Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 47

FILM movie In 'Schindler's List Steven Spielberg shows how one German subverted the evil of the Holocaust to save 1,100 Jews. i SI 1 til '-'in David James photos SS commandant in Steven Spielberg's Holocaust epic "Schindler's List." V. '-ft ,4 Ralph Fiennes is unforcettaUc as a brutal Review by Ron Wetskmd How does one comprehend the magnitude of the Holocaust? Remarkably, Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" defines the horror of Hitler's "final solution" on vividly human terms without diminishing its scope or impact. At the same time, the film demonstrates how the action of one flawed human being can counteract even the most monstrous and efficient of evils and, through time, achieve a noble magnitude of its own. Oskar Schindler was a gambler, a womanizer, a hedonist, a member of the Nazi Party, a businessman whose only goal in life was to make as much money as he could through the unique opportunities afforded by World War II.

He started recruiting Polish Jews to work in his enamelware factory, ostensibly because he didn't have to pay them. Yet even in the early moments of Spielberg's film adapted by Steven Zaillian from the novel by Thomas Keneally we wonder about Schindler's motivations. Did he originally intend to employ Jews as a means of saving them? At what point did he decide their fate was more important than his own? Like its protagonist, "Schindler's List" has its faults, none of which is significant enough to diminish its achievement. The film establishes its narrative drive and hooks our interest by concentrating on Schindler and his actions. But in the harrowing scene where the Nazis raid Krakow's stories we have just witnessed.

They walk by Schindler's gravesite and pay tribute to his memory. Schindler saved more than 1,100 of them. But one must also count the future generations that would not have existed if not for Schindler. Altogether, the film tells us in a statement that cannot help but shock us, more people are alive today because of Schindler than there are Jews remaining in Poland, nearly 50 years after the end of the war. And so, finally, we can comprehend the immensity of his efforts and come away with a feeling of hope and uplift.

"Schindler's List" stands as a tribute to the man, to the victims of the Holocaust and to Spielberg's power and skill as a filmmaker. 'SCHINDLER'S LIST' Rating: for violence, nudity, language Players: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley Steven Spielberg Critic's call: firmed their humanity but literally saved their lives. Liam Neeson plays. Schindler with an expansiveness and grandeur at odds with the laid-back, romantic charmer he often plays in films like "Husbands and Wives" and "Leap of Faith." But Schindler has different types of people to charm from the Jews who mistrust his motives to the Nazis he must inveigle to his own wife, who nearly walks in on him with one of his many mistresses. Neeson is splendid and deserves Oscar consideration.

Ben Kingsley plays Schindler's temperamental opposite and irre-placable right-hand man, Itzhak Stern. He managed the factory, kept the books and served as keeper of his boss' conscience as well. Stern seems to carry with him the sorrows and apprehensions all the Jews. But he is always the pragmatist and also shows signs of a grimly sardonic sense of humor, both qualities which were probably necessary for survival. And British actor Ralph (pronounced Rafe) Fiennes is unforgettable as Amon Goeth, the commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp and a man who perfectly symbolizes the monstrous banality of the Nazis.

In one scene he starts his morning by calmly picking off inmates with a rifle from a balcony overlooking the camp, his beer belly protruding over his belt. At film's end, in one of its brief color sequences, we meet many of the actual Schindler Jews whose Jewish ghetto, the focus inevitably shifts. Schindler, who was out riding and was oblivious to Nazi, plans, watches from a hillside in horror. At this and other points, the narrative simply halts as Spielberg re-creates scenes from the Holocaust in horrifying detail. His decision to shoot in black and white, like newsreels of the period, pays off handsomely.

We feel as if we are witnessing the real thing, a chilling mosaic of vicious, shocking acts carried out in the most commonplace of manner. No one can watch these scenes and still think of Spielberg only as Peter Pan, the fantasist who never grew up. At some point the viewer's mind may cry for respite. "Schindler's List" is slightly more than three hours in length but feels longer. Yet should the Holocaust be comfortable to watch? And how can we measure the magnitude of Schindler's legacy unless we understand the magnitude of the evil that he chose to subvert? Yet it is crucial to remember the victims of the Holocaust not just in terms of 6 million Jewsor the 5 million other victims of Hitler's savagery.

These were individual human beings, and "Schindler's List" gives us details from many of their stories as well. From the very beginning of the picture, we hear the Nazis reducing them to names on lists. Some of the victims are killed randomly, almost as afterthoughts, or even because they tried too hard to do their jobs properly. By putting his workers on his list, Schindler not only reaf 4 Weekend, January 1, 1994.