According to the Internet Movie Database, “Schindler’s List” is Steven Spielberg’s third best movie he has directed. Spielberg uses all different types of imagery to depict how it actually was back when the Nazi’s were committing genocide. He uses specific specific people to show how bad it was. Death is used by showing how easily the Nazi soldiers would kill an innocent jew. The Girl in the Red Coat is also used to show that anyone can be killed. Spielberg also adds in that they used jewish gravestones to pave a road throughout the labor camp. He uses all these images to create such a sad, but powerful movie.
First, the german officers held the lives of millions of jews in their hands, and they took it away with a single bullet. They would take their lives execution style. Oskar employs a man that has one arm. Later on in the film, he is seen shoveling snow well, trying to shovel snow. An SS officer then shoots the man right in the head, and his blood is shown rushing down the white snow. The SS officer had not even hesitated, he pulled his gun out and shot. In a later scene, a woman engineer is shown rushing over to the officers to tell them that they need to rebuild the building or it will collapse.
An order is given to kill her, they shoot her in cold blood. Her blood is then stained in the surrounding snow. And after she is killed, the commanding officer gives an order to rebuild the building. He killed her for no reason; no reason at all. The german officers are careless, lifeless people. In addition, the entire film is filmed in black-and-white, so the director can make certain objects stick out. For instance, The Girl in the Red Coat is a little girl about six years of age. Oskar spots her from the top of a mountain running, and hiding from the german officers.
Then, later on in the movie, Oskar is walking through a camp, and spots this girl, dead in wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is also filled with other people. Oskar’s facial expression immediately drops when he spots the red coat. Spielberg uses The Girl in the Red Coat to depict the innocence of the jewish people. It’s powerful to show how the German’s would kill the jewish people with such ease; without a care in the world. Furthermore, the Nazi’s build a road leading into and through the camp, made out of jewish gravestones.
This doesn’t just add historically accurate images, it shows the total demolition of the Jewish race. An entire cemetery was dug up, generation after generation was lost after they have done it. They would never be able to identify their resting place of the former jews. By removing the headstones, this then denies the total existence of any jew that once walked the earth. Let alone they did it to show that they were never going to be remembered when they were gone. To tell the truth, that just disgusts me. They would ruin the resting places of past relatives, to build a road.
I could see that road being the road of death. Walking over gravestones into the camp that will eventually kill you; that’s how I see it. All in all, Steven Spielberg directed a very powerful movie; it showed the true pain of the Holocaust. Liam Neeson, which I applaud, did not even receive an oscar for this film; blasphemy I say. This film did make me tear up at the end when Schindler was ranting how he could have saved more. He started off not even caring about these jews, but at the end, he loved them. This was such a powerful movie, I loved every minute of it.
