Schindler's List (DVD)

When I heard the DVD fro Schindler's List was finally going to be released I was extremely excited. Since RopeofSilicon.com did not exist when Schindler's List first hit movie theaters in 1993 I wasn't able to review the theatrical release, but the power and emotion of this film is in no way lost on the DVD transfer.

Let me first get the simple things out of the way by saying that the video looks great and the sound is perfect with both a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS transfer to satisfy all audiences.

If I did have a complaint it would be in the packaging as it is offered in a heavy cardboard flip case and the movie is on a double-sided disc. The double-side discs have always bothered me in that I hate having to be extremely careful in handling my DVDs and with this it makes it even that much more important, and while the case is quite elegant the button that holds the DVD makes it quite difficult to remove it from the case. These are things I can live with, but just an observation.

Now that is out of the way, so let's get to the goods.

Schindler's List is a film adapted from the Thomas Keneally novel depicting the life of Oskar Schindler (Neeson). Schindler was initially a member of the Nazi party that saw a profit in using Jewish workers in his factory as a cheap source of labor, since for the Jews a job meant you served a purpose and had at least a minimal amount of value and would escape death one more day.

The story evolves as Schindler soon starts to see the Jews as people rather than a cheap source of labor and he risks his business and his life to save the lives of 1100 Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust.

Obviously at over three hours there is much more to be told in Schindler's List but the important thing to take away from the film is that through a triumph of human spirit Oskar Schindler waged his life to save a persecuted group of people in a time of great tragedy.

The performances and production of Schindler's List are second to none, which is one of the reasons for it being a multiple Oscar award winner including Best Picture, Best Director (Spielberg) and more.

The Holocaust is nothing to take lightly and one of the magnificent things about this film is its ability not to hide from the truths of the Holocaust and the truth of Schindler. Through graphic imagery and the use of almost entirely black-and-white filming you see what horrors were taking place in one of the worst times in the world's history.

With the DVD release the awareness the movie creates do not end with the film itself as it contains two special featurettes telling the stories of those involved and directly affected by the kindness of Oskar Schindler.

The more powerful of the two is the 77 minute feature titled "Voices from the List," which is presented by Steven Spielberg in partnership with Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation which Spielberg founded in 1994. The featurette chronologically tells the story of the people saved by Oskar Schindler in their own words, and to hear them speak of the trials they went through and the effect Schindler had on them from the day they first met him to the day they realized they were now free is just as important as the movie itself.

This release coincides with the 10th Anniversary of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which is a public charity that has collected nearly 52,000 testimonies from 56 countries and in 32 languages on videotape. The overall goal of the Foundation is to use to this unmatched collection of personal testimony to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry – and the suffering they cause – through the educational use of the Foundation’s visual history testimonies.

Anytime I watch this film it is always amazing to me that what I am watching is actual history and to ignore the horrors of our world's past is the first step into the ignorance which caused these atrocities.

While, Schindler's List may not be the form of entertainment you are always looking for when watching a film it is a definite reminder that the lives of many can be affected by the good of one person. The film is moving and emotional and if you just look into the eyes of Liam Neeson as he plays Schindler and Ben Kingsley as his Schindler's Jewish accountant you will see just how powerful a film can be in turning a tragic time into a motivating force for good.

Schindler's List is an excellent buy and I am honored to have it on my shelf.