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 – The Irishman

An ol’ timers’ reunion

Irishman is everything you ever want to see on screen for a Scorsese fan. Scorsese pulls the right chord right from scene one. A very old De Niro starts narrating, like million other films of his and takes us through the story of the film. Even though a lot of directors have this narration style, especially GVM in Tamil, why it doesn’t give a high like how it happens in a Scorsese film. One reason is that the lines are genuinely funny. Right from line one, painting houses, whether or not the term is used in real is a different issue, but just see how surprisingly the scene unfolds. Like De Niro says, we too think that painting house is a painter’s job, well what do we know. We get ticket to Scorsese’s universe right from the voice overs.

I for one thought the film would have De Niro at top, Joe Pesci as his aid and Al Pacino working below him because that’s been the typical Scorsese trajectory but he does a role reversal. De Niro comes at the bottom. If we had seen any other aging actor acting as a youngster, we’d have shooed him off saying it doesn’t fit. But when Scorsese does the same, we rejoice, we celebrate. Yes, he could make a seventy-seven-year-old Joe Pesci call a seventy-six-year-old Robert De Niro as his boy. And when I was looking through the age of these actors in Wikipedia, I thought it’d be the other way around but seems Al Pacino is the eldest. News to me!

Even though it was heartening to see the old timers get back, it was disheartening to see them aging. And on top of it an aging director directing these aging actors who are aging on screen too was even more depressing. It’s the typical depression setup in Scorsese films but here it feels more personal, I guess it’d have been the same with Scorsese too. I was wishing that it’d be a fairy tale ending like ‘A Bronx Tale’ but Scorsese had different ideas which was heart breaking.

It’s really tough to review this movie taking into account the story, the characters and various events in the film because the film was purely personal. Guilty pleasure at its best. In fact, it’s a sin to call this film guilty pleasure but how do I explain, when you feel too happy for a film, you can’t observe art, you only feel happy. ‘Irishman’ was one such film.

The way Frank (Robert De Niro) grows in rank just after a casual meet up with Russ (Joe Pesci) and where all it takes him forms the crux of the story. Jimmy (Al Pacino) joins the part quite late or to be precise, Frank joins Jimmy’s party quite late. There are whirl winding events. Everyone does what they are really good at.

There are quite a few scenes which Scorsese transforms from normal to excellent one. First of which is the scene where Frank breaks the hand of grocery store owner. Normally in any other movie it’d have been a heroic scene where a daughter adores her father but here it becomes a horrific scene and instills fear in his daughter Peggy (Anna Paquin) which doesn’t erase till the end. In fact, the last scene between them two was heart wrenching. Similarly the gun scene where De Niro selects guns, if it had happened in an Arnold movie it’d have been an all guns blazing scene, but here it keeps us on the verge of excitement but doesn’t let us out loud, reminds us that we’re cultured and makes us sit on our seat. The way he handles those ticking time bomb scenes were terrific but it never blows, you better remember that. Best of the lot would be the meeting scene between Hoffa and Tony Pro (Stephen Graham) when the latter appears late and in that dress. Wow that’s the peak of Scorsese’s theme park. The feel that you get when you are at the top of roller coaster which is about to nose dive. The adrenaline rush before the actual event. That happens there. It’s like one of my favorite scenes of Scorsese in Casino where Joe Pesci calls and scolds his friend for keeping leg on the table. How wonderful.

Don’t know whether it’s just with me, but every time I see a gangster flick of Scorsese I feel like I should be a gangster or at least part of that universe, just like Henry says in Goodfellas, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Even though there are girls like Peggy, look at the respect the wives of these henchmen got when their husband takes them somewhere. That pride is indomitable. 

I remember my friend who generally doesn’t talk about his father, talk about his father once. As per him, “When I was coming out from house, I saw my dad standing cross legged leaning on his bike and smoking cigarette, I’ve never seen him so heroic” ‘Irishman’ is that kind of film. It’s an emotion unexplained. If you say what kind of son would take pride in seeing his father smoke, then you’re a gone case, ‘Irishman’ is not for you. Like one of the many scenes in ‘Irishman’ which will make only the people who know Scorsese’s universe, laugh and gives a high like something you don’t get from Nolan’s, where everyone is high, that’s the special feeling which makes ‘Irishman’ tick. In a way it is an anti-gangster film. As much as we like their lifestyle when the nurse finally doesn’t know even Jimmy Hoffa in the end, it puts a serious question to us. When people who think there are so famous are not even known, then what really does it all matter.

All the while watching the film I was thinking how ‘Godfather’ would have been if Scorsese had directed it. And with that thought back in mind the film ends with Frank asking the priest to let the door little open because he doesn’t like it to be fully closed. I couldn’t see Frank there. I could see only De Niro. What a tribute, what a film, what a man, Scorsese. How depressing…