Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1246 in VHS
• Released on: 2004-04-12
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, PAL, Surround Sound
• Original language: English, German, Hebrew, Polish
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 187 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Steven Spielberg had a banner year in 1993. He scored one of his biggest commercial hits that summer with the mega-hit Jurassic Park, but it was the artistic and critical triumph of Schindler's List that Spielberg called "the most satisfying experience of my career". Adapted from the best-selling book by Thomas Keneally and filmed in Poland with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, Spielberg's masterpiece ranks among the greatest films ever made about the Holocaust during World War II. It's a film about heroism with an unlikely hero at its center--Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who risked his life and went bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps.

By employing Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army, Schindler ensures their survival against terrifying odds. At the same time, he must remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) and negotiate business with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. Schindler's List gains much of its power not by trying to explain Schindler's motivations, but by dramatising the delicate diplomacy and determination with which he carried out his generous deeds.

As a drinker and womanizer who thought nothing of associating with Nazis, Schindler was hardly a model of decency; the film is largely about his transformation in response to the horror around him. Spielberg doesn't flinch from that horror, and the result is a film that combines remarkable humanity with abhorrent inhumanity--a film that functions as a powerful history lesson and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the context of a living nightmare. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.co.uk Review
Both an artistic and a commercial triumph, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List manages to find some small glimmer of hope for the human spirit amid the abomination that was the Holocaust. The true story of flamboyant entrepreneur Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) and his attempts to save Jewish lives under the very noses of his Nazi associates gives Spielberg a focal point of conscience and humanity in an otherwise unrelentingly grim depiction of mankind's worst traits, here memorably embodied by Ralph Fiennes as the sadistic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth.

Spielberg's determined and unflinching vision is supported by a dignified score from regular collaborator John Williams, and evocative black-and-white cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, which alternates a semi-documentary feel for the harrowing ghetto and concentration camp sequences with an altogether more decadent sensibility for the Nazis. The single use of colour tells of horror more shocking than any words could convey. It's true that towards the end Spielberg lets his sentimental streak off the leash when he chooses to focus on Schindler's grief, but otherwise this is filmmaking of the highest kind: compellingly dramatic, profoundly educational, and unfailingly emotive in the very best sense.

On the DVD: Schindler's List is thinly spread across two discs, with a break at just over two hours into this three-hour movie. It's a little surprising that the feature could not have fitted onto one disc, especially given the absence of commentary or other additional tracks. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture is fine, though displaying the graininess of the original film stock. Sound is available in highly detailed DTS. Extras on the second disc are limited to Voices from the List, a 77-minute documentary featuring the personal testimony of Schindler survivors, and an 11-minute feature on Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. There's nothing at all about the making of the movie. --Mark Walker

Synopsis
Based on a true story, SCHINDLER'S LIST is Steven Spielberg's epic drama of World War II Holocaust survivors and the man who unexpectedly came to be their saviour. Unrepentant womaniser and war profiteer Oskar Schindler uses Polish Jews as cheap labour to produce cookware for the Third Reich. But after witnessing the violent liquidation of the walled ghetto where the Krakow Jews have been forced to live, Schindler slowly begins to realise the immense evil of Nazism. When his employees are sent to a work camp, they come under the terrorising reign of sadistic Nazi Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes). With the help of his accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), Schindler creates a list of 'essential' Jews. Bribing Goeth, Schindler manages to get 1,100 people released from the camp and brought to the safety of his munitions factory in Czechoslovakia. Spielberg's glorious film is wondrously evocative, visually stunning, and emotionally stirring.

Customer Reviews

Overly long and self indulgent
In telling Schindler's story the director chose black and white and the beginning intimates that it might be in the great tradition of 'The Third Man' etc. Unfortunately the film meanders astray into detailed descriptions of the holocaust and the dynamic of the film is lost. Instead of a tense 1 hour 50 minutes of cunning,guile and threat there are literal hours when almost everything is 'spelt out' in many long takes and diversions. The great film techniques of suggestion and inference are little used as almost every action is shown literally and dramatic movement is lost to history lesson. It seems to me important that the dramatic 'backdrop' of any artistic production has to be understood and accepted for the story using that scenario to be successful and not 'told' as the film proceeds. Given the many favourable reviews that this film has received it must be that be that expectations of film have changed and long elaborate explanations and reconstructions are now the required item. If this is the case then it is a change of taste that I cannot share.

Powerful and emotional epic
This has to be one of the most thought provoking films I have ever watched. The story and the way it has been filmed totaly draw you into the film. A classic piece of modern cinema, portrayed on DVD. A real must for any war film enthusiast.

Haven't made it yet...
When I first saw this it was at the Leicester Square Odeon cinema. When we all left we were in a state of shock and genuine anguish and I clearly remember that as we all filed out we had to pass those who were waiting to come in for the next viewing. I still to this day remember the faces of those people as they looked at our own faces. This is more than a film - it is an experience and a harrowing and disturbing one at that.

I have seen this film many times and one day I will watch it without having to stop the film to wipe the tears away. Haven't made it yet.