SCHINDLER'S LIST

Schindler's List is an historical drama film about Holocaust and the stories of the encounter from the Holocaust's survivor who named themselves as Schindler's Jews. This movie centers the life of a charming, wealthy German businessman named Oskar Schindler. Schindler was a member of Nazi Member and at the introduction of the movie, we learnt that Schindler was a man with a game on his mind; money. Schindler was using his charm, wealth and finest bottles of wine to work his way up among the SS Officers by bribing them in order to make his business work at the time of the war. At this point I wasnt so sure what kind of man Schindler was, due to his questionable and shady persona. Schindler managed to employ many Jews to work at his factory making pots and plates. His intention was clear, it was all business and money was his first priority. Schindler planned and played his game carefully, seemingly taking advantage from the people who suffered under the oppression of the Nazis. In order to get what he wants, we watched how Schindler make connections with people, from the high ranking Nazi officers, to the Jewish black market sellers.

This whole movie is made black and white, maybe to symbolized how the issues of Holocaust might not all black and white, but the world needs to know what really happened and the cruelty and the murder by the people in power were in fact should be view as black and white. Other that that, I personally think the black and white moving pictures are timeless, thus making this movie one of the timeless movies of all time. The violence portrayed in this film is interesting to watch, how a war and people in power can be so merciless and ruthless. A person with the marked of the star was not other human being in the Nazi's eyes, something about the marking separate Jewish with the non-Jewish, giving the Nazi's power to treat them inhumanely. Interesting enough, the famous experiment done by Philip Zimbardo has proven that human can behave violently when given title and authority. His Stanford prison experiment had shocked people about the findings, but the history of world especially during the war has repeatedly telling us the same. Yes, human are violent. As how Schindler told Itzhak Stern about Amon Goeth, "He's got a war which brings out the worst in people; never the good, always the bad." But sadly until today, we never learnt to be better as the world is never entirely peaceful.

Other than that, I was fascinated by character development of Oskar Schindler. From a man with money on his mind, he slowly affected by the mistreatment gained by the Jewish people. After employing them just for money, Schindler felt a great responsibility to his employer. The turning point for him is when he sees the girl in the red coat on the street of the Ghetto, running aimlessly for safety. The colour red is prominent and cant be easily ignored. A lot of people ignored the little girl, but Schindler noticed her, and felt great sadness that he ignored all these Jewish people before this. Even the goal of his game was changed, which to safe as much Jews as he can, Schindler stays in the game and he played it right, he knows what are the weaknesses of the SS Officers; money and alcohol. Before this, it never occurred to him to safe the lives of the innocents, but at the end he knew what he did was the right thing to do. I viewed Schindler as a hero without a cape, but he wears a mask, which is his charm. He was not entirely an innocent man either, but he has a good heart. He also did not conform to the people around him. The SS Officers act violently and using their power to humiliate and dehumanized the Jews but not Schindler. He refused to be the man he does not want himself to be, he holds on to his principle and keep his good intention clear.

Only by having this good heart and high morality, Schindler managed to safe more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. He wished he could safe more, but his good intention had saved many generations to come and he was right, people do mentioned his name to this day, not because of how wealthy and successful he was, but how he was a hero saving many lives of the innocents.