Steven Spielberg's masterpieceSchindler's List? portrays the indifference and injustice associated with the Holocaust. Those events of guilt and suffering were so terrible in their scale and intensity that it was only suitable for a documentary style of interpretation. Spielberg's strength to present a historically based event derived from the subtle way he approached to interpret it. It seems only natural that a film as powerful and disturbing as Schindler's List emerged from Spielberg's creative abilities. His strength to use film technique and creative ability managed to interpret the Holocaust in a subtle form.

             The opening scene is highly significant. It displays a powerful assortment of shots of Jewish life before the Holocaust. The golden light, the atmosphere and the sounds of prayer all convey a sense of warmth and intimacy. Moments later the people are abruptly taken away leaving a candle burning and replacing the shots with a black and white look. The death of the Jew's in history's greatest crime is being evoked. Symbolically the smoke carried from the candles which were once innocent and pure, transmit into the smoke from the crematorium at Aushwitz later on in the film. This subtle representation outlines the innocence of the Jews through symbolic terms.

             Followed on with a documentary styled scene, Spielberg refers to historical events where the Nazis come to Poland for anti-Jewish orders. We see the faces of the Jews who line up signing papers, implying to the audience that they are signing their lives away without even knowing this. The Nazis only see them as names on a list. It is a significant and historical scene. The portrait of the depiction of the Nazi Spirit is real subtlety. Other powerful negative settings are the quadrangle at Plaszow rows of buildings and squashed crowds of people, the long shot of Krakow ghetto from the hill. The sun rarely shines and when it does there is a depressing irony about what is happening.