127 - Schindler's List

    Oskar Schindler ferrets Jewish people to safety in Nazi Germany, under the cover of being a manufacturer.
    This is one of those impossible-to-review movies.  I can’t say it’s excellent, because it isn’t.  It’s more interesting than I expected, since I’ve typically found Spielberg’s movies to be… technically well done, but without a strong personality.  I think I’ve talked about his work before.  He tends to make movies that are enjoyable exactly one time.  Even movies that I thought I would like several times over - Hook, Jurassic Park, E.T…. I felt like they were actually really dull on repeat viewings.
    (As always, the Indiana Jones movies are the exception.)
    I’m impressed with how brutal this movie is.  I watch lots of horror, and my tastes for it have left me a bit more aware of exactly how much death is shown.  This movie doesn’t flinch, which is a big step forward.  Strangely, it reminded me a lot of Man Bites Dog, in the unflinching approach, combined with black & white photography, combined with the fairly aimless killing that happens.
    What bothers me is that it just isn’t that effective on me.  I’m more likely to care about a character I know and appreciate when they suffer.  It’s hard for me to feel like this broad, general violence against a population is personally touching.
    (Obviously, this is not intended to trivialize the holocaust.  I simply think the movie would be more effective if they showed half as many victims and spent more time getting to know them.)
    The second half of the movie is a little less effective.  Schindler moves from being a more sleazy businessman to being too overtly moral, which takes some of the mystery out of his character.  Once he’s gotten his workforce back and saved from concentration camps, the story gets boring.  This is a weird problem.  The majority of the movie is taken up with getting Schindler in the position to save a bunch of people.  Once he does, it jumps over all of the time between that and the end of the war.  This is the time period that I think would have made the best story.  Schindler tries to keep his plant looking productive, while not actually producing anything that works.  He needs to keep paying off officials and looking like he’s working toward the Nazi ends.  That’s a much more interesting story - at least to my mind.
    I understand the effect that this has on a lot of viewers.  But it’s just not for me.  When it comes to atrocities, I think I prefer to see documentaries.