Actors - Schindler's List

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	Actors - Schindler's List

Schindler's List is an Academy Award-winning 1993 movie based on the book Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, published in the United States as Schindler's List and subsequently re-issued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well. The movie, adapted by Steven Zaillian and directed by Steven Spielberg, relates the tale of Oskar Schindler, a German Catholic businessman who was instrumental in saving the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust. The title refers to a list of the names of 1,100 Jews whom Schindler hired to work in his factory and kept from being sent to the concentration camps.

Tagline: "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire".

Plot

The movie begins with a depiction of a Jewish prayer. After it, a candle burns out, and the film changes from color to black and white.

The Polish Army has been defeated by the Germans in the initiating event of World War II in Europe. Jews living in occupied Poland are ordered to relocate to population centers. The film's action starts with crowds of Jews from all over the country, Hasidic, assimilated, rich, and poor, being detained in Kraków, and submitting their names to German officials waiting on the station platforms with typewriters and lists.

As this is happening, a newcomer has arrived in Kraków; his name is Oskar Schindler. He is a hitherto unsuccessful businessman from Germany, who has come to Poland with the hope of using the now abundant slave labor force of Jews and Poles to manufacture goods for the German Army. Schindler makes a very good impression with the occupying authorities early on, being a member of the Nazi Party and lavishing gifts and bribes upon the army and SS officials now running southern Poland. He becomes a friend to the SS and Police Leader of Kraków, Julian Scherner, and quickly calls in favors as Schindler begins to establish himself as a businessman in the region.

With military sponsors in his back pocket, he sets out to acquire a factory for the production of enamelware, mainly cookery. He is told he must manufacture goods such as pots, pans, and cooking materials for the war effort. He hasn't the money to buy them, and his administrative skills are dubious at best, but he finds through his contact Itzhak Stern, a functionary in the local Judenrat (Jewish Council) who in turn has contacts with the now underground Jewish business community. Schindler makes the businessmen a deal they cannot refuse: they will loan him the money for the factory, and he will give them a small share of the pots and pans produced. He takes particular pleasure in telling them that they must take him at his word, and that no court would ever uphold a contract between a German and a Jew.

Schindler gets his money and opens the factory. He keeps the Nazis happy and enjoys his new-found wealth, while Stern actually operates the place and uses his position to help his fellow Jews, who have now been confined to a ghetto within Kraków. Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and are certified as "essential workers", guaranteeing that they will not be rounded up at night by the Gestapo. This last point is key, and Stern uses his considerable skills to make sure as many people as possible are deemed "essential" by the Nazi bureaucracy — even children, the elderly, and the infirm: people who would otherwise be rounded up and sent away. Schindler becomes aware of what is going on, and seems embarrassed by the whole arrangement, but takes no action to stop it.

At this point, an SS officer named Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to initiate construction of a labor camp, Płaszów, and to take over control of the ghetto. In what is considered by many one of the most disturbing scenes in the film, a Jewish engineer explains that a concrete foundation has been improperly laid, and for this Göth has her shot in the head. He then, in the next breath, orders that everything she requested be done.

In due course, Göth razes the Kraków Ghetto, sending in hundreds of troops to clear the cramped rooms and shooting anyone who refuses or cannot leave. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the area, and is profoundly affected. However, he now faces the more immediate problem of how to run his factory without his workers. He meets Göth, befriends him, and convinces him to let him keep his workers for considerable bribes and payoffs. Schindler is now, though reluctantly, sheltering people who have very few skills in his factory.

During the clearing of the ghetto, Schindler sees a girl in a red coat, which is depicted in color against the monochrome frame. Film critics and scholars have suggested the appearance of the girl in the red coat is a "marker" used by Spielberg to denote the transformation of Schindler's personality. The first time she appears, Schindler changes from a cold-hearted businessman into a different person; he makes his first attempts to covertly assist his workers and save them from persecution and death afterwards. With the second appearance of the little girl in red, Schindler makes a further transformation into an altruistic angel whose primary motive is not profit, but rather to save the lives of his workers.

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