Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List

The darkness of the images work powerfully on our feelings. It creates sympathetic feelings towards the Jews. .

             Lighting, colour, camera angles, clothing, do not apply to the literary texts but all are vital part of film meaning and subtleties. As so often in the film it is not the explicit violence which grips us, but the powerful use of suggestion. For example the shower rooms turn out to be genuine however by sharing the terror of the women looking upwards and waiting for the gas, we understand by implication what millions of others experienced in their dying moments. This subtle approach did not require editorializing to make a moral point about what was being depicted. The fear was sensed through camera angles and the looks on the women's faces. We could almost feel ourselves in that situation. This was an important historical event, where the form of subtlety was efficiently used to interpret the inhumane acts which occurred during the Holocaust.

             The day after the bodies of the Jews are exhumed and incinerated, a long shot of the 'snow? falling over the death camp is captured to fool the audience. What many would of have thought was 'snow? happens to be the ash of the cremated human bodies. This is depicted when Schindler slides his finger across the bonnet of his car to feel the ash shrivel into pieces. Since the whole landscape was covered with ash, we are able to have a glimpse at the magnitude of crime present in this historically based event. Subtlety is yet again used to interpret the inhumanity of the system without displaying any agonized deaths.

             Spielbergs strength to present the filmSchindler's List? in a subtle way formed an excellent interpretation of the Holocaust. Without the use of violence or agonizing scenes, Spielberg managed to outlay his interpretation by using his creative ability accordingly to the usage of film technique. Not only did each scene interpret historical events, it also conveyed a meaning for the viewers.

Related Essays: