When one thinks of black and white movies,they associate some of the films featured on Turner's Classic Movies but there was actually a film made on purpose in 1993 that showed that color is not always the best choice. Schindler's list was a film directed Steven Spielberg and stared Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler ,who was a factory owner in Poland in World War 11. It was based on the book "Schindler's Ark" by Thomas Keneally, Schindler actually used Jews to start his own factory but once he witnesses the horror that was being bestowed upon the Jews by the Nazi's, hedecides to start saving them. There were also unforgettabel performances by Ralph Fiennes as the SS Officer and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's accountant Itshak Stern.
The film starts off to reveal a womanizing, Nazi business man who profited off of slave labor. The Nazi business man is of course Oskar Schindler. Oskar who was an unsuccessful businessman who arrived from Czechoslovakia to take advantage of cheap labor. He has a love for good wine, beautiful women, and pursues happiness through the success of his business. But while he is on his journey to a successful business, millions of Jews were being killed during a time which is labeled as one of the darkest periods of World War 11. As Oskar made money, untold numbers of people were being murdered. That's when the self-centered, often money hungry Oskar decides to step and gives up his goal of having a successful business to save the lives of over 1,000 Jews.
Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his new-found wealth and status as "Herr Direktor," while Stern handles all administration. Stern even suggests that Schindler hire Jews instead of Poles because they cost less because the Jews themselves get nothing and their wages are paid to the Reich.In the meantime, Stern forges a number of documents that protect the Jews from being sent to the concentration camps.
When SS Officer Amon Goth arrives he is ordered to clear out the Krsakow ghetto by any means possible. Schindler befriends him [after watching a massacre] and convinces him, through bribery, to spare the lives of his workers so that they could move into a sub camp. But as fate would have it,Goth receives orders from Berlin to destroy every thing and ship the remaining Jews to Auschwitz. Schindler convinces Goth that he needs his workers in his old home of Zwittau-Brinnlitz. Goth sees an opportunity to make more money and agrees.
Schindler has to intervene once again at Auschwitz, because of a misdirected train, where the women are now being gassed. He bribes the camp commander to spare the women. Once they arrive in Zwittau-Brinnlitz Schindler takes firm control through the use of bribing even more Nazi officials.But the end of the war is coming and he must now flee the oncoming Soviet Red Army. He leaves in the middle of the night with his wife. We learn that the survivors and descendants of the 1,100 Jews saved by Schindler now number over 6,000.
This film has to be one of the most important films of the 20th century. It wasdone almost entirely in black and white with one of the few exceptions, a little girl wearing a red coat. This film won 7 Oscars and The American Film Institute voted it #9 on their AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies series, and in 2007 was voted in at #8 for the tenth anniversary list. In addition, the American Film Institute voted Liam Neeson's Schindler as the 13th greatest movie hero of all time, while Ralph Fiennes' Göth was voted the 15th greatest villain in the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Heroes and Villains series. In 2006 it was selected as the 3rd most inspiring movie of all time by AFI's 100 Years.
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