1993 - Schindler's List

This movie was beautiful and it was upsetting. Every time I watch a Holocaust movie I am still shocked by the brutality that humans can be capable of. Especially since it wasn't even that long ago that this happened.

Anyways, I liked this movie because I wasn't really totally familiar with the Oskar Schindler story. I knew the basics: Schindler was a German who saved a bunch of Jews from being killed in concentration camps by having them work in his factories. Other than that, it was all new information.

I was surprised to learn that Schindler didn't start out to help the Jews at all. He was helping himself. He was using them because they were cheap (or pretty much free) labor and he wanted to make a ton of money. Once he realized the full depravity of the Nazi's treatment of the Jews, he takes it upon himself to save as many as he possibly can - including spending every cent of money he had accumulated.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD:

I lost it at the end, especially when he breaks down crying because he thinks he didn't do enough. He tells the Jews that survived that he should have sold his car, his other possessions just to save a few more people. It was one of the saddest scenes I have ever watched in a film. And when his workers gave him their letter...it was just so heartbreaking.

I also cried during the entire epilogue where they show all the actual surviving Jews who were saved by Schindler that were still alive after filming in 1993 and had them put small stones on his grave.

The ONLY complaint I had about this movie was that the two actors who played the main characters (Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes) looked VERY similar in the black and white film. And they were both very different characters, so sometimes I was like, "Whoa!! Why is Liam Neeson shooting those Jews out of his window for fun? How can he go from THAT to wanting to save these people??" Then I realized it was actually Ralph Fiennes. So that was a little annoying at times.

Random Thoughts:
-I was so enthralled by this film that I didn't even take any notes during it!

Verdict?
5/5 stars. It's not a movie I could stomach to watch over and over, but it was such an amazing movie. Definitely glad I finally watched it.