Movie Review – Schindler’s List

Stranger than fiction

‘Schindler List’ is a phenomenal story of a man named Oskar Schindler. Steven Spielberg uses that material to make it into a phenomenal film. Time and again Spielberg proves that there isn’t anything that he cannot do. The diverse subjects that he has taken upon for the films proves the point. Whenever Spielberg films releases, this subject comes to the fore. On how he can handle everything on the same breath. What a man! After a lot of thoughts, he made this project, which till now stands very close to his heart.

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This movie could be Spielberg’s most personal project. We can see that through the time taken for each of the incident, especially the climax bit. Spielberg always brings about a complete film. There wouldn’t be anything that would have been left just like that without giving a completion. That’s why he works for the masses as well. There wouldn’t be anything which common people won’t understand. Yet it would appeal to even confound critics because it’s such a polished subject. Not everyone can make something like that quite easily. It takes the master to achieve it. Needless to say, Spielberg is the master of masters.

Personally, for me, it was a less impressive Nazi/anti-Nazi film among the lot. Even amongst Spielberg’s works, it didn’t work as much as his other films did. The best part of Spielberg’s work is it strikes a chord with us. Even his not so famous film like ‘The Color Purple’ leaves a profound impact. To sit on a couch on a dog day afternoon to watch ‘The Color Purple’ would be a great experience. We feel as if we’re in the house of the people out there. He brings the same feel in most of his films. Be it Tom Hanks slowly saying FUBAR in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or the epic dinosaur chase where the kid hides. There is a constant sense of tension or a feel of being in the place which gets missed in ‘Schindler’s List’ for the most part. The scenes that gave the feel were the execution scenes where the hand-held cameras were used. Otherwise, most of it felt boring and boring is not a term one would generally associate with a Spielberg film.

In fact, it’s tough to criticize a Spielberg film because it makes us feel guilty. Even with ‘War Horse’ I had a same problem where except for the one scene of the horse in no man’s land, there wasn’t any impactful scenes. Here there were a lot of impactful scenes but I guess it became like a ‘Godfather’ to me. Another top movie which never works for me. On the contrary ‘Citizen Kane’ which is one the same league works wonderfully. Remember, that I’m comparing all the films personally. Not for its cinematic approach or its aesthetic value. If that’s the case, no movie is less than the other. Even though ‘Citizen Kane’ doesn’t have a personal connect, it still stands out with its cinematic aspect. Whatever connect I have of that film is derived from the way it was made, rather than the appeal it had through its subject.

My interpretation of the much talked about red girl scene is that, it’s where Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) gets transformed from a man who looks for profits to a wise man. And when she dies, he loses the last bit of hope and takes it on himself to free as many people as possible. Oskar Schindler’s story is too great to be true. Just like how no one would believe a ‘Into the Wild’ story if it had not been true story. ‘Schindlers’ List’ too would have fallen in the same category if it had not been a true story. That’s why it makes for a great story but not so great film because its fairly unbelievable. All said and done, Hail Schindler.

Movie Review – Poltergeist

I thought this movie to be foreign seeing the name. Obviously I didn’t understand the meaning of the name which is nothing but a troublesome spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects. After ten minutes even though I came to know that it’s an English film I didn’t know the genre as I didn’t know the meaning but those few silent, long shots were enough to guess that it’s a horror flick.

Not being a big fan of it still I was intrigued to watch because 1) it was under Spielberg’s banner and 2) it had kids. Kids and Spielberg is a fascinating combo like how Mani Ratnam and kids are. They are two of the best film makers when it comes to making a story with kids. Eg) ET and Anjali. Here, even the story and screenplay was by Spielberg so thought it must be a good watch.

Other than Shining, no other movie had impressed me and this movie too didn’t. It certainly had its moments though. But by the end of the movie I was confused whether I was missing something or it’s a spoof because it happened to me once with a movie. But I confirmed that it’s an honest horror movie. The movie wasn’t bad but wasn’t as good as to impress me.

The good element of the movie was it was humane. We could see certain scenes which we don’t encounter is other horror movies. That shows Spielberg’s style of writing. When Steven (Craig T. Nelson) and his wife Diane (JoBeth Williams) smoke a joint at home they get interrupted by their daughter Carol (Heather O’Rourke, poor girl who had to die at an age of 12 due to cardiac arrest) Steven goes to her daughter’s room, comforts her and makes her sleep. Then immediately opens the other daughter’s door to see what she is doing. She opens it one more time to see whether she has stopped with her messaging. It was one of the few good family scenes.

Diane is the sexiest of the lot and hardly looks like a mother. When she finds out that things move by itself, instead of getting frightened she shows her husband about that quite enthusiastically. Even after losing their daughter they have a moment of contempt one night silently talking to each other and they could still laugh when a spiritual medium enters their home who looks funny.

It would have been a satisfying film back then with few thrills, a decent story line where evil happens because of certain bad things but now the fun wasn’t there to be. One good thing is I learnt a new word.