DVD Reviews

Schindler's List: 20th Anniversary Limited Edition – Blu-ray Review - CLIPS ADDED!

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 8, 2013, 15:06 GMT

Experience one of the most historically significant films of all time like never before with the 20th Anniversary Limited Edition of Steven Spielberg\'s cinematic masterpiece, Schindler\'s List. Winner of seven Academy Awardsr including Best Picture and Best Director, this incredible true story follows the enigmatic Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. It is the triumph of one man who made ...more

“The list is life.”

Steven Spielberg was known as a blockbuster filmmaker who kept you out of the water or made your heart light glow, but he wasn’t known for taking on social issues.  That would change with the powerful tale of a German who saved Jews. 

1939 Poland, the invading Germans are moving the Jews to the Krakow Ghetto and Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) sees an opportunity to make a fortune as a war profiteer.  He uses his contacts, bribes, and Nazi party membership to acquire a mess kit factory.  He also acquires Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) who uses his connections to get Schindler’s business humming as he hires ghetto Jews to work in the factory.  These workers are deemed essential to the Nazi war effort. 

Trouble arrives when Lt. Amon Goth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives to build a concentration camp and when completed he orders the liquidation of the ghetto.  Schindler’s Jews are largely spared the horrors, thanks to Stern and Schindler to which they owe their lives. 

Schindler’s List is a powerful film.  I watched it in a theater with only a few attendees and it was one of the only films I’ve been to that people did not immediately get up to start for the door.  There were many who had to wipe the tears from their eyes and took a good five minutes until the first person got up to go.  Spielberg was more known for his blockbusters, some of them certified classic, but Schindler’s List is his film with the ability to move the soul. 

Schindler’s story wasn’t widely known, but to those he helped out he was a savior.  We’re not sure if he’s a callous opportunist excited by wealth, a saint, but the truth may be a little of both.  Neeson would be nominated for best actor for his star making turn as would Fiennes for portrayal of the vile villain. 

The film would win best picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography (in glorious black and white with some well-placed snatches of color), art direction, and score.  It may be sacrilegious to grouse a bit, but the one complaint that even though the extra features included are good there’s really nothing new.  Certainly it might be good to do an update on Spielberg’s foundation or history projects. 

Schindler’s List is presented in a 1080p transfer (1.85:1).  Special features (found on disc two of the DVDs) include the 77 minute “Voices from the List” is a collection of interviews with Holocaust survivors, the 5 minute “USC Shoah Foundation Story” where Spielberg details the establishment of the organization inspired by the film and a 4 minute promo “About IWitness” with access to online testimonies of survivors.  You also get a DVD copy (on two discs) and a digital copy. 

Schindler’s List is a film for the ages and is the one that Spielberg put his soul into, not that his other films lack it but this film is the one that he should be most proud of.  I feel bad about wanting more special features but the film is so powerful and sports a new sparkling transfer that it shouldn’t stop anyone from buying it.

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Clips from the film: