12 Movies Challenge: 'Schindler's List' (1993)

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Universal Pictures

This year, I decided to watch the 12 highest-rated films I hadn’t previously seen on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest American movies ever as part of my annual 12 Movie Challenge. I understood that there would be one or two films that I probably wasn’t looking forward to watching. I realized they were all likely to be great films – but some, due to their subject matter, wouldn’t be enjoyable to watch.

Steven Spielberg’s 1993 war classic, “Schindler’s List,” No. 8 on the AFI list, was the film at the forefront of my mind. I knew it was going to be horrific. How could a realistic film about the Holocaust not be horrific?

The majority of the film will rip your heart out – and often anger you because you know these events actually took place (and if you’re one of those who doesn’t think that, go fuck yourself). I can’t believe nearly 90 years later, we still have people who idolize and even want to be Nazis.

Ultimately, “Schindler’s List” is an important film. Spielberg has directed more American classics than any other director who has ever lived, and he’s on record as saying, “It’s the best movie I’ve ever made.” It’s certainly the most important film he’s ever made.

There are far too many devastating and horrific moments to recount – the use of Jewish POWs as target practice, the looting of Jewish suitcases, the train accidentally taking members of the list to Auschwitz, and certainly the girl in the red coat. But there are also uplifting moments, which I suppose is why such a tragic film also wound up on AFI’s list of the “Most Inspiring American Films,” like the tenacity and strength of the Jewish people and the fact that Oskar Schindler would stick his neck on the line to save as many people as he could.

Who knew Liam Neeson could act? That scene at the end, when he’s breaking down over being disappointed he couldn’t save more lives, is one of the most heart-wrenching moments of a film filled with them, and undoubtedly the singular moment that garnered Neeson the only Academy Award nomination of his career.   

One of the great aspects of Spielberg’s film, Neeson’s performance and Steven Zaillian’s script is that you never really know if this was Schindler’s plan all along or if he was just a shrewd businessman who, as the war went on, grew to view the Nazi’s atrocities as something too disgraceful for the world and set out to do his part to combat them. There’s reason to believe he may have just been a shrewd businessman until seeing firsthand the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto.

Few have ever portrayed evil as well as Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, but after watching the performance and knowing Göth was a real person, he must’ve been one of the evilest folks to have ever lived. Or potentially, he was just your average Nazi.

“Schindler’s List” is undoubtedly one of the hardest films emotionally I’ve ever seen, but it’s one I think should be seen by everyone, especially with how the world is today, with so many countries turning nationalistic and against “others.” It could potentially go a long way in changing some minds.