History Film / SchindlersList

* CruelToBeKind: Schindler knew that Stern was using the factory as a safe haven for "skilled" Jewish workers but when a woman came talking about it as an OpenSecret and asking him to request her parents to work at the factory he got furious at the implication, verbally abusing her and kicked her out of his office. That made him confront Stern openly, [[PlausibleDeniability explaining in absolute terms how dangerous it would be if that knowledge came around to the SS]], then asked him to request the parents of the woman.

''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 film directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg, produced by Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, and Branko Lustig (a survivor of Auschwitz), and written by Steven Zaillian. The film features music composed by Music/JohnWilliams, and it was shot [[SplashOfColor almost]] [[DeliberatelyMonochrome entirely in black and white]].

--->'''Helen''': My first day here, he beat me because I threw out the bones from dinner. He came down at midnight and asked for them. And I asked him - I don't know how, I could never ask him now - I said, "Why are you beating me?" He said, "The reason I beat you now is because you ask why I beat you."

* GreaterScopeVillain: Hitler never shows up during the movie, but since it’s a holocaust movie he is behind all of the atrocities going on

* Greaterscopevillain: Hitler never shows up during the movie, but since it’s a holocaust movie he is behind all of the atrocities going on

* BlackMarket: Discussed and utilized by Schindler at several points. He raises the money to buy the factory by offering Jewish investors in Krakow a portion of its output -- durable goods that will be more valuable than cash inside the ghetto. He then uses his contacts to obtain luxury items (rare foods, liquor, etc.), which he offers as gifts to SS officials in order to secure military production contracts. Later, he begins to offer bribes in the forms of gems and jewelry (such as the bag of diamonds he gives to Rudolf Hoess at Auschwitz), arguing that these items will be more useful than German currency once the war ends. He also pends much of his fortune to secure food supplies for his workers on the black market. At the very end, he issues a bottle of vodka to every worker so they will have something valuable to offer in trade.

* ConvenientMisfire: A scene in which Goeth attempts to execute a Jew due to failing to fulfill the quota despite the speed of crafting equipment, but his pistol misfires. He tries another gun, but that misfires as well and he gives up on the idea, being happy enough to PistolWhip the prisoner instead. This scene is based on an incident in Keneally's book.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: In the beginning, Schindler is an unfaithful husband who drinks too much and has a bad temper. He takes advantage of the war and he hires Jews just because he does not have to pay them, so he will make more money. Throughout the movie, he comes to realize that his moral duty is to save as many Jews as possible and he even puts his own life at risk in the process.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Schindler is an unfaithful husband who drinks too much and has a bad temper. That does not stop him from being a hero.

** Near the beginning, a waiter offers Schindler his best German wine, which Schindler declines, preferring French wine. This establishes him apart from his fanatically nationalist Nazi peers. Moments later, he demonstrates what a womanizer he is with his flirtations with the girls at the party, beating a hopeful bigwig officer to their attention.

*** On a related note, several surviving ''Schindlerjuden'' served as on-set consultants during production. While filming several scenes featuring Creator/RalphFiennes as Amon Goeth, some of the consulting survivors began to tremble in fear and almost suffered panic attacks simply because of how much Fiennes ''looked and acted like the REAL Goeth''.

* DIYDentistry: Near the end of the film, one worker volunteers to have his gold teeth pulled out in order to make a ring for Schindler. Everyone else thanks him profusely, and he's later seem smiling even as he holds an ice pack to his jaw.

* LittleDeadRidingHood: The only color shown in the movie (aside from a candle at the beginning, the Blauschein stamp, and the ending scene) is a girl in a red coat, shown hiding from the Nazis. [[spoiler:Later in the film, she is seen in passing again as one of a stack of corpses, only recognizable because the red coat is again the only color shown.]] Steven Spielberg wanted to use red in that scene for several reasons: because of the association with blood, because Oskar Schindler really did see a toddler dressed in red wandering through the ghetto, and to symbolize the US government's failure to do anything about the Holocaust despite knowing full well what was going on.

** When the women are lead into the showers, expecting to be gassed [[spoiler: only to find out they are in actual showers. They are ecstatic to have survived, but then as they are leaving they see another batch of women going into a ''different'' set of "showers", this one beneath a crematorium...]]

** A small one by Goeth. He asks a Rabbi Lewartow to make him a hinge and times him. If he makes it too slowly Goeth can shoot him for being inefficient. If he makes it quickly, Goeth can point out that though his work is fast, the number of hinges he has made throughout the day is very small and shoot him for slacking off on the job. In fact, the machines were being recalibrated that morning so he couldn't work. Goeth chooses the latter and tries to execute Lewartow, but settles for beating him unconscious after the pistol misfires.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Generally averted. However one example which made the scene even more chilling was when we hear the shots Goeth is taking at his servant we see Stern walking a few paces behind. Stern then winces when we hear one shot, indicating the boy has clearly been hit. Seconds later we in fact see the boy's dead body and workers running to retrieve him.

* GraveMarkingScene: The final scene of the film shows the actual Schindler Jews, and the actors who played several of them, visiting the grave of the actual Schindler in Israel. They each leave a stone on the marker to mark their visit, as per Jewish custom. By the time they finish, every bit of space on the marker (except for the inscription) is covered with stones. A lone man then places two red roses on the marker; while his face is not shown, it has since been revealed that this was Creator/LiamNeeson.

** Throughout the movie, smoke is used to represent the Holocaust victims; the opening scene has a candle being lit representing hope and life, then the candle flame is extinguished and the smoke plume then transitions to the smoke billowing from a train steam engine that has just delivered a group of deported Jews to the Nazi authorities.

** Schindler claims to be supporting the Nazi party while deliberately having his Jews work unproductively in his factories, both to simply save the Jews from being gassed and to put a dent in the Nazi war machine. ''And he gets away with it.''
** In the last hour of the movie, he pulls 300 of his female workers out of Auschwitz with little more than a bag of diamonds and a lot of guts.

** Once the German surrender is announced, Schindler gathered all factory workers and German army guards to explain what was going to happen. He freely admits that the guards technically have a responsibility to kill everyone there, even goading them to do so, but noting that it serves no purpose now.

Six hundred years ago when elsewhere they were footing the blame for TheBlackDeath, 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. They came here with nothing. With nothing! and they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. Think about that. [[{{UnPerson}} By this evening those six centuries are a rumor. They never happened.]]\\

** Rudolf Höss presents himself this way during his meeting with Schindler. The latter has come to get back "his" Jews that have been routed to Auschwitz due to a paperwork error. Höss initially refuses, claiming that it is not his job to "interfere with the processes" that take place in the camp. He reneges when Schindler offers him a massive bribe.

* RainOfSomethingUnusual: A scene in which Schindler is walking outside to his car there are children running out playing in what looks like snow. But when Schindler wipes it off his car one can see that it is actually ash that has come from the exhumation and incineration of mass graves outside Krakow.

** When the film was released, some criticized Spielberg for including such a "blatantly evil" villain as Goeth in the film, claiming that he was too pointlessly cruel to be believable. What these people are unaware of is that Spielberg ''toned down'' what a monster Goeth was in real life. He regularly tortured people, and had a special dungeon built under his villa for this specific purpose, and is believed to have personally murdered over 500 people (about a fourth of the deaths that occurred in his camp). And yes, there is tons of documentation and witnesses for ''all'' of it.

** The connection Emilie Schindler has with Jewish workers is underplayed. Spielberg admits her story could be an entirely different movie. Like her husband, she was named a "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem.

** Arguably, a subtler Shakespeare allusion occurs with the close-ups of the Sabbath candles--the second occurrence of which is contrasts the candle flame's color against the black-and-white film. This could be a visual reference to another quote from ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'': "How far that little candle throws his beams/So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

** PlayedForHorror throughout the film. Many of the Nazis simply treat what they do to the Jewish People as though it is just regular office work. They torment Jews, send them to extermination camps, have them work to death, and regularly murder them violently; but they never bat-an-eye at their actions and are more concerned about general bureaucracy, doing their "jobs" well enough, and regularly complain about unnecessary paperwork. Essentially, the film portrays the Nazis as human beings, but it actually [[FauxAffablyEvil makes them]] ''[[FauxAffablyEvil more]]'' [[FauxAffablyEvil disturbing, horrifying, and shows how truly despicable they really were]].

** PlayedForHorror throughout the film. Many of the Nazis simply treat what they do to the Jewish People as though it is just regular office work. They torment Jews, send them to extermination camps, have them work to death, and regularly murder them violently; but they never bat-an-eye at their actions and are more concerned about general bureaucracy, doing their "jobs" well enough, and regularly complain about unnecessary paperwork. Essentially, the film portrays the Nazis as human beings, but it actually makes them ''more'' disturbing, horrifying, and shows how truly despicable they really were.

** PlayedForHorror throughout the film. Many of the Nazis simply treat what they do to the Jewish People as though it is just regular office work. They torment Jews, send them to extermination camps, have them work to death, and regularly murder them violently; but they never bat-an-eye at their actions and are more concerned about general bureaucracy, doing their "jobs" well enough, and regularly complain about unnecessary paperwork. The fact that the film shows the Nazis as such makes them all the more horrifying.

** Arguably, a subtler Shakespeare allusion occurs with the close-ups of the Sabbath candles--the second occurrence of which is a contrast of the candle flame's color against the black-and-white film. This could be a visual reference to another quote from ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'': "How far that little candle throws his beams/So shines a good deed in a naughty world."