Schindler's List

Schindler's List
Official Logo
Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by	Steven Zaillian
Based on	Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Produced by	Steven Spielberg Gerald R. Molen Branko Lustig
Starring	Liam Neeson Ben Kingsley Ralph Fiennes Caroline Goodall Jonathan Sagall Embeth Davidtz
Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	John Williams
Production companies	Universal Pictures Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	November 30, 1993 (1993-11-30) (Washington D.C.) December 15, 1993 (1993-12-15) (United States)
Running time	195 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$22 million
Box office	$322.2 million

Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama movie directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel Schindler's Ark (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.

Ideas for a film about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963. Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden, made it his life's mission to tell Schindler's story. Spielberg became interested when executive Sidney Sheinberg sent him a book review of the novel. Universal Pictures bought the rights to the novel, but Spielberg, unsure if he was ready to make a film about the Holocaust, tried to pass the project to several directors before deciding to direct it himself. Principal photography took place in Kraków, Poland, over 72 days in 1993. Spielberg shot the film in black and white and approached the film as a documentary. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński wanted to create a sense of timelessness. John Williams composed the score, and violinist Itzhak Perlman performed the main theme.

Schindler's List premiered on November 30, 1993, in Washington, D.C., and was released on December 15, 1993, in the United States. The film received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for the performances of Neeson and Fiennes, Williams' musical score, Kaminski's cinematography, Zaillian's screenplay, and Spielberg's direction. It was a box office success, earning $322.2 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. Schindler's List earned multiple accolades, including seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture), seven BAFTAs and three Golden Globes. It is often listed as one of the greatest films ever made. The film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress in 2004 and selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked Schindler's List 8th on its list of the 100 greatest American films.

Plot

It is about businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) who saves thousands of Jews from being killed in the Holocaust by putting them to work in a factory. His list was the list of Jews he wanted to save from the Nazi’s in Nazi Occupied Poland, where Jews were normally sent to Concentration camps operated by the SS during the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945 .

Actors in the Cast

• Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler
• Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern
• Ralph Fiennes as Amon Göth
• Caroline Goodall as Emilie Schindler
• Jonathan Sagall as Poldek Pfefferberg
• Embeth Davidtz as Helen Hirsch
• Małgorzata Gebel as Wiktoria Klonowska
• Mark Ivanir as Marcel Goldberg
• Beatrice Macola as Ingrid
• Andrzej Seweryn as Julian Scherner
• Friedrich von Thun as Rolf Czurda
• Jerzy Nowak as Investor
• Norbert Weisser as Albert Hujar
• Anna Mucha as Danka Dresner
• Adi Nitzan as Mila Pfefferberg
• Piotr Polk as Leo Rosner
• Rami Heuberger as Joseph Bau
• Ezra Dagan as Rabbi Menasha Lewartow
• Elina Löwensohn as Diana Reiter
• Hans-Jörg Assmann as Julius Madritsch
• Hans-Michael Rehberg as Rudolf Höß
• Daniel Del Ponte as Josef Mengele
• Oliwia Dąbrowska as The Girl in Red

Awards

Schindler's List featured on a number of "best of" lists, including the TIME magazine's Top Hundred as selected by critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel, Time Out magazine's 100 Greatest Films Centenary Poll conducted in 1995, and Leonard Maltin's "100 Must See Movies of the Century". The Vatican named Schindler's List among the most important 45 movies ever made. A Channel 4 poll named Schindler's List the ninth greatest movie of all time, and it ranked fourth in their 2005 war movies poll. The movie was named the best of 1993 by critics such as James Berardinelli, Roger Ebert, and Gene Siskel. The movie was designated by the Library of Congress in 2004 and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Spielberg won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for his work, and shared the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture with co-producers Branko Lustig and Gerald R. Molen. Steven Zaillian won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

It was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, and won numerous other awards, including seven BAFTAs and three Golden Globe Awards. The movie also won numerous other awards and nominations worldwide.

Impact

Among others such as Citizen Kane and Sunset Boulevard, it has been called one of the greatest movies ever. In 1998, the American Film Institute selected it as the ninth most popular of all time in their 100 Years... 100 Movies list.

In February 1997, NBC aired a version without cuts of the movie (in two parts), much to the upset of many viewers. It was the first time a television broadcast had ever received the TV-M rating (soon to be called TV-MA).

Other websites

• Schindler's List on IMDb
• Filmsite's review of the movie
• Official site Archived 2005-05-07 at the Wayback Machine