Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401190096
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
The result is a 3-hour, 14-minute film shot in black and white with no big-name stars. It is the antithesis to of Spielberg's escapist fare, which earlier in 1993 produced "Jurassic Park." That film finished the year with a record $860 million gross - shattering the $701 million earned by another Spielberg fantasy, "E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial." He has placed two other films - "Jaws" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" - in the Top 10.
But Oskar Schindler is a long way from Indiana Jones, and "Schindler's List" - which is scheduled to open Friday in Roanoke - has not a hint of the childlike melodrama and sweeping flair of the typical Spielberg project.
Depicting the drama of a German businessman who dupes the Nazis into saving 1,200 Jews from certain annihilation in World War II Poland, the film is understated in every way. There are no grand crane shots. Even John Williams' music is low-key and minimal.
Filmed at a cost of $24 million, it is clear "Schindler's List" could not have been made by anyone other than someone with the power and influence of Spielberg. Universal Studios, perhaps in keeping with the film's Oscar campaign, has stated it isn't concerned about the movie making money.
The concern is unnecessary. Already, it has been cited by the Los Angeles and New York film critics, the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, four influential groups that seldom agree on a best picture.
"Schindler's List" may at last bring Spielberg the Oscar that has eluded him. His past snubs have become battle cries for his supporters; after winning the Director's Guild award for "The Color Purple" (1985), his only other effort at purely "adult" fare, he didn't even receive an Oscar nomination. The film, knocked by some critics for being melodramatic and overwrought, was nominated for 11 Oscars. It won none.
Spielberg has been nominated three times, for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "E.T." His detractors, though, have branded him as the eternal adolescent. Even the preliminary awards given to "Schindler's List" included only one for his direction.
Liam Neeson
Oskar Schindler is played by Liam Neeson, the tall, square-jawed Irish actor who, until now, has been on the edge of stardom in everything from Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives" to the camp-horror flick "Darkman."
Spielberg spotted Neeson last year in the Broadway revival of "Anna Christie" and immediately thought he had the romantic leading-man flair as well as the gruffness to suggest Schindler.
"Stars can come with sentimental baggage," Neeson said. "Steven didn't want to go with big stars. What you have here is merely a great story told by a great storyteller - and Steven is the star. His energy is phenomenal. I really think, with this film, that he was inspired. He was a wonderful patriarchal figure to us all."
Neeson said making the film had an effect on him.
"The thing that hits you about this film is the complete madness of the genocide. It staggers the imagination. Yes, it did make me think about God and wonder why God allowed this to happen, and, yes, I did go to Mass more often than I usually do. The main thing I wanted to do the minute I finished the filming was to fly to Ireland and visit my family."
He added that the "mood" was everything in approaching the role. "No one could trust anyone. Jews were turning each other in. Early in the film, a woman comes to me, as Schindler, and asks that I save her parents. I ask, `What do you think I'm running here, a hotel?' "
For the man who played the part, then, the big questions at the center of the film remain: Why did Oskar Schindler become a hero? How do we explain his sudden transformation?
"I don't particularly take sides with this guy," Neeson said. "I think his vices as well as his virtues eventually saved lives. All of us are born with an innate goodness. With him, it came to the surface . . . with some others, it might not have. Heroism is just a case of chance, and I think it was with him."
Neeson thinks the film is particularly relevant today.
"We are going through the same thing as the Holocaust again. What is the difference between what was done to the Jews and what is done to AIDS victims today? They are ostracized in the same way. Prejudice is prejudice."
Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley has the pivotal role of Itzhak Stern, the accountant who serves both as Schindler's factory manager and as his conscience. For the Oscar-winning star of "Gandhi," it is another real-life role - and then some.
"In effect, I feel that every character I play is a real-life person," he said. "If they didn't live, then I have to still play them as if they lived. With this film, the real danger, I'm afraid, is that people might turn away because it's been called an `important movie.' Sometimes, that scares people into staying away. I hope it doesn't happen here."
Kingsley approached "Schindler's List" with caution. "Personally, I don't think films can change the world. I didn't want to approach it like that. There is a danger in losing spontaneity when you think you're playing something `great' and `big.' The people living through this must have approached it with absurdity and irony. It was new to them - sudden death, split second."
He bristles noticeably at the suggestion of the film's possible religious effect.
"I'm afraid that religion in too much of the world is no longer a spiritual experience. Religion has been manipulated into a political weapon. There are far too many politics in religion in this country."
Ralph Fiennes
The real sensation of "Schindler's List" is the mesmerizing performance of British actor Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth, the evil Nazi commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp and a drinking buddy of Schindler's. In early scenes, Goeth casually shoots prisoners from the balcony of his villa. It is chilling.
Fiennes has already won two critics' awards and is a leading Oscar contender as best supporting actor.
"I didn't want the character to be a cliched Nazi," he said. "It may be an intensely negative part, but I loved the role, I must admit. The job was to humanize him, in spite of everything he does. It's all there in the script. If you live in London, as I do, you understand racism because you see it daily."
Fiennes recalled, with a shock that persists, the taxi driver who drove him to his hotel in Krakow.
"The driver asked me why we were making a film about the Jews. He said, `You know, the Polish people suffered, too,' and he added that he didn't feel that the Germans killed anyone who didn't deserve it.
"I couldn't believe he said that. Then, I thought, too, of the lesson that Hitler himself was not really taken seriously until almost the day he went into power.
"It was very strange, though, going to lunch in the Nazi uniform with the extras who played Jewish roles. There was a mood of authenticity on the set . . . but it was impossible for people to cry every day for three months. Yes, there were happy times on the set, too. There was laughter, at times. There had to be."
While he is destined for stardom, Fiennes may be remembered forever as the unspeakably evil Goeth.
"The whole idea is to normalize evil," he said. "As an actor, I have to scan my sensibilities and pull out this kind of evil from somewhere in my imagination. It's very difficult even to imagine this character."
But what, in the opinion of the film makers, makes "Schindler's List" different from other treatments of the Holocaust?
"The restraint," said producer Branko Lustig. "But I don't think it has to be different. The point is that there haven't been enough films on the Holocaust. Each film renews the debate. We were shocked to learn that, after a survey by the Roper Organization, 22 percent of those replying felt it was possible that the Holocaust never occurred.
"We were surprised, too, when we sent out a notice for Jewish people to play extras in the film," Lustig added. "We needed a large number and hardly any showed up. When we checked, we learned that there are only 350 Jews left in Krakow of the 300,000 who were there. The results of the murder are evident."
"Schindler's List," obviously filmed with passion from both sides of the camera, is evolving as the most important movie of the year.
by CNB