Heartwarming / Schindler's List

Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.

Sure, the film and the tone of the movie might be nihilistic and unflinching, but Spielberg used that to make the light and hope brighter, especially for the ending. That's why this movie is so damn beautiful.

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The film

• Oskar Schindler, through the movie and in Real Life.
  • In the movie, they portrayed him as only start caring about the workers in the middle of the movie. However, in real life, he actually planned to save the Jews right from the start.
  • The Goleszow transport wasn't in the movie, but deserves to be mentioned. In January 1945, a trainload of about 250 Jews arrived at Brünnlitz after days of traveling without food. Twelve of them were already dead, and the rest were too sick or weak to work, but Schindler's wife took them into the factory and cared for them in its infirmary until the war ended.
• Also Emilie Schindler, through the movie and in Real Life, as she also had every opportunity to leave Oskar and the Jews, but remained just as steadfast in supporting him and saving Jewish lives no matter the sacrifice or struggle. When the real Emilie appears in the final scene at the grave of her husband, even though he had abandoned her years ago, she makes it clear that she still loves him.
  • At last we meet again ... I have received no answer, my dear, I do not know why you abandoned me ... But what not even your death or my old age can change is that we are still married, this is how we are before God. I have forgiven you everything, everything ...
  • The brief glimpses of Oskar and Emilie's relationship. Despite his womanizing, it's clear that they love each other very much and there's a palpable tenderness in all of their scenes, as well as sadness during their Train-Station Goodbye when he can't promise her that he can commit to her.
• It's a quietly powerful moment when Schindler and Stern share their first drink together as friends.
  • On a related note, at the end when Stern tells Schindler to focus on the people who are alive because of him, he calls him Oskar. Another subtle sign that their relationship has progressed to being not just equals but friends.
• Schindler meets his workers at the Brinnlitz train station, in the snow, with a promise of hot soup and bread once they reach the factory.
• The tear-jerking end scene where the real people Oskar saved place stones on his grave (a great sign of respect for the dead) accompanied by the actors who portrayed them, concluded with Liam Neeson laying roses in the center.
  • "There are fewer than four thousand Jews left alive in Poland today. There are more than six thousand descendants of the Schindler Jews."
    • The movie was made in 1993. By 2012, the number was closer to eighty-five hundred.
• Schindler hosing the train cars during an especially hot day to give the Jews inside at least a little relief. Goeth at first mocks him and laughs with his fellow Nazis but soon just sits in bewilderment as if he honestly can't understand the act of selfless compassion.
• To quote Stern: "The list is an absolute good. The list... is life. All around its margins lies the gulf."
• If any moment of the last half-hour of this movie were in another movie, it'd be a clear CMOH, from when Schindler informs the rabbi that the Sabbath will be recognized to when said rabbi gives a letter to Schindler as he's about to flee the camp that explains Oskar's heroism and tells him, "Every worker has signed it."
  • The letter itself.
  • Not in the film, but the Schindlers were indeed captured by French nationals and showed the letter to them. The group's interpreter read it, burst into tears, and after he translated it to the others, they were so touched that they let the Schindlers go.
• Just after Schindler yells at Regina Perlman to get out of his office and goes downstairs to rage at Stern that his factory isn't a safe-haven and it's all about making money... and then gives Stern the names of Regina's elderly parents so they can be saved.
  • A bit later, as the Perlmans arrive at the factory, Regina sees them enter; the expression on her face says volumes.
• Early in the film, Itzhak Stern is placed on a transport to almost certain death and Schindler shows up at the Krakow train station to fetch him, coolly explaining the potential danger to "production". Despite his seemingly tranquil bluster, he clearly starts to panic when he spots Itzhak in a moving train, banging frantically on the doors of the cart. The facade is cracking.
• A very small one in the scope of the film, but Oskar promising his wife that he will never cheat on her again, just her smile is so beautiful.
• After introducing Emilie to Stern, she spends the rest of the scene kindly greeting every single worker she goes by.
• Near the end of the film, there is a poignant scene where Schindler expresses remorse and guilt over not saving more; on how he could have traded more just to save one more... just one more...
  • Stern tries to reassure him by pointing out how many he did save.
  Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them... There will be generations because of what you did.
  • After Schindler breaks down, dozens of his workers give him a big hug.
• One worker donates his gold teeth to be melted down into a ring as a gift to Schindler for saving their lives. The other workers thank him profusely at every step, from taking a swig of liquor to having the teeth removed to holding an ice pack on his jaw. And the inscription on the ring: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."
  • When they're working on making the ring, the worker is shown, clearly in pain, but with a big grin on his face.
• There is a twisted example from Goeth. Having grown fond of his Jewish maid, Goeth is unwilling to send her to Auschwitz and secretly confides in Schindler that he would like to take her back to his home. When Schindler points out that such a plan would be impossible, Goeth admits he knows, which is why he'll just take her out into the woods and shoot her instead to spare her from the horrors of Auschwitz.
• At the end of the movie, Oskar speaks with the guards about their orders to exterminate all the Jews in the factory, and gives them a choice - follow orders and kill them, or leave with a clear conscience ("And return to your families as men, instead of murderers"). Every single guard turns around and leaves, and Nuremberg Defense be damned.
• Tear-jerking as the one-armed man's death may be, he dies believing he's been useful to someone. He'd been part of Schindler's workforce in Krakow, and Schindler quietly insists afterward that he was very skilled at his job.
• The scene where Oskar visits Helen in the basement of Göth's villa, and gently attempts to win her trust. He listens as she pours out her troubles to him, and urges her not to lose hope for her own survival. And with "Not that kind of a kiss", he treats Helen, who is at constant risk of physical and sexual violence from the twisted Göth, with the innocent tenderness she so sorely lacks. Chivalrous Pervert, indeed.

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