LITERARY AND FILM CRITIQUES

Film Critiques

Steven Spielberg's film Schindler' List has been received mostly positively (it won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director - Spielberg's first win, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, and The Best Original Score). Most of the general public in the United States and around the world and many of film critics were moved by the film. However, reactions to the movie differed based on a particular country. For example in Germany critics warmly accepted the movie and German audiences saw the Spielberg's film in large numbers. A survey in Germany (after the film was released) concluded that Nazi past is truly over. In Israel, on the other hand, many viewers responded saying that people there can't escape the Holocaust. (Eriksson, Fench 47). After the movie was released it was often marked as Spielberg's best movie so far.

Spielberg was applauded for casting Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler. An Irish actor Liam Neeson wasn't known enough to be associated with other roles. However, he is seductive, calm, mysterious, and sexy (Thomson 45). Many critics point out how difficult (if not impossible) it is to make a movie about Holocaust. Spielberg proved that it is possible. "The novel sort of suggested a progression, because it was what happened. I just had to .... find a way of taking the novel, and not so much distill it, but just find all the moments that moved me the most and were the most informative," says Spielberg (Loshitzky 81).

The film, contrary to most of modern films, was filmed in black-and white (the first B&W movie to win Best Picture since The Apartment in 1960) (Loshitzky 147). Most of film critics valued this cinematic technique used in the movie. Spielberg and Janus Kaminski (Spielberg's cinematographer) used monochrome to capture a mood of oppression (White 56). In black and white, the movie looks authentic. There are overlapping dialogues in the movie, as well as parallel editing (Schindler and Goeth shaving). Through out the film Spielberg uses the color of red to distinguish one little girl from the crowd. It is supposed to remind viewers that the gray masses were made of millions of individuals. The Nazis murdered one and half millions of children. This girl is a symbol of all children of Holocaust.

Steven Spielberg has been sometimes criticized for glamorizing (Hollywood version) story of Oskar Schindler. Film critic David Thomson sees Spielberg's choices of attractive actresses in the movie (especially beautiful naked Jewish women entering the gas chamber) as manipulative and unrealistic. (Thomson 50) There are also at least three last-minute rescues in the film, which eventually lead to the compulsory Hollywood happy ending (Landy 205).

Critics agree that realism captured in this movie, by using the actual locations (Schindler's factory still exists), scenes of liquidation and burning bodies, and the real names of the survivors is supposed to emphasize all the injustice toward the Jewish people. The audience can't watch this movie and not be moved.

Schindler's List Film Review

Book Critiques

Schindler's Ark is different type of story than stories in typical historical fiction books. It moves back and forth between telling a story and reporting history. "It perhaps doesn't read like a literary novel because, in some sense, things are told too plainly" (Kukathas 1). There are many characters in the book but most of them (except for Oskar Schindler) are not very developed. The author very precisely describes the characters but there isn't complexity and mysteriousness we know from historical fiction. Some critics point out that in fact the readers know from the beginning what will happen at the end (not just because the name Schindler's Ark). The readers don't develop an emotional connection with the characters as they typically do in a case of a fiction book. Some critics claim that because the book is based on a true story, it lacks tension in the plot.

"Keneally uses literary devices found in more traditional works of fiction that make his documentary novel to rise to the level of 'literature', but at the same time his particular narrative technique has its own strengths for recounting the type of story he tells in Schindler's Ark" (Kukathas 2). He uses repetition of certain ideas and images over and over again (images of gods and kings). Keneally often doesn't offer explanations for his images in order to allow readers to find their own conclusions. It seems to be the most valued element of Keneally's book by literary critics. His use of imagery gives readers enough space to work with. Keneally doesn't need to draw conclusions. "Instead, he lets these images speak for him, giving his novel voice as a powerful and historically-charged account of unthinkable horror." (Kryhoski 1)

Literary Criticism Essay on Schindler's Ark (by Michael Hollington)

Literary and Film Critiques
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This page was last updated: 10-07-2003

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