The role of Oscar Schindler's wife was played by actress Caroline Goodall, known for the films "White Squall", "Silver Wind" and others.

Also in the film "Schindler's List" was attended by such actors as Embeth Davidtz, Jonathan Segal, Malgosz Goebel, Shmuel Levy and others.

Dubbing

The film was translated into many languages, and Russia becameexception.

In the dubbing of the film "Schindler's List" in 1993, the actors did their best. About 150 people were involved in the process.

Only some known to Russians:

• Andrey Martynov (Oscar Schindler);
• Aleksey Borzunov (Itzhak Stern);
• Andrey Tashkov (Amon Get) and others.

Reviews

There are many reviews of critics and audience responses to this cinematic picture. We can say that the public rightly appreciated the sentimental picture, which could hardly leave anyone indifferent.

According to the reviews of "KinoPoisk", the film "Schindler's List" is in the top 250 of the best and takes 4th place in it, leaving behind only three of the same brilliant films: "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Green Mile" and Forrest Gump.

As a percentage, 91% are positive reviews, the remaining 9% includes both negative and neutral reviews of the film.

Reviews of the film "Schindler's List" in 1993 present a different vision of the picture. On one point, however, most opinions agree: no one is forgotten, and nothing will be forgotten.

Music from "Schindler's List"

In 1994, the author of brilliant works, John Williams, received an Oscar statuette, and a year later he was awarded the Grammy Award.

The original score was written with violinist Itzhak Perlman. The album bears the same name to the film and includes 14tracks.

Achievements

In the top of the best films "Schindler's List" can rightly be put in the top five masterpieces. The success of the picture was legitimized by the whole 7 statuettes "Oscar":

• best film;
• best director (Steven Spielberg);
• best camera work (Janusz Kaminsky);
• Best Screenplay (Steven Zaillian);
• Best Editing (Michael Kahn);
• best scenery (Allan Starsky);
• Best Original Score (John Williams).

Budget and fees

The picture "Schindler's List" is the most expensive black-and-white film in the history of cinema (its budget is 25 million dollars).

U. S. box office totaled around $96M and worldwide grossed around $225M.

Interesting twist: Steven Spielberg refused his earned fee, believing it to be "blood money". Instead, he decided to establish the Shoah Foundation on them, the meaning of which was to store documents, testimonies and interviews of victims of extermination, which included the Holocaust.

Interesting facts

• It took Steven Spielberg 10 years to complete this painting.
• Thanks to the director and film director Billy Wilder, who managed to work on the first draft of the script, Spielberg agreed to the future masterpiece. It was Wilder who persuaded him to take this serious, but correct, as was confirmed in the future, step.
• The scene showing the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto took only onepage, in connection with which Spielberg decided to stretch the picture to 20 pages, as well as up to 20 minutes of film adaptation. He was helped to recreate the episode by eyewitness accounts of those terrible events.
• Auschwitz refused a request to shoot the film in it, so the director had to do a lot of work, namely: to recreate scenery nearby, imitating this concentration camp in detail.
• Because it was decided in advance that Schindler's List would be shown in black and white, nothing that had a green tint could be used in the filming, as it could adversely affect the black and white film.
• Almost 40% of the filming was done in a mode that requires a hand-held movie camera.
• The crew needed to outfit 20,000 extras, so costume designer Anna B. Sheppard posted an ad in Poland stating that the studio needed wartime clothing. Due to the difficult situation in the country at that time, the Poles were very willing to sell things from the 30s and 40s.
• Despite the fact that the film is black and white, the color still appears in it, but only once. It is at this moment that the consciousness of the protagonist turns over when the image of a little girl in a red coat appears before him. The red coat is the main idea of the whole picture. The rave reviews for Schindler's List after this episode were not long in coming.

• The real Schindler's List was put up for auction in 2013.
• It is from thisfilm began a collaboration between Spielberg and Kaminsky, which continues to this day. All future pictures of Stephen began to shoot only Janusz.
• Roman Polanski (the author of the famous film "The Pianist") refused Spielberg's offer to take the plot under his wing for the reason that his past was closely intertwined with the theme: the director's childhood until the age of 8 passed near the Krakow ghetto, from where he escaped on the day of liquidation. However, his mother did not escape and later died in Auschwitz.
• Spielberg originally considered making the film in Polish and German with English sub titles.
• Singer and actor Pete Doherty's lawyer, whose name was Emon Sherry, committed suicide after seeing this picture. According to his wife, detailed demonstrations of concentration camps influenced his psyche.
• According to the plot, Amon Get was hanged the first time, which is actually not true: in the true story, he died only after the third attempt.

In conclusion

Reviews of the film "Schindler's List" will appear every year, as the masterpiece has no expiration date. Thanks to such pictures, each new generation gets acquainted with the terrifying, but necessary for memory, events of the past. The cruelty of a person knows no bounds, just as his talent knows no bounds.