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UNIVERSAL

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Steven Spielberg
Cast:
Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
Writing Credits:
Steven Zaillian

Synopsis:
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.

Box Office:
Budget
$22 million.
Opening Weekend
$656,636 on 25 screens.
Domestic Gross
$96,898,818.

MPAA:
Rated R

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Spanish DTS 5.1
French DTS 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French

Runtime: 196 min.
Price: $14.98
Release Date: 3/5/2013

Bonus:
• “Voices from the List” Documentary
• “The Shoah Foundation Story”
• “25 Years Later” Featurette
• “About IWitness” Featurette
• “Stronger Than Hate” Featurette


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
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-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Schindler's List [Blu-Ray] (1993)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (December 26, 2019)

After many years of frustration, Steven Spielberg finally nailed Oscar gold with 1993’s Schindler’s List. Four of his prior flicks earned Best Picture nominations: 1975’s Jaws, 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1982’s ET the Extra-Terrestrial, and 1985’s Color Purple.

The first three took home a few trophies but not the big one. Purple remains notable as one of the big Oscar flops, as it got 11 nominations but failed to win a single prize.

After four Best Picture nominations in ten years, Spielberg went through a drought. Between 1985 and 1993, he didn’t get any Oscar love.

However, that changed in a major way in 1993. All together, Spielberg flicks took home multiple trophies that year.

Jurassic Park snared the technical awards, and it brought back three Oscars. List wound up with some of the major prizes. In addition to Best Picture, Spielberg won Best Director, and the movie also earned an additional five trophies.

As one who loved Spielberg’s early flicks, I felt happy to finally see him get some Oscar recognition. However, I don’t think Schindler’s List deserved all the accolades. Well-meaning but insubstantial and oddly unaffecting, List falls far short of the greatness achieved by Spielberg’s best efforts.

Set during the early parts of World War II, after the Germans take over Poland, they force Jews to relocate to the major cities, and many pour into Krakow from the countryside. Wealthy German businessman and member of the Nazi Party Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) comes to Krakow to start a manufacturing concern there and use the Jews as cheap labor.

Schindler meets Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) and works through him to meet local investors. Once Schindler uses his charm to snare the money, Stern also helps round up the necessary workers, and he uses the factory’s status to help keep some folks out of the Nazis’ grasp.

Schindler’s enamel works fares well, but matters gradually get worse for the Jews. First they get stuck inside a walled ghetto, and eventually the Nazis place them all in a work camp.

To run it, Untersturmfuhrer Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives in the ghetto during the winter of 1942. He runs the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp sadistically and kills without consideration or remorse to serve his own desires.

The film follows two paths, and we watch as Schindler evolves as a person, which eventually leads to the creation of his “list”. Schindler arranges to purchase workers from the Nazis to work at a new factory back in his Czechoslovakian home, so he and Stern form a list with the many Jews they will be able to save.

We also see the results of the Nazi occupation and their increasingly cruel treatment of the Jews. The movie focuses on some of the Jewish characters to a minor degree, as we follow a few in a loose manner.

Warning: some potential spoilers may appear in my discussion of the film, so if you’ve not seen it, proceed at your own risk!

When I first saw List during its theatrical run, I knew of all its praise and fully expected to be blown away by its power. I left the theater puzzled, as I didn’t understand all the fuss.

At that time, I didn’t see anything about List that I felt allowed it to stand out from most of the other Holocaust-related efforts. The film seemed decent but not anything innovative or particularly noteworthy.

More than 25 years later, I figured that maybe I was just too callow to appreciate the film’s impact back then and I’d get more into it at age 52. Once again, I went into List with the full expectation that it would stun me and move me.

Nope. 26 years later and my reaction remains exactly the same.

Actually, if anything, I may feel less impressed with List this time. I certainly appreciate the message Spielberg wanted to impart with the movie, but as with 1997’s Amistad, the director tries far too hard to manipulate the audience and not leave us any room to think for ourselves.

Over the years, many have cited Spielberg’s ability to press buttons, with a particular emphasis on his sentimental tendencies. List displays those choices in full.

Spielberg the manipulator shows up frequently during List, and this seems inappropriate for the material. A story with the inherent power of List doesn’t need a director to goose our emotions, as the material itself possesses the clout to touch us.

That means a cooler approach would have yielded better dividends. I’d have preferred a more objective and less sentimental director on the project, as that would have made the movie more effective.

Much of the time, my impression that Spielberg tried to prod my emotions in one direction led to the opposite reaction. I took his machinations as a negative and became annoyed with his choices.

It doesn’t help that List suffers from extremely thin characters across the board. I’ve mentioned this in other reviews and I’ll say it again: I still consider 1982’s Sophie’s Choice to be the gold standard of Holocaust-related films.

Why? Because the movie developed the characters precisely and kept the focus tight. We grew attached to the lead, so when we saw what happened to her, the impact became substantial.

That never occurs during List, as each and every personality remains distant from us, and this seems especially true of the Jews. These are the characters for whom we need to develop the greatest connection, for theirs are the lives that hang in jeopardy.

However, List does nothing more than attach some faces to names. We never get any feel for the personalities, and they remain little more than broad symbols of the Jewish population as a whole.

Did I care when they became threatened? Yeah, in the sense that I thought what the Germans did was beyond atrocious.

However, I never developed any broader sense of investment in particular characters. Perhaps Spielberg did that intentionally to keep the focus on the general Holocaust, not just a few victims, but I don’t think so.

He still attaches us slightly to that small roster of people, and he clearly wanted us to remember them. I think he desired for us to hook onto these characters but he simply failed to develop them as anything more than cameos.

It doesn’t help that the erratic storyline ignores characters for long periods. Even Schindler himself disappears for extended segments, and the movie loses its focus at those times.

Spielberg doesn’t seem to know if he wants to paint a portrait of one man’s moral journey or if he wants to depict the impact of the whole Holocaust, and the movie suffers for that. It becomes a “jack of all trades, master of none” situation, as the diffuse focus causes all the elements to lost their power.

While Neeson provides a terrific performance, he gets stuck with a badly underdeveloped character. Schindler starts the film as a shallow, cynical, opportunistic philanderer who simply wants to make money through the misfortune of others and have some laughs.

By the end of the movie, he turns into an ultra-humanist totally obsessed with saving lives. While the film depicts some steps along the way, the trek seems poorly developed. List makes Schindler’s growth too simplistic and illogical.

A lot of that issue goes back to the absence of character development. Schindler’s relationships with all others in the movie remain so feeble and superficial that we don’t quite understand what motivates his desires.

His attachment to Stern probably seems the most affecting, but despite the best efforts of Neeson and Kingsley, not much depth occurs there either. We care about the pair because we’re supposed to, not because the movie gives us much on which to hang our hats.

Perversely, the best-developed relationship in the entire movie comes from the connection between Schindler and Goeth. The latter never becomes more than a monster, which may or may not be appropriate.

The story vaguely attempts to add a human dimension to him during the scene when he considers getting romantically involved with his housekeeper Helen, but Goeth’s bizarre internal monologue just makes him seem psychotic.

The relationship between Goeth and Schindler does seem the most believable, perhaps because the two men come across as opposite sides of the same coin. With the shallowness seen early in the film, we could see Schindler turning as callous and self-absorbed as Goeth, so not much separates the two in regard to their potential.

This makes their interactions more stimulating, largely because it moderately lowers Schindler to Goeth’s level. He needs to negotiate with the Nazi leader in crass terms to get what he wants.

Those moments seem effective, and I do want to echo that List is extremely well acted across the board. Despite my issues with the easy nature of his moral growth, Neeson makes the developments as natural and believable as he can.

When divorced from their awkward roots, those bits seem effective and well played. Fiennes makes a sensational monster, and Kingsley brings out as much depth and humanity as he can in a thinly devised role. The other Jewish characters don’t get much to do, but they live up to the requirements of the parts.

Too bad List didn’t try to do more with them. Why not tell the film from an alternate point of view?

It might have been more effective if we saw things from Stern’s side, for example. We tend to go with Schindler’s perspective, and since he never seems at risk, this lessens the impact of the story.

It doesn’t help that through his manipulation, Spielberg threatens the smattering of Jewish characters to whom we’ve developed a tenuous bond but he never harms them. This starts early with a scene in which Goeth tries to shoot an older man but fails due to a jammed gun.

The most severe example comes in Auschwitz, and briefly, the movie attains the power and stature it should display more consistently. When the train enters that station, Spielberg paints the picture coolly and without unnecessary embellishment. The movie briefly becomes chilling and terrifying.

Unfortunately, Spielberg soon goes for the obvious moves and undermines these elements. For one, he teases us with the apparent imminent demise of the entire trainload of women, but this never occurs.

Spielberg almost kills a few of them a couple more times, but it doesn’t happen. Spielberg toys with us to make us fear for the characters, but nothing occurs to them.

This may sound bloodthirsty of me, like I want to see people die in the film. In a weird way, that’s true.

I find it hard to accept a Holocaust movie in which none of the prominent characters get killed, so Spielberg wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants us to see the horror of the Holocaust, but only at a distance. Since nothing happens to any of the characters we’ve followed throughout the film, the impact lessens.

Spielberg even uses a tacky gimmick to try and evoke a response from the audience. During the emptying of the ghetto, he adds a minor red tint to the coat of a little girl.

We follow her briefly and discern that Schindler noticed her. Later on, we watch as Schindler sees a dead child clad in that same red coat carried off to be cremated.

This attempts to elicit a reaction without any form of depth or effort. The modest example of color in the black and white image gives us a reason to notice her just so we can think “that’s terrible!” when we see her corpse. This seems like a simple and manipulative way to knead the audience.

List does display the casual brutality of the Nazis well, as we see Goeth’s random violence as well as other horrible actions of his fellow soldiers. For the most part, the movie portrays their sadism and cruelty in a fairly matter of fact manner, and that helps make those moments more powerful.

Not that Spielberg allows us many scenes that give us objective material, and another problem stems from John Williams’ score. He provides a cloying, sentimental piece that telegraphs emotions baldly. On its own, the music seems lovely, but that’s part of the problem, as it doesn’t suit the dark footage.

I know I’m firmly in the minority in regard to my negative opinion of Schindler’s List, but I really don’t understand the overwhelming praise given to the movie.

The film tells an important story but does so with too much manipulation and too little subtlety. Add to that a lack of depth from the characters and it seems like a flawed examination of its subject. List seems to enjoy a reputation as Spielberg’s best film, but I don’t even think it makes his top 10.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+/ Bonus B

Schindler’s List appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a satisfying presentation.

Most of the time the film came across as nicely detailed and concise. A handful of slightly soft shots emerged, but most of those reflected photographic choices.

No signs of jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. With a healthy layer of grain, digital noise reduction didn’t turn into an issue, and print flaws remained absent.

Only a very small amount of the flick came in color, so I didn’t give that aspect of the transfer much thought. Since the radical majority of the movie used black and white photography, contrast and dark tones became important.

The film featured a high contrast look much of the time, and it seemed nicely displayed. Blacks consistently looked rich and dense, while low-light shots were appropriately visible and well developed. All these factors combined to make this an appealing transfer.

While not an ambitious piece of work, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio of Schindler’s List satisfied. For the most part, the mix displayed a modest scope, but it provided an interactive sense of environment.

The majority of the soundscape concentrated on various ambient sounds, and these became more intense and important as the film progressed. Really, not a lot occurred until the arrival of Goeth and his minions.

After that, elements like gunfire cropped up at times, and the soundfield became more active. The concentration camps used the audio well to convey the sense of horror in those settings.

Surround usage remained effective. Again, the camp settings were the most compelling, as the rear speakers helped add to the sense of place. The surrounds complemented the forward audio in a natural and involving manner.

Audio quality also worked fine. Speech came across as natural and distinctive, and they lacked edginess or issues with intelligibility beyond those caused by accents.

Music remained pretty low-key, so while I thought John Williams’ score was somewhat syrupy, it lacked any bombast and generally stayed in the background. This meant it sounded appropriately lush and smooth.

Effects seemed detailed and tight. When appropriate, the louder elements demonstrated nice power.

Actually, the only really notable example of that occurred in Auschwitz, when the crematorium provided an intimidating rumble. Overall, the audio of Schindler’s List appeared solid for this kind of effort.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD? The lossless Blu-ray audio boasted greater warmth and impact than the lossy material on the DVD.

Visuals showed a nice step up, as the Blu-ray was tighter, cleaner and more film-like than the DVD. Across the board, this became an obvious upgrade over the DVD.

All the set’s extras appear on a second disc, and the most significant one comes from a one-hour, 17-minute, 30-second documentary called Voices From the List. This opens with an introduction from Steven Spielberg, who gives us a little background for the program.

From there we find archival materials and interviews with folks who were on Schindler’s list. We hear from Leon Leyson, Leopold Rosner, Ludmila and Leopold Page, Rena Finder, Helena Jonas-Rosenzweig, Basia Toporski, Celena Biniaz, Ida Turner, Lewis Fagen, Samuel Wertheim, and Jetti Rosenzweig.

The survivors trace the roots of their region in Poland, the invasion of the Germans and what they wrought, Schindler’s company and interventions, and what happened from there. A lot of this echoes what we see in the movie, but it presents something solely lacking from the film: heart and personality.

We get to know these people and feel for them in a way that doesn’t occur in the movie. It’s a fascinating, absorbing and moving examination of the facts behind the flick that seems vastly superior to List itself.

For information about the group behind the prior documentary, we move to The USC Shoah Foundation Story. This four-minute 55-second piece focuses on Spielberg and the creation of the Shoah Foundation, a group committed to archiving the stories of Holocaust survivors and others connected to those events.

We also hear from Executive Director Stephen D. Smith, CTO Sam Gustman, USC dean Amber Miller, Director of Global Initiatives Karen Jungblut, Managing Director Kim Simon, and survivors Henry Arzt, Walter Thalheimer, Consolee Nishimwe, Coenraad Rood, Roman Ferber, and Lea Fanarof.

We learn about the Foundations attempts to record and archive the testimonies along with making them accessible. It’s essentially a way to promote the Foundation, but that’s a noble cause, and “Story” is a good way to let us know about the group.

Mote that this featurette offers a shorter clip and an update of the one from the 2003 DVD. The latter included narration from Morgan Freeman and ran nearly seven minutes longer.

In the same vein, About IWitness spans four minutes, three seconds and includes USC Shoah Foundation Senior Director Kori Street, Deputy Director of Education Jenna Leventhal, Head of Programs in Education Lesly Culp, high school students Brandon Bartley, Eli Cavaliero, Lynette Lucero, Jad Hamdan and Kelsi Fay, educators Jonathan Owens and Corey Harbaugh, and survivor Kurt Messerschmidt.

Here we get another update about the Shoah Foundation, with a focus on its Internet branch. It acts as another promotion, and it seems less interesting than the prior one.

In addition, Stronger Than Hate goes for three minutes, 50 seconds and features Spielberg, Smith, educator Michelle Clark, survivors George Weiss and Edith Umugiraneza, and unnamed students. This acts as yet another ad for the Shoah Foundation, and it feels redundant.

Finally, 25 Years Later fills 39 minutes, 56 seconds and shows a panel from a 2018 screening of List. Along with critic/moderator Janet Maslin, the group features Spielberg as well as actors Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall and Embeth Davidtz.

They discuss the project’s origins and path to the screen, the screenplay, cast and performances, experiences along the way and reactions to the movie.

On the positive side, it’s great to get Spielberg and most of the main actors together to look back, especially because this becomes the only filmmaking-related material on the disc. Also, we occasionally cut from the panel to see footage from the shoot, and those moments become valuable.

However, the panel discussion remains a little too oriented toward praise. We get some good stories – like about how they used a hand-double for Neeson in one close-up – but we don’t learn as much about the production as I’d expect given the show’s running time.

If ever Steven Spielberg tackled a project for which he needed to avoid his tendencies toward sentimentality and audience manipulation, Schindler’s List was it. Unfortunately, the director’s negatives seem to be on full display in this surprisingly erratic and oddly unaffecting piece. The Blu-ray presented very good picture and audio plus a small but involving set of supplements. I doubt I’ll ever embrace the film, but this becomes a strong representation of it.

To rate this film visit the original review of SCHINDLER'S LIST

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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main