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Post by Mike Sullivan on Feb 8, 2006 16:09:45 GMT
Perhaps one of the greatest films ever commited to celuloid 1993's "Schindler's List" is the story of Oskar Schindler who is a shrew German businessman/war profetier who becomes unlikely humanitarian amid the barbaric Nazi reign when he feels compelled to turn his factory into a refuge for Jews.
It is all at once a raw and yet beautiful work; never flinching from the truth and never turning its eye away from the attrocities of the Nazi party. More than that it is a display of human nature both good and evil displayed in the Schindler charecter played by Liam Neeson & the evil being shown by Ralph Fiennes' charecter of Amon Goeth; a fanatical Nazi comandant.
Thomas Kenneally's excellent book translated into a wonderful screenplay and with the direction of Speilberg and the wonderful score by John Williams (my favorite behind Herrman's score for Vertigo) along with Janusz Kaminski's cinematography we are given a film for the ages.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 12, 2006 20:27:32 GMT
My favourite scene, or sequence of scenes, is where Schindler tells Goeth what power is, then Goeth goes around the camp for a day allowing people to live. It ends when, troubled by his own faked goodness, Goeth shoots the young boy after letting him off with not having cleaned the bath.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 12, 2006 22:21:45 GMT
That's one of the moments I love too. There's an odd feeling in any film when the bad guy starts to be good, and you want to like him while part of you still dislikes him. My favorite scene has to be before Goeth beats Helen Hirsch. Brilliantly acted by Fiennes.
I wrote a paper on this film last year, and it was probably the only time my teacher ever said it was the best in class. Interesting how great I can be when school touches on something interesting to me. I guess Stanely Kubrick was right when he said that quote.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 12, 2006 22:25:58 GMT
Which quote?
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 12, 2006 22:28:39 GMT
"I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker."
---Stanely Kubrick
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 12, 2006 22:36:47 GMT
Wow. I really love that. I relate to it a lot too.
And yeah, my favourite moment of Schindler's List, which I mentioned above, comes from the real complexity of the characters. Like you said, Goeth's transition to good, his striving to be like Schindler, really explores the differences and even similarities between the two guys. Humans, but on different ends of the scale, and not being able to help it.
It must go without saying how much of a brilliant presence Neeson proves to be in the film. I don't know if they did anything special with the sets, but even when he's sitting in a chair, he seems to be a giant.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 12, 2006 22:43:34 GMT
Of course Neeson's height plays big. I often laugh when he walks next to Ben Kingsley in some of those shots.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on May 2, 2009 23:58:11 GMT
I really want to watch this film again. For now, until I see it again, it's shit.
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Post by ronnierocketago on May 3, 2009 1:10:38 GMT
I really want to watch this film again. For now, until I see it again, it's shit.
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Jenson71
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Post by Jenson71 on May 4, 2009 1:21:42 GMT
I remember my mom having me watch this when it was on NBC when I was probably 10 years old. Some of those scenes really lasted with me, like when the kid jumps in the outhouse tank, the girl in the red coat, and the ashes coming down like snow.
Great movie to me. I definitely want to see it again sometime.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on May 4, 2009 18:53:00 GMT
It just seems like an overly conscious attempt at aestheticisation, to make "poetry out of horror". I find it highly offensive, actually.
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Post by ronnierocketago on May 4, 2009 20:04:31 GMT
It just seems like an overly conscious attempt at aestheticisation, to make "poetry out of horror". I find it highly offensive, actually. Explain.
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Jenson71
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Post by Jenson71 on May 4, 2009 20:28:47 GMT
Do you think it shied away from showing the more brutal aspects of the Holocaust? I don't remember it doing so at all.
Do you find Malick's The Thin Red Line making poetry out of horror? I tried to think of the best example of that phrase, and that's what I came up with.
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Post by ronnierocketago on May 5, 2009 3:22:40 GMT
Do you think it shied away from showing the more brutal aspects of the Holocaust? I don't remember it doing so at all. We have to remember something, not many other movies...shit especially not Hollywood...covered the Nazi Holocaust. There was that 1970s TV mini-series HOLOCAUST, but with censorship/sponsorship standards of the time, they couldn't exactly go into detail. I wouldn't count SOPHIE'S CHOICE, as its more of a morality quandrum exploratory play, but maybe I'm wrong. What you all think? So SCHINDLER'S LIST, black & white 200 minute movie with a very nice budget and filmmakers willing to be as fucking detailed as they desired, could have at that time been only pulled off by Steven Spielberg's industry pull (I mean Universal figured they would never make their money back, so his JURASSIC PARK pacified them) and he was dedicated to it. I know its hip at times to knock the Beard for his sentimentality. I know I did alot back in high school, and that bullshit smells at times like E.T. or whatever. But I thought it was appropriate for the LIST ending, if after how downer and brutal the whole narrative beforehand was, it was deserving. I mean I doubt many people who watched it, when that scene of the Jew running in the streets who meets up that Nazi patrol and on the fly pretends to be a gentile civilian street sweeper, didn't expect him to get shot up as well. Of course some argue that the movie is considered a classic only for the subject material, yet why is it that nobody gave a shit about that BOY IN THE COLOR-STRIPPED PAJAMAS or whatever it was titled from last year? Then again, anyone care to theorize why when a German magazine asked its readers the best movies of all-time, two Spielberg productions made the Top 10: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, and LIST. Now LIST I can comprehend, for that title character was an ethnic German, and Germans don't really have that many heroes to point out during that epoch (besides White Rose, and those July 20 Plot conspirators). The RAIDERS placement, I just don't get at all. Do you find Malick's The Thin Red Line making poetry out of horror? I tried to think of the best example of that phrase, and that's what I came up with. Capo's problem could be used to criticize most war movies in general, even the supposed anti-war efforts, for wasn't it Trauffaut who argued that such films always end up glamorizing war?
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Blib
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Post by Blib on May 5, 2009 4:13:08 GMT
The problem with this movie is that it was directed by Spielberg.
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Post by ronnierocketago on May 5, 2009 4:21:43 GMT
The problem with this movie is that it was directed by Spielberg. Why?
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Blib
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Post by Blib on May 5, 2009 5:34:18 GMT
Actually, I liked Schindler's List when I saw it originally. I haven' t seen it since it was in the theaters so I can't really say if I would enjoy it now, I just figured Spielberg is mostly hated around here so that must be why it is shit.
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Post by ronnierocketago on May 6, 2009 1:49:10 GMT
Actually, I liked Schindler's List when I saw it originally. I haven' t seen it since it was in the theaters so I can't really say if I would enjoy it now, I just figured Spielberg is mostly hated around here so that must be why it is shit. Well, yeah.
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Blib
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Post by Blib on May 6, 2009 3:04:22 GMT
Actually, I liked Schindler's List when I saw it originally. I haven' t seen it since it was in the theaters so I can't really say if I would enjoy it now, I just figured Spielberg is mostly hated around here so that must be why it is shit. Well, yeah.
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Post by ronnierocketago on May 6, 2009 3:21:28 GMT
Well, yeah. Don't follow the crowd man! I mean look at me. I carved a niche here at FCM reviewing mostly (shitty) actioneers, but hey I'm filling a void that...well, was a void. Also, I don't (generally) dismiss arguments as irrelevant. That must count for something. OK its worthless, but I wanted to point that out.
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