Techtite's DVD Reviews!

Schindler's List

Okay, so it's only offered on VHS so far (!!!), click above picture to order it anyway!

A Techtite Review

The Film : There are actually people out there, who did not like this film. These people are often referred to by one word : nitwits. Sorry, it's true: Schindler's List is not only one of the best films of the 20th Century, it is perhaps one of the best signs of courage, compassion, and the human spirit, ever shown in a WW2 film. To disagree is of course, quite human, though it is also wrong.

While some "historical" films recount history by making up characters that never existed (Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, etc.), Oskar Schindler was a man who really existed. It was actually filmed in Poland, enhancing the realism, unlike other films that are just "computer enhanced" movie sets and that's it. Unlike other Oscar-winners the past several years, it was also based on an actual book by Thomas Keneally, which won the Booker prize as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction.

"Fiction"...? Well, admittedly, little is known of the real man, who had to keep a low profile while saving Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. He also kept a low profile before and after as well. We do know a few facts, however, based on people who will speak on his behalf...many of whom owe him their lives. He was, by all accounts, the man responsible for the most Jewish Lives saved during the WW2 Holocaust. Among all of the goose-stepping followers during the Third Reich, here's a guy who started out as a mere war profiteer, yet soon had a change of heart, and saved many Jewish lives because of it. He risked his very life and fortune to save 1,300 Jews from the gas chambers. In short, a man more than worthy of a book made about his life...and a Oscar winning film. If it's fiction, it's only because it is forced to be, in order to connect what we know from what we might never truly know at all.

This all leads, quite frankly, to one of the best epic films I ever saw. While many people avoid black and white "art films" like the plague, this film is black and white for very artistic reasons. Looking not unlike an old WW2 news reel shown in classic theaters, this movie depicts his life in a perfect way, regardless of the only color in the film being at the start and finale of the film. The finale is truly moving, where actual family members saved by Schindler --not actors-- converge to remember the man and show gratitude for his heroic efforts.

Oh, yes, there's also the perfectly handled movie moment, of "The Little Girl in the Red Dress." Why this ingenious, moving moment in the film is not on more people's lists of Finest Movie Moments, I do not know. The black and white moments of the film have one single, colorized moment, of a otherwise unremarkable yet innocent looking girl in a red dress. This dress is later used for effective setting of the mood, when Oskar Schindler sees the same red dress in a dirty barrel of tossed away clothes of Jewish families sent to their deaths. This is a perfectly handled way of showing one of the possible moments Schindler had a change of heart for the better, and looking at the scene, anyone will know why. It's one of many similarly perfectly directed scenes, in what I feel is Spielburg's finest work to date.

The DVD : Here's where I have to eat my words a little: Schindler's List has yet to be released on DVD ! Sacrilege!

Why is a classic film, with so much to offer, not offered on DVD? Well, it may have something to do with the film being so likely to be copied, as is the reason for most other classics not being released on DVD, either (including everything from Star Wars to Raiders of the Lost Ark). In truth, Stephen Spielburg and George Lucas are the two biggest standouts to DVD so far, with so few of either of their films offered on DVD at all. Look at it this way, though; at least when they do release one of their films on DVD (like Jurassic Park), it's a special edition, and not just a "regular edition" now that is re-released as a "special edition" just to make more money. I truly believe that Schindler's List will be available on DVD soon enough, and when it is, it will include all the perks people would expect to be offered...perhaps even interviews with surviving friends and family members who lived the experience! Something that cool is worth waiting for...

To order this film on VHS (2 tapes!), click the picture at left.

You truly may also want to consider the book (click picture to order)

To periodically bug, pester, and annoy a store for the eventual sale of Schindler's List on DVD, click the following link, for the "DVD version" of Schindler's List.

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