Monsters trying to fit in with the other Monsters…
Why Schindler’s Lists is the Greatest Movie of All Time…
As Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, “ I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
It is my opinion that for the past twenty three years only two films serve any cultural significance to the craft. They are, Schindler’s List (1994) and There Will Be Blood (2007). The no dialogue opening of There Will Be Blood are what I consider to be the best in motion picture history. The opening throws out the make a connection approach and goes with the just pay attention method. Enough about that, let’s talk Schindler’s List…..
Schindler’s List. I am certain I have watched this film more than the editor himself. In fact, I make it mandatory that I refresh my knowledge of this monumental show every quarter of the year as my passion for motion pictures and the craft run deep. There is something about a black and white film that utilizes the just pay attention method, and this film exploits that method to the bone. To say Shindler’s List is about the Holocaust, is to say the Planet Earth is about homo sapiens. I agree with the departed Roger Ebert when he says, “…the Holocaust describes the field for the story, rather than the subject.” (2) It takes two types of examples for someone to develop a passion — the righty way and the wrong.
I will begin with the right. The film that got me wanting to make movies was The Brave Little Toaster. “A toaster, a blanket, a lamp, a radio, and a vacuum cleaner journey to the city to find their master after being abandoned in their cabin in the woods.” (1) In search of their master, who is now a college student, they find a whole new meaning to the phrase — little fish, big pond. The group of “forgotten toys” proclaim they will only find comfort in finding the answers. Answers that bear a signature meaning of life to each toy that eventually becomes a burden. When they arrive to the the masters apartment in the big city, after many trials and tribulations, they discover face to face their succesors who overload their senses leaving them in shock and awe. Some feel the answer is sooner or later we all get thrown into the heap of the lost and forgotten. There was never a single answer, in this case, there was never a single paradise. To prevail in life you have to make sacrifices and understand that the trick is knowing when to be satisfied. Unfortunately by doing so, you inadvertently put strangers and loved ones in the pile of the lost and forgotten, just as the master did his forgotten toys. Each toy had thier own signature defeat and therefore their own answer to discover. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, to see each character undertake their own fate in the story.
The wrong — I remember watching the I’ll Make Love to You music video for Boys II Men. This woman is getting a security system installed while in the b.g. you see a installer packing up his equiptment and a foreman in a suit informing the woman that services have been rendered. Why would you need a foreman to install a security system, and why would he need to wear a suit? Overall, it just looked like one bad soap opera. The reason I tell you this is because I at first hand witnessed the wrong way to go about conveying a narrative. Before the man in suit departs the woman even suggest he stay and have a drink. Is she bored or depsperate? I get it. She’s insecure so she has a “knight in shining armor” install a “security” system. I knew for the first time I could direct a better music video than these guys. I think I was about 7 or 8 years old. My passion then began to right wrongs by watching many films and music videos at a distance to watch for errors I did not wish to repeat. In this stretch of time that leads up to now, I saw what I never want to evolve to. The double edge sword in this analysis? At the same time people were getting credit when it wasn’t due.
“ It could not be better.”
“ It could be worse.”
Itzhak Stern / Helen Hirsch / Poldek Pfefferberg / Chaja and Danka Dresner
The fact that this film was able to maintain 6 character arcs is just astounding. Itzhak Stern, a banker, is exploited for his connections to wealthy Jews and provides the backbone to Oskar’s sub camp factory. Mr. Stern is the true hero, a Saint even. The movie should be called, Stern’s List! Helen Hirsch was chosen out of fate to be Amon’s maid and therefore is exposed first hand to Amon’s antics. In the scene where Helen is ordered to step foward from the line, chosen from a group of women in the freezing cold to be Amon’s maid, Amon lifts the blanket covering her hands to reveal them shaking, a sight to behold. It is witnessed that Amon develops a affinity towards Helen, but is half hearted as his hate towards Jews forever lingers. Poldek Pfefferberg I guess you could say was third in command to this sub camp factory. Where Itzhak Stern had connections to money, Mr. Pfefferberg had connections to the black market. By utilizing the luxury goods Pfefferberg could smuggle, Oskar was able to bribe and express his “gratitude” for Generals, Officers, and the like to keep his contract with the Nazi Party ongoing. With Chaja (Mother) and Danka Dresner(Daughter) we witness the emotional side in respect to logical aspects Stern and Pfefferberg display. Good character is radiant and infectious, a dignity that is respected if held onto when times are prosperous and in peril. During the liquidation of the ghettos there remains the haunting images of the Dresner family scrambling to stuff heirlooms into pieces of bread to swallow as the sounds of army boots are heard in the stairwell. Blood is not thicker than water, for no blood, even from every living creature under the sun, could never change the color of the sea. Very much like the fortgotten toys, these supporting characters underwent their own challenges to find answers. You witness how each suffer the hardships and horrors in the liquidation of the ghettos. Even when every fate was up for grabs, they displayed sangfroid — coolness in the face of danger. It is through these characters you can appreciate the efforts of Oskar Schindler and the evil that is Amon Goeth.
Amon: Where do you get a suit like that? Is that silk?
Oskar: Of course.
Amon: It has a nice sheen about it. Very nice.
Oskar: I’d say I’d get you one, but the man who made it is probably dead.
Tom Hanks (Best Actor) for Philadelphia and Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor) for The Fugitve won the Academy Awards that year in 1994.
HOW THESE TWO DID NOT WIN BLOWS MY MIND !!!!!!!!
There is a scene where Amon and Oskar are throwing a party at the house on the hill while the Jews of the prison camp are asleep down below. Amon and Oskar are engulfed by libations and woman, a ratio of 8:1 (woman to men). Oskar states they, “Need more wine!” The creature that is Amon would not be out of his element to suggest, “We need more woman!” Oskar goes to retrieve wine from the basement which also serves as Helen’s living quarters. It is here Oskar discovers an exploit to the duality of Amon’s behavior which serves as his “Archimedes’ Lever” to persuasion.
“Why is the top down, I’m fucking freezing.”
There is without a doubt that Amon Goeth places in the top 5 villians of motion picture history. Right up there with Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, and Patrick Bateman. Hannibal Lecter is a brilliant psychiatrist, however he is a cannabilistic serial killer. Hannibal could turn the Evil on and off, just like Patrick Bateman. In a sense they had to put on a mask to hide their true nature. Amon Goeth has no such switch nor mask. If you were to cast Amon Goeth in a supporting role for the film Inglorious Basterds , you would be like, Hans Landa who? You see Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, and Patrick Bateman all wore mask, figuratively and literally. Amon again has no such mask. Amon is PURE EVIL. You also have to remember Darth Vader was once a Jedi first, then turned to the dark side. Vader eventually did what the Emperor commanded Luke Skywalker to do and let the hate flow through him and shit. We are fortunate that after the Nazi Party surrender, Amon Goeth was executed for his crimes against humanity. They say in the battle of good versus evil that good will always prevail. If you mean in the sense that we are always trying to get it right, then I guess I can agree. Sometimes it feels like monsters trying to fit in with the other monsters….
“We give you a Jewish girl at five marks a day, Oskar. You should kiss us, not them. God forbid you ever get a real taste for Jewish skirt, there’s no future in it. They don’t have a future. That’s not just good old fashioned Jew hating talk. It’s policy now.”
The Fate of Amon Goeth
Oskar Schindler was no saint either…..
1 . http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092695/
2. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/schindlers-list-1993
