Schindlers List

Steven Spielberg

Visual text

Schindlers list is a visual text that is based on World War II, which shows what the Jews had to endure during the period of the holocaust. In depth, how Oskar Schindler a Nazi industrialist was able to save over 1000 Jews from dying through his work programme in his metal factory. At first he was a womaniser, gambler, alcoholic and greedy for money. But later he changed his ways, helped by Itzhak Stern his accountant and decides to help the ever struggling Jews. He does this knowing that he is risking his life as he would have been executed if the Nazis found out.

The theme endurance is addressed in this visual text. This is seen throughout the whole film as the Jews were constantly under the fear of death and had to try endure the time of when the Nazis were in power. Amon Goeth says, “They cast a spell on you, you know, the Jews. When you work closely with them, like I do, you see this. They have this power. It’s like a virus.”. This shows the viewer that Goeth thought the only option was to kill them as they were causing problems that were spreading. Goeth tell Schindlers that the Jews should get no money, “The Jewish workers salary- You pay it directly to the SS not the worker. They get nothing.”. This meant the Jews had to work for no money, but if they complained they would have been executed. This helped lead Schindler to use his metal factory to save the Jews as he knew this was wrong. The Jews had to endure a lot of bad situations to be able to live but through the metal factory gave them some hope.

This connects with the rest of the world as there are people out there that are struggling to get through life, this may be a financial problem or suffering from depression. All these people deserve to get help and us people that are living well should help these people to get a better and closer community. This is a historical event and teaches the world that there are good people out there that are willing to put themselves out of their comfort zone to help complete strangers. As Oskar Schindler said, “Whoever Saves One Life, Saves the entire world.”. This shows that by helping one person starts a trend of helping which will eventually save the entire world. It just takes this one person to start a movement.

This Visual text teaches us that the Jews were treated as a piece of property not a Human Being and the Nazis had no regard for human life not even children. This teaches the viewer that the world we live in now is much better than what it was but despite this there are still people complaining about every small thing in life. I believe that most people should be grateful for what they have as the Jews had to experience much worse things than just a broken phone or a cold room at night. They had to live with the fear of death everyday.

It connects to my personal viewpoints as I believe that putting other lives in front of yours is very important as this requires you to put yourself outside of your comfort zone. What Schindler did by risking his life to save those of the Jewish people would have required him to go far beyond his comfort zone. This would have been very challenging mentally knowing that you may get killed for your actions. It is very important in life to help others and not be selfish as you never know one day you may be in a difficult situation and need help yourself. Schindler used his resources to save the Jews, in the word not many people have the mentality of helping others even if they have the capabilities of doing so. It doesn’t have to be such a big act like Schindler but it’s as easy as giving to the homeless. These simple acts go a long way for the people on the receiving end. I personally like helping people and putting them in front of you as this gives you a feeling of satisfaction and a meaning in this world.

I would recommend all Three hours and Fifteen minutes of this movie to anyone. This is as it shows the viewer a realistic view of what the Jews had to suffer because of how the Nazis treated them but also an act of Heroism from Oskar Schindler. There were many great movie techniques used such as Juxtaposition with parallel editing and symbolism. The use of juxtaposition emphasised how well the life style of the Nazis was and how bad the Jews were treated. This is shown when Oskar and some highly ranked Nazi officers were partying and having a good time, then the scene cuts to the Jews on the dirty streets getting abused. This contrast allows the viewer to see exactly that the Nazis believed they were superior to the Jews and that they had no respect for Jewish life. The use of symbolism was very impacting on the movie. The film was based in black and white to give it the documentary feeling but 3 scenes had colour in them. The most powerful one was of the girl in the red coat. She is at first shown walking around as if nothing is happening when the Nazis are mass killing the Jews. Later she is shown getting carried away dead but still wearing the red coat. This really impacts the movie as they also killed the kids without any remorse. Once Schindler started his list of people he was going to save he didn’t want to help the Nazis in any way, “Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I’ll be very unhappy.”. This shows that he wasn’t going to help them in any way to kill more Jews. Overall this film is very impacting and shows a very brave act from the Nazi industrialist Oskar Schindler.

Julius

April Term two