Rocks that Move

#1. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
directed by Steven Spielberg
starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes

I don't know if this is REALLY my favorite movie all-time, but of all my favorite movies, it is the best. Until I see a movie I think is better, which is likely impossible, then this will always be the official favorite movie of the Evil Spoon. It is a must see; the perfect movie.

I remember the first time I ever saw it. I was in college. I sensed that it was something very important, and I was eager to see it, but no one wanted to go. So I went alone. I am thankful now for my friends' busy schedules and/or lack of taste or guts, because sitting there watching this film by myself gave me the opportunity to reflect within myself in a way that could not be achieved had I had company. "Schindler's List" had a profound effect on me like no other movie I have ever watched, and I walked out of the theater a changed man. The experience of seeing it alone for the first time will stay with me for a lifetime. It is one of my fondest memories.

The subject of the film is an easy way to garner an Oscar nomination, but really a difficult topic to address in any meaningful way. It is too much. The Holocaust is something, like God, that is beyond our ability as human beings to fully comprehend. Who can really wrap their mind around the death of six million people? Who can really understand the mind of true madmen? All you can do is try to capture a cross-section, hopefully finding a way to bring the humanity to the story. If you pan back too far, the horror deadens our senses and we lose the all-important human aspect of the story. If you zero in on too small a segment, however, then the impact is lessened. Steven Spielberg's decision to choose this particular story, of all the possible stories, was pure genius. How he pulled it all together is even moreso. It is all here. The murder. The ash. The arbitrary taking and sparing of lives. Entire families and communities wiped from the face of the earth. The luck, strength, and hope of the survivors. Like the gulf, this all hovers around the margins of "Schindler's List." Spielberg weaves all these components together into a perfect whole, using black and white photography that is subtle when necessary, and mind-blowingly sharp and poignant when it has to be. There are great horrors to witness, but there are also moments of love, humor, and redemption. The movie is both, the most painful and most uplifting film I have ever seen.

Although we are introduced to many characters, all of them important and essential "workers," ultimately the film centers on just three. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is a sly, conniving, greedy businessman that cheats on his wife with many women, and takes advantage of a situation so that he can make himself very wealthy. He is our hero. When discussing his failures in business in the past to his wife, he notes that something was always missing that prevented him from success. "Luck?" she asks. "War," he answers. Schindler is the ultimate swindler. Sensing the tide of war and its impact on the Jewish population of Krakow, he makes a deal with the Jews in the Ghetto. In exchange for their money and labor, he will give them enamelware from the factory to trade. All Schindler has to offer is salesmanship and the fact that he is a German. What he receives is the profits: all the wealth and money he has ever dreamed of. He is a big success.

All this is ultimately made possible by Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), a Jewish accountant of amazing abilities. Stern ultimately does all the work, keeping the profits coming in to make Schindler happy, while using the factory as a way to save many Jews from certain death. Their relationship is summed up perfectly when Stern is accidently put on a train to the death camps, and Schindler is forced to use his charisma and connections to save him. When Stern apologizes, Schindler responds, "What if I got here five minutes later? Then where would *I* be!?" Schindler slowly shows that he cares in little ways, but when a woman asks him to save her parents, he is furious with Stern. He berates Stern, who asks him if he is losing profits. "That is not the point," Schindler answers, "It's dangerous!" He hands Stern the parents names, however, and his watch. The next scene we see the woman's parents being sent to the safety of the factory. It is a haven afterall. Ultimately, Stern is the biggest hero in the film, though he could not do it without Oskar Schindler.

It is easy to get taken in by the subtle humor and the hidden compassion of Schindler, but soon we meet Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), perhaps the most sinister villain in movie history. He is cold. He is calculating, and yet arbitrary. He is an architect of murder. He is pure evil... yet, he is real. He is human, and not an actual demon. We see him eat and drink. We see him pee. We see him try to love. You sense pain and fury in his past, and yet when you look inside his eyes, there is nothing. When Schindler attempts to convince him that real power comes from mercy, Goeth proves to be incapable of any compassion. He stares into the mirror at his own empty eyes in search of benevolence, and finds only hatred. His actions follow appropriately. He even sells his one "love" like an object, much to her good fortune, accidently performing his only "good" deed, but not before nearly beating her to death. This combination of pure evil with a human being makes Goeth the ultimate fiend, and Ralph Fiennes plays him so perfectly that it is frightening. He was robbed at the Oscars. (On a side note, I always think that Liam Neeson was robbed, too... then I remember that 1993 was Tom Hanks' "Philadelphia" year).

The defining moment of the movie- one of the defining moments of all movies- begins with a small speech by Amon Goeth:

"Today is history. Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago when elsewhere they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Casimir the Great - so called - told the Jews they could come to Krakow. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. With nothing they came and with nothing they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history."

The liquidation of the ghetto is the one major moment of horror that Spielberg allows us to experience first hand. Ten thousand men, women, and children were murdered that night, and many more were sent to death camps. The macabre event lasted into the night, with gunfire lighting the windows of the houses like fireworks. Many of the scenes are based on real testimony by actual survivors. This atrocity is witnessed by Schindler on a hill outside the city, a moment defined by one of the few moments of color in the entire film. Amidst the black and white carnage and chaos, a small girl with a red coat wanders through the streets as he watches from a hill. She disappears into a building, as Schindler is transformed by awe and horror. The girl would later reappear in a moment that affected me emotionally the first time I saw it like no other moment in any movie I have ever seen.

For any of you that have not seen this, I will leave the rest for your own discovery. It is not a film for everyone, however, as it is simply a very disturbing subject. There is no way to get around it. That said, the movie is very important, and is actually uplifting. The Holocaust is present, but that is not what this film is really about. It is about redemption. It is about strength in love. It is about hope. "Schindler's List" is about life, not death. We eventually learn that fewer than 4,000 Jews currently are alive in Poland out of more than a million before the war, but over 6,000 descendents of Schindler's Jews survive today. "This list... is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf."