Today I will be analysing the film Schindler’s List made in 1994 while looking at the social and cultural contexts of the movie’s production. By looking into these contexts, the mise en scéne, colour palette, genre and style plays a big role in analysing a film. Schindler’s List (1994)is in the genre of Biography, drama and history while it tells the true story about an industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becoming concerned for the Jewish work force during World War II in Poland while being invaded by the German Nazis. The film is based between 1939 to 1945 showing how hard it got for Jews in Poland and how Oskar Schindler battled with protecting his work force from the Nazis.
Looking at the style of shots in Schindler’s List (1994),they use a lot of shooting styles that film noir involves. Even though film noir is typically a Hollywood crime style from the 1940’s and 1950’s which uses lowkey lighting and black-and-white visuals that started in German Expressionist cinematography. Throughout the film it is completely filmed in black-and-white except a scene which I will mention later on. It was said that the directors wanted to create a timeless feel in the film with black-and-white. Also, Spielberg want to use it to match the real footage from that era. A shot from film noir that they use constantly is having a single light shining through window blinds onto the characters. The use of this creates a build of tension and uneasiness which reflex the situation they were going through. It’s quite interesting how they have used a detective style of filming for a war history film. Film noir was introduced in 1946 but wasn’t recognised till the 1970’s. This is why it is a weird choice to use film noir as it didn’t come about till after the war but has been used so well that it creates a cold and empty feeling in the shots which I assume is how people felt during the war.
Like I mentioned before, the colour palette was black-and-white but featured a scene of a really young Jewish girl, in a red coat, walking down the street while Nazis are rounding up all of the Jews in the street. As well as this, they were stuffing then into trucks while other Jews are getting shot while the little girl is walking passed. The scene continues to the child running away unseen to hide under a bed in the house to get away from the Nazis. I believe this use of a single use of colour has multiple meanings. Firstly, I see the red coat as making it stand out in the shot, so the audience can see what Oskar Schindler was looking out and also making it memorable for later on in the film. I think for Oskar to see this young Jewish girl nearly getting shot down her own street made him upset to watch and see her body later seemed to be another trigger for him to help the Jews even more. Another way, I saw the red coat as a symbol of hope and courage while she’s trying to get to safety but once she’s under the bed, the colour is gone showing that she’s scared. For Oskar seeing the red coat in a pile of dead bodies is the courage he needs to try and save more people.
As Schindler’s List (1994) is based on a true story and looks at the social issues that was going on during the war. The biggest issue that the film speaks on is the discrimination Jews had to go through and suffer from the Nazis. At the beginning it shows the process that Jews went through where they were forced out of their homes and to give up their processions which was either stolen or burned. The Nazis continuously kept moving the Jews and forcing them into small rooms while sharing with many other people. As well as this, they were all made to work for the Nazi’s and continued to them being put into concentration camps. Even through everything that has been taken away from the Jews, they showed a lot of hope from them when saying “The worst is over” a few times through the film but sadly things did get worse. It was good that they showed the hope that some Jews still had to get out of that situation. These glimpses of hope showed the audience that they still saw them getting through it. An intense part of the film was very graphic shootings constantly.
War films in the past before Schindler’s List (1994) didn’t seem to show as much horrific scenes and the reality that Jews had to deal with for so many years. By using a true story, this film has shown the harsh graphic scenes the Nazis inflicted on the Jews. By showing the Jews being forced to run around naked to be picked for who is healthy enough to work while women cut their fingers to rub blood into their faces to look healthy or they would be killed for not being strong enough to work. Jews would get beaten up by the Nazis on a daily basis and shot dead if they even took a break from working. Life was extremely bad from them and Schindler’s List (1994) helps to show the truth to the audience while films before were asked to decrease the intensity of death as it wasn’t allowed. Not many people knew the length it had gotten so a film like this has been able to educate and make awareness of what Jews went through. We only really saw the truth of how hard it got for Jews in The Pianist (2002) and in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008). Even so, these two films bring up the subject of the holocaust but didn’t so much show the gruesome scenes that really happened.Schindler’s list(1993) seems to be the only film at that time teaching the reality to the public.
Oskar Schindler is seen as the protagonist in the film due to him being the main focus from beginning to end while other short stories are being told as well. Oskar is shown as a Nazi by seeing him throwing expensive parties and sending presents to make friends with other Nazis high up in the army. However, we see him slowly showing sympathy to the Jews in many scenes and we can see how his compassion builds for them. We first see this when Oskar hires a Jewish accountant called Itzhak Stern. To start with Itzhak Stern did not like Oskar due to us seeing Itzhak answering him very bluntly and not excepting to have a toast of a drink with him. Even so, Oskar found Itzhak very important to his company and saved him on a few occasions while built their relationship. One of the first moments we see this is when Oskar is informed that Itzhak has been stuffed into a train to be shipped of with other Jews, but Oskar blackmails the guards into stopping the train or they would lose their job. Itzhak slowly sees his importance to Oskar even though he thinks it’s only to make more money. Later on, their friendship becomes even clearer when Oskar Schindler gambles all he can with multiple failed attempts to get him out of one of the camps.
Oskar Schindler wasn’t all good. He cheated on his wife multiple times, drank excessively and spied for Abwehr. In the beginning Oskar was a selfish man who just wanted to make lots of money anyway he could. Although, it led him to using his money-making ideas for good. His sympathy for the Jews was seen more when they were forced into train carriages, cramped together in the boiling heat, and Oskar went out of his way to find multiple hoses to connect to spray water into every carriage to cool them down. He also made guards pass out water bottles to each carriage. This angered Amon Geoth, the commandant of Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp, as one of laws was not to comfy with the Jews. Amon arrested Oskar to give him a warning for his actions. Oskar Schindler didn’t give up but spent millions to collect over 1,000 Jews to work back at his factor to keep them out of the camps and lessen the chance of them being killed. He even would spend his own money to give them clothes and bought food on the black market to feed the workers as the Nazis were inflicting starvation. He really went against what was expected of you as a Nazi by saving so many lives.
When looking at the antagonist of the film, Amon Geoth, brings in all the horrible discrimination Jews went through. He would wake up in the morning and shoot Jews from his balcony as if it was entertainment or a sport. He is the antagonist in Schindler’s List(1994)due to the quiet rivalry he has with Oskar. This is because of their different views on how Jews should be treated. They both know each other’s views but never discuss it as it would lead to Oskar being arrested or even killed for protecting them. The hatred he had for Jews was so viscous he shot a lady who was only informing them of construction problems. He ended up shooting her and following her instructions anyway. Amon Geoth did not like the Jews being an equal to him so would always find a way to minimise them.
However, Amon kept the religion of his maid secret, who was a Jew, because he was attracted to her. In a scene where he is confronting the maid about how he felt, he beat her violently for making him have those feelings for a Jew. Like I mentioned before, Amon felt disrespected and threated by Oskar for the way he was being nice to the Jews. In the end Amon excepted Oskar’s deal of buying over 1,000 Jews from Amon’s camp to work for him. Amon Geoth is definitely an opposite to Oskar by the way they see and treat Jews. Amon seemed to always have a slight wariness of Oskar as he was so generous to everyone and didn’t treat the Jews the same way they were disgusted by them.
To conclude, now looking back at the analysing of the social and cultural context in Schindler’s List (1994), you can see the film widely discusses discrimination of Jews and the involvement of Oskar Schindler and Amon Geoth. The directors express the timeline by using a film noir style shooting with black-and-white to get the audience into the feel of the film. As well as this, they focused on true stories of holocaust survivors to show how bad things got for them. A criticism the film got was that thy were focusing on a Nazi and making him seem like a hero. However, they just wanted to show the real truth which was portrayed very well to create awareness. They cleverly used a small piece of colour which tried to show the realisation Oskar had for how hard the situation was becoming. As well as this, looking at the protagonist and antagonist is showing the battle these characters had and how brained washed and cruel their actions were. The Directors were very smart with their casting and helping the audience to build relationships with the accountant and Oskar Schindler but also teaching the graphic truth of the crimes that occurred.
References:
Liebner, W., 2005. Schindler’s Lists [online]. Available from: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/0126_Schindlers-lists.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwh472BRAGEiwAvHVfGhNuDZHNLa9y0JoTh0Fgrqq8Yj_KStP2s_thmZxEPEVWnmLiBoVOSBoC7_MQAvD_BwE[Accessed 20thMay 2020].
Waxman, O., 2018. ‘He Was Sent by God to Take Care of Us’: Inside the Real Story Behind Schindler’s List [online]. Available from: https://time.com/5470613/schindlers-list-true-story/[Accessed 20thMay 2020].
Anderson, S., 2014. Oskar Schindler: The Untold Story [online]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2014/03/19/oskar-schindler-the-untold-story-3/#521c33995537[Accessed 20thMay 2020].
Hutchinson, S., 2018. 15 Fascinating Facts About Schindler’s List [online]. Available from: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/69150/14-fascinating-facts-about-schindlers-list[Accessed 20th May 2020].
Hutchinson, P., 2018. Schindler’s List at 25: looking back on Spielberg’s defining Holocaust drama [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/06/schindlers-list-25th-anniversary-steven-spielberg-holocaust[Accessed 20th May 2020].
Emily August s5205804 