It says a lot about Steven Spielberg and the culture that produced him that his approach to the Holocaust is through a story of a “good German”, an industrialist, Oskar Schindler, redeemed through his efforts to save the Jews who worked for him from the camps. That even at mankind’s worst, there may be stories of hope.
The movie (and Thomas Keneally’s book on which Steve Zaillian based his screenplay) are nuanced, flecked with shadings of grey. Schindler (Liam Neeson) is not a saint, and to some degree he’s carefully manipulated by his accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley). The film makes no bones about the evil of their nemesis, SS commander Amon Goth (Ralph Fiennes). These three performances are superbly calibrated and counter-balanced. Spielberg and his team bring consummate craftsmanship to the task. The film is particularly impressive when observing the bureaucratic and logistical processes involved in shipping tens of thousands of men, women and children off to their death; the banality of evil, indeed.
This is one of the most acclaimed films of the 90s and it won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Yet today we might set it beside Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and find the latter a more salutary and rightly horrifying lesson. (Not that we can’t have both.)
Media Partner
Steven Spielberg
Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Embeth Davidtz
USA
1993
English
7 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Score
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko Lustig
Screenwriter
Steve Zaillian
Cinematography
Janusz Kaminski
Editor
Michael Kahn
Original Music
John Williams
Production Design
Allan Starski
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Crash
Sex drive, David Cronenberg-style. The car-crash fetishists who orbit Cronenberg's metrosexual Toronto (they include James Spader, Holly Hunter, and Deborah Unger) obsessively seek a fusion of metal and flesh... Fender bender as the ultimate orgasm.
Trainspotting
Danny Boyle's blistering movie was a sensation in 1996: a kick in the teeth of old school British kitchen sink realism, it fearlessly transformed the dire circumstances of Edinburgh heroin addicts into an experience by turns exhilarating and devastating.
Fargo
Have the Coen brothers ever made a more satisfying movie than Fargo? This grisly comedy pits one of cinema's most pure-hearted cops (Frances McDormand's pregnant cop, Marge Gunderson) against the machinations of weak and mercenary men.
Lone Star
John Sayles's modern day Western is a murder mystery which draws sheriff Chris Cooper to investigate two of his predecessors, the notoriously corrupt Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), and his own father, Buddy (Matthew McConaughey).
90s Mystery Movie + Trivia Night
And now for a shot in the dark... We're not announcing the Mystery Movie in advance, so you'll have to take a leap of faith. We can say it was released between January 1990 and January 2000, and it's not already showing elsewhere in this series. As an added enticement we're going to throw in a 90s movie trivia night with your ticket — plus prizes!
Princess Mononoke
A mystical fight between humans and the Animal Gods of the forest. Ashitaka, the last prince of a dying race, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting only becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost…
Gummo
Harmony Korine was just 24 when he made Gummo. It's become a cult favourite as much for its singularity as anything else: it's a strange, misshapen beast, a slice of beat poetry translated into experimental film.
Jackie Brown
Take half a dozen characters who know they're in a fix, and give them half a million dollars to fight over. Tarantino's crime movie (his best) transcends genre in large part because in Pam Grier and Robert Forster it gives us people we truly care about.
The Big Lebowski
The Coens' whacky, warped slacker generation riff on Raymond Chandler, a shaggy dog story which delights in going sideways at every turn. Jeff Bridges is the Dude, and what he really wants is to get his rug back...
Out of Sight
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Buffalo '66
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Run Lola Run
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Rushmore
Precocious Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is befriended by depressed industrialist Harold Blume (Bill Murray) until they both fall in love with first grade teacher Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Anderson's second feature is an old favourite.
The Blair Witch Project
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