Ideas for a film about theSchindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963.Poldek Pfefferberg, one of theSchindlerjuden, made it his life's mission to tell Schindler's story. Spielberg became interested when executiveSidney Sheinberg sent him a book review ofSchindler's Ark.Universal Pictures bought the rights to the novel, but Spielberg, unsure if he was ready to make a film about the Holocaust, tried to pass the project to several directors before deciding to direct it himself.
Principal photography took place inKraków, Poland, over 72 days in 1993. Spielberg shot in black and white and approached the film as a documentary. CinematographerJanusz Kamiński wanted to create a sense of timelessness.John Williams composed the score, and violinistItzhak Perlman performed the main theme.
Schindler's List premiered on November 30, 1993, in Washington, D.C., and was released on December 15, 1993, in the United States. The film received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for the performances of Neeson and Fiennes, Williams' musical score, Kaminski's cinematography, Zaillian's screenplay, and Spielberg's direction. It was a box office success, earning $322.2 million worldwide on a $22 million budget.
In German-occupiedKraków duringWorld War II, theNazis forced localPolish Jews into the overcrowdedKraków Ghetto.Oskar Schindler, a GermanNazi Party member fromCzechoslovakia, arrives in the city, hoping to make his fortune. He bribesWehrmacht (German armed forces) andSS officials, acquiringa factory to produceenamelware. Schindler hiresItzhak Stern, a Jewish official with contacts amongblack marketeers and the Jewish business community; he handles administration and helps Schindler arrange financing. Stern ensures that as many Jewish workers as possible were deemed essential to the German war effort to prevent them from being taken by the SS toconcentration camps or killed. Meanwhile, Schindler maintains friendly relations with the Nazis and enjoys his new wealth and status as an industrialist.
SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant)Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to oversee construction of thePłaszów concentration camp. When the camp is ready, he orders the ghetto liquidated: two thousand Jews are transported to Płaszów, and two thousand others are killed in the streets by the SS. Schindler witnesses the massacre and is profoundly affected. He particularly notices a young girl in a red coat who hides from the Nazis and later sees her body on a wagonload of corpses. Schindler is careful to maintain his friendship with Göth and continues to enjoy SS support, mostly through bribery. Göth brutalizes his Jewish maid, Helen Hirsch, and randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa; the prisoners are in constant fear for their lives. As time passes, Schindler's focus shifts from making money to trying to save as many lives as possible. To better protect his workers, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp at his factory.
As the Germans begin losing the war, Göth is ordered to ship the remaining Jews at Płaszów toAuschwitz concentration camp. Schindler asks Göth for permission to move his workers to amunitions factory he plans to build inBrünnlitz near his hometown ofZwittau. Göth reluctantly agrees but charges a huge bribe. Schindler and Stern prepare a list of people to be transferred to Brünnlitz instead of Auschwitz. The list eventually includes 1,100 names.
As the Jewish workers are transported by train to Brünnlitz, the women and girls are mistakenly redirected to Auschwitz-Birkenau; Schindler bribesRudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, for their release. At the new factory, Schindler forbids the SS guards from entering the production area without permission and encourages the Jews to observe theSabbath. Over the next seven months, he spends his fortune bribing Nazi officials and buying shell casings from other companies. Due to Schindler's machinations, the factory produces no usable armaments. He runs out of money in 1945, just as Germany surrenders.
As a Nazi Party member and war profiteer, Schindler must flee the advancingRed Army to avoid capture. The SS guards at the factory have been ordered to kill the Jewish workforce, but Schindler persuades them not to do so. Bidding farewell to his workers, he prepares to head west, hoping to surrender to the Americans. The workers give him a signed statement attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives and present him with a ring engraved with aTalmudic paraphrase: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Schindler breaks down in tears, feeling he should have done more, and is comforted by the workers before he and his wife leave in their car. When theSchindlerjuden awaken the next morning, a mounted Soviet officer announces they have been liberated but warns them not to go east because "they hate you there." The Jews then walk into the countryside.
An epilogue reveals that Göth was executed viahanging forcrimes against humanity; Schindler and his wife were declaredRighteous Among the Nations and a tree was planted in his honor in theGarden of the Righteous Among the Nations. Many of the survivingSchindlerjuden and the actors portraying them visit Schindler's grave and place stones on its marker (a traditional Jewish sign of respect for the dead), after which Liam Neeson lays two roses.
Poldek Pfefferberg, one of theSchindlerjuden, made it his life's mission to tell the story of his savior. Pfefferberg attempted to produce a biographical film of Oskar Schindler withMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1963, withHoward Koch writing, but the deal fell through.[9][10] In 1982, Thomas Keneally published his historical novelSchindler's Ark, which he wrote after a chance meeting with Pfefferberg in Los Angeles in 1980.[11]MCA presidentSid Sheinberg sent director Steven Spielberg aNew York Times review of the book. Spielberg, astounded by Schindler's story, jokingly asked if it was true. "I was drawn to it because of the paradoxical nature of the character," he said. "What would drive a man like this to suddenly take everything he had earned and put it all in the service of saving these lives?"[12] Spielberg expressed enough interest for Universal Pictures to buy the rights to the novel.[12] At their first meeting in spring 1983, he told Pfefferberg he would start filming in ten years.[13] In the end credits of the film, Pfefferberg is credited as a consultant under the name Leopold Page.[14]
The liquidation of theKraków Ghetto in March 1943 is the subject of a 15-minute segment of the film.
Spielberg was unsure if he was mature enough to make a film about the Holocaust, and the project remained "on [his] guilty conscience."[13] Spielberg tried to pass the project to directorRoman Polanski, but he refused Spielberg's offer. Polanski's mother was killed at Auschwitz, and he had lived in and survived the Kraków Ghetto.[13] Polanski eventually directed his own Holocaust dramaThe Pianist (2002). Spielberg also offered the film toSydney Pollack andMartin Scorsese, who was attached to directSchindler's List in 1988. However, Spielberg was unsure of letting Scorsese direct the film, as "I'd given away a chance to do something for my children and family about the Holocaust."[15] Spielberg offered him the chance to direct the1991 remake ofCape Fear instead.[16] Scorsese would later admit in an interview that while he believed his version of the film might've been good, he had no regrets passing it to Spielberg stating that "it would not have been the hit that it became."[17]Billy Wilder expressed an interest in directing the film as a memorial to his family, most of whom were murdered in the Holocaust.[18]Brian De Palma also refused an offer to direct.[19]
Spielberg finally decided to take on the project when he noticed thatHolocaust deniers were being given serious consideration by the media. With the rise ofneo-Nazism after the fall of theBerlin Wall, he worried that people were too accepting of intolerance, as they were in the 1930s.[18] Sid Sheinberg greenlit the film on condition that Spielberg madeJurassic Park first. Spielberg later said, "He knew that once I had directedSchindler I wouldn't be able to doJurassic Park."[2] The picture was assigned a small budget of $22 million, as Holocaust films are not usually profitable.[20][2] Spielberg forwent a salary for the film, calling it "blood money",[2] and believed it would fail.[2]
In 1983, Keneally was hired to adapt his book, and he turned in a 220-page script. His adaptation focused on Schindler's numerous relationships, and Keneally admitted he did not compress the story enough. Spielberg hiredKurt Luedtke, who had adapted the screenplay ofOut of Africa, to write the next draft. Luedtke gave up almost four years later, as he found Schindler's change of heart too unbelievable.[15] During his time as director, Scorsese hiredSteven Zaillian to write a script. When he was handed back the project, Spielberg found Zaillian's 115-page draft too short and asked him to extend it to 195 pages. Spielberg wanted more focus on the Jews in the story, and he wanted Schindler's transition to be gradual and ambiguous instead of a sudden breakthrough or epiphany. He also extended the ghetto liquidation sequence, as he "felt very strongly that the sequence had to be almost unwatchable."[15]
Liam Neeson auditioned as Schindler early on in the film's development. He was cast in December 1992 after Spielberg saw him perform inAnna Christie onBroadway.[21]Warren Beatty participated in a script reading, but Spielberg was concerned that he could not disguise his accent and that he would bring "movie star baggage."[22]Kevin Costner andMel Gibson expressed interest in portraying Schindler, but Spielberg preferred to cast the relatively unknown Neeson so that the actor's star quality would not overpower the character.[23] Neeson felt Schindler enjoyed outsmarting the Nazis, who regarded him as somewhat naïve. "They don't quite take him seriously, and he used that to full effect."[24] To help him prepare for the role, Spielberg showed Neeson film clips ofTime Warner CEOSteve Ross, who had a charisma that Spielberg compared to Schindler's.[25] He also located a tape of Schindler speaking, which Neeson studied to learn the correct intonations and pitch.[26]
Fiennes was cast as Amon Göth after Spielberg viewed his performances inA Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia andEmily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Spielberg said of Fiennes' audition that "I saw sexual evil. It is all about subtlety: there were moments of kindness that would move across his eyes and then instantly run cold."[27] Fiennes put on 28 pounds (13 kg) to play the role. He watched historicnewsreels and talked toHolocaust survivors who knew Göth. In portraying him, Fiennes said "I got close to his pain. Inside him is a fractured, miserable human being. I feel split about him, sorry for him. He's like some dirty, battered doll I was given and that I came to feel peculiarly attached to."[27] Doctors Samuel J. Leistedt and Paul Linkowski of theUniversité libre de Bruxelles describe Göth's character in the film as a classicpsychopath.[28] Fiennes looked so much like Göth in costume that when Holocaust survivor Mila Pfefferberg met him, she trembled with fear.[27]
The character ofItzhak Stern (played by Ben Kingsley) is a composite of the accountant Stern, factory managerAbraham Bankier, and Göth's personal secretary,Mietek Pemper.[29] The character serves as Schindler's alter ego and conscience.[30]Dustin Hoffman was offered the role but he refused it.[31][32]
Overall, there are 126 parts with dialogue in the film. Thousands of extras were hired during filming.[15] Spielberg cast Israeli and Polish actors specially chosen for their Eastern European appearance.[33] Many of the German actors were reluctant to don the SS uniform, but some of them later thanked Spielberg for the cathartic experience of performing in the film.[22] Halfway through the shoot, Spielberg conceived the epilogue, where 128 survivors pay their respects at Schindler's grave in Jerusalem. The producers scrambled to find theSchindlerjuden and fly them in to film the scene.[15]
Principal photography began on March 1, 1993, inKraków, Poland, with a planned schedule of 75 days.[34] The crew shot at or near the actual locations, though the Płaszów camp had to be reconstructed in a nearby abandoned quarry, as modern high rise apartments were visible from the site of the original camp.[35][36] Interior shots of the enamelware factory in Kraków were filmed at a similar facility inOlkusz, while exterior shots and the scenes on the factory stairs were filmed at the actual factory.[37] The production received permission from Polish authorities to film on the grounds of theAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, but objections to filming within the actual death camp were raised by theWorld Jewish Congress.[38] To avoid filming inside the actual death camp, the film crew constructed a replica of a portion of the camp just outside the entrance of Birkenau.[39]
There were someantisemitic incidents. A woman who encountered Fiennes in his Nazi uniform told him: "The Germans were charming people. They didn't kill anybody who didn't deserve it."[27] Antisemitic symbols were scrawled on billboards near shooting locations,[15] while Kingsley nearly entered a brawl with an elderly German-speaking businessman who insulted the Israeli actor Michael Schneider.[40] Nonetheless, Spielberg said that, atPassover, "all the German actors showed up. They put onyarmulkes and opened upHaggadas, and the Israeli actors moved right next to them and began explaining it to them. And this family of actors sat around and race and culture were just left behind."[40]
I was hit in the face with my personal life. My upbringing. My Jewishness. The stories my grandparents told me about theShoah. And Jewish life came pouring back into my heart. I cried all the time.
— Spielberg on his emotional state during the shoot[41]
ShootingSchindler's List was deeply emotional for Spielberg, as the subject matter forced him to confront elements of his childhood, such as the antisemitism he faced. He was surprised that he did not cry while visiting Auschwitz; instead, he found himself filled with outrage. He was one of many crew members who could not force themselves to watch during the shooting of the scene where aging Jews are forced to run naked while being selected by Nazi doctors to go to Auschwitz.[42] Spielberg commented that he felt more like a reporter than a film maker — he would set up scenes and then watch events unfold, almost as though he were witnessing them rather than creating a film.[35] Several actresses broke down when filming the shower scene, including one who was born in a concentration camp.[22] Spielberg, his wifeKate Capshaw, and their five children rented a house in suburban Kraków for the duration of filming.[43] He later thanked his wife "for rescuing me ninety-two days in a row ... when things just got too unbearable."[44]Robin Williams called Spielberg to cheer him up, given the profound lack of humor on the set.[44]
Spielberg spent several hours each evening editingJurassic Park, which was scheduled to premiere in June 1993.[45]
Spielberg occasionally used German and Polish language dialogue to create a sense of realism. He initially considered making the film entirely in those languages, but decided "there's too much safety in reading [subtitles]. It would have been an excuse [for the audience] to take their eyes off the screen and watch something else."[22]
Influenced by the 1985 documentary filmShoah, Spielberg decided not to plan the film withstoryboards, and to shoot it like a documentary. Forty percent of the film was shot with handheld cameras, and the modest budget meant the film was shot quickly over seventy-two days.[46] Spielberg felt that this gave the film "a spontaneity, an edge, and it also serves the subject."[47] He filmed without usingSteadicams, elevated shots, orzoom lenses, "everything that for me might be considered a safety net."[47] This matured Spielberg, who felt that in the past he had always been paying tribute to directors such asCecil B. DeMille orDavid Lean.[40]
Spielberg decided to use black and white to match the feel of documentary footage of the era. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński compared the effect toGerman Expressionism andItalian neorealism.[47] Kamiński said that he wanted to give the impression of timelessness to the film, so the audience would "not have a sense of when it was made."[35] Universal chairman Tom Pollock asked him to shoot the film on a colornegative, to allow color VHS copies of the film to later be sold, but Spielberg did not want to accidentally "beautify events."[47] However, scenes with the girl in the red coat were shot in color, and laterrotoscoped over by hand to remove all color except for the coat.[48]
John Williams, who frequently collaborates with Spielberg, composed the score forSchindler's List. The composer was amazed by the film, and felt it would be too challenging. He said to Spielberg, "You need a better composer than I am for this film." Spielberg responded, "I know. But they're all dead!"[49]Itzhak Perlman performs the theme on the violin.[14]
In the scene where the ghetto is being liquidated by the Nazis, the folk songOyfn Pripetshik (Yiddish:אויפֿן פּריפּעטשיק, 'On the Cooking Stove') is sung by a children's choir. The song was often sung by Spielberg's grandmother, Becky, to her grandchildren.[50] The clarinet solos heard in the film were recorded byKlezmer virtuosoGiora Feidman.[51] Williams won anAcademy Award for Best Original Score forSchindler's List, his fifth win.[52] Selections from the score were released on asoundtrack album.[53]
The film explores the theme ofgood and evil, using as its main protagonist a "good German", a popular characterization in American cinema.[54][18] While Göth is portrayed as an almost completely dark and evil person, Schindler gradually evolves from Nazi supporter to rescuer and hero.[55] Thus a second theme of redemption is introduced as Schindler, a disreputable schemer on the edges of respectability, becomes a father figure responsible for saving the lives of more than a thousand people.[56][57]
Schindler sees a girl in red during the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. The red coat is one of the few instances of color used in this predominantly black and white film.
While the film is shot primarily in black and white, a red coat is used to distinguish a little girl in the scene depicting the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. Later in the film, Schindler sees her exhumed dead body, recognizable only by the red coat she is still wearing. Spielberg said the scene was intended to symbolize how members of the highest levels of government in the United States knew the Holocaust was occurring, yet did nothing to stop it. He said: "It was as obvious as a little girl wearing a red coat, walking down the street, and yet nothing was done to bomb the German rail lines. Nothing was being done to slow down;... the annihilation of European Jewry. So that was my message in letting that scene be in color."[58] Andy Patrizio ofIGN notes that the point at which Schindler sees the girl's dead body is the point at which he changes, no longer seeing "the ash and soot of burning corpses piling up on his car as just an annoyance."[59] ProfessorAndré H. Caron of theUniversité de Montréal wonders if the red symbolizes "innocence, hope or the red blood of the Jewish people being sacrificed in the horror of the Holocaust."[60]
The girl was portrayed by Oliwia Dąbrowska, three years old at the time of filming. Spielberg asked Dąbrowska not to watch the film until she was eighteen, but she watched it when she was eleven, and says she was "horrified."[61] Upon seeing the film again as an adult, she was proud of the role she played.[61]Roma Ligocka, who says she was known in the Kraków Ghetto for her red coat, feels the character might have been based on her. Ligocka, unlike her fictional counterpart, survived the Holocaust. After the film was released, she wrote and published her own story,The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir (2002, in translation).[62] Alternatively, according to her relatives who were interviewed in 2014, the girl may have been inspired by Kraków resident Genya Gitel Chil.[63]
The opening scene features a family observingShabbat. Spielberg said that "to start the film with the candles being lit ... would be a rich bookend, to start the film with a normal Shabbat service before the juggernaut against the Jews begins."[15] When the color fades out in the film's opening moments, it gives way to a world in which smoke comes to symbolize bodies being burnt at Auschwitz. Only at the end, when Schindler allows his workers to hold Shabbat services, do the images of candle fire regain their warmth through color. For Spielberg, they represent "just a glint of color, and a glimmer of hope."[15] Sara Horowitz, director of the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies atYork University, sees the candles as a symbol for the Jews of Europe, killed and then burned in thecrematoria. The two scenes bracket the Nazi era, marking its beginning and end.[64] She points out that normally, the woman of the house lights the Sabbath candles. In the film, it is men who perform this ritual, demonstrating not only the subservient role of women, but also the subservient position of Jewish men in relation toAryan men, especially Göth and Schindler.[65]
To Spielberg, the black and white presentation of the film came to represent the Holocaust itself: "The Holocaust was life without light. For me the symbol of life is color. That's why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black-and-white."[66] Robert Gellately notes the film in its entirety can be seen as a metaphor for the Holocaust, with early sporadic violence increasing into a crescendo of death and destruction. He also notes a parallel between the situation of the Jews in the film and the debate inNazi Germany between making use of the Jews forslave labor or exterminating them outright.[67] Water is seen as giving deliverance by Alan Mintz, Holocaust Studies professor at theJewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He notes its presence in the scene where Schindler arranges for aHolocaust train loaded with victims awaiting transport to be hosed down, and the scene in Auschwitz, where the women are given an actual shower instead of receiving the expected gassing.[68]
Schindler's List opened in theaters on December 15, 1993, in the United States and December 25 in Canada. Its premiere in Germany was on March 1, 1994.[69] Its American network television premiere was onNBC on February 23, 1997. Shown uncut and without commercials, it ranked No. 3 for the week with a 20.9/31 rating/share,[70] the highestNielsen rating for any film since NBC's broadcast ofJurassic Park in May 1995. The film aired on public television in Israel onHolocaust Memorial Day in 1998.[71]
The film was released in aTHX widescreenVHS format on September 9, 1997.[72] The DVD was released on March 9, 2004, in widescreen and full screen editions, on adouble-sided disc with the feature film beginning on side A and continuing on side B. Special features include a documentary introduced by Spielberg.[73] Also released for both formats was alimited edition gift set, which included the widescreen version of the film, Keneally's novel, the film's soundtrack on CD, a senitype, and a photo booklet titledSchindler's List: Images of the Steven Spielberg Film, all housed in a plexiglass case.[74] The laserdisc gift set was a limited edition that included the soundtrack, the original novel, and an exclusive photo booklet.[75] As part of its 20th anniversary, the film was released onBlu-ray Disc on March 5, 2013.[76] The film was digitallyremastered in4K,Dolby Vision andAtmos and wasreissued into theaters on December 7, 2018, for its 25th anniversary.[77] The film was released onUltra HD Blu-ray on December 18, 2018.[78]
Following the success of the film, Spielberg founded theSurvivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the goal of providing an archive for the filmed testimony of as many survivors of the Holocaust as possible, to save their stories. He continues to finance that work.[79] Spielberg used proceeds from the film to finance several related documentaries, includingAnne Frank Remembered (1995),The Lost Children of Berlin (1996), andThe Last Days (1998).[80]
Schindler's List received acclaim from both film critics and audiences, with Americans such as talk show hostOprah Winfrey and PresidentBill Clinton urging others to see it.[81][82] World leaders in many countries saw the film, and some met personally with Spielberg.[81][83] OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has received an approval rating of 98% based on 137 reviews, with an average rating of 9.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Schindler's List blends the abject horror of the Holocaust with Steven Spielberg's signature tender humanism to create the director's dramatic masterpiece."[84]Metacritic gave the film aweighted average score of 95 out of 100, based on 30 critics.[85] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.[86]
Stephen Schiff ofThe New Yorker called it the best historical drama about the Holocaust, a film that "will take its place in cultural history and remain there."[87]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and described it as Spielberg's best, "brilliantly acted, written, directed, and seen."[88] Ebert andGene Siskel named it the best film of 1993.[89]Terrence Rafferty, also withThe New Yorker, admired the film's "narrative boldness, visual audacity, and emotional directness." He noted the performances of Neeson, Fiennes, Kingsley, and Davidtz as warranting special praise,[90] and calls the scene in the shower at Auschwitz "the most terrifying sequence ever filmed."[91] In the 2013 edition of hisMovie and Video Guide,Leonard Maltin awarded the picture a four-out-of-four-star rating; he described the film as a "staggering adaptation of Thomas Keneally's best-seller ... with such frenzied pacing that it looks and feels like nothing Hollywood has ever made before ... Spielberg's most intense and personal film to date."[92] James Verniere of theBoston Herald noted the film's restraint and lack of sensationalism, and called it a "major addition to the body of work about the Holocaust."[93] In his review forThe New York Review of Books, British criticJohn Gross said his misgivings that the story would be overly sentimentalized "were altogether misplaced. Spielberg shows a firm moral and emotional grasp of his material. The film is an outstanding achievement."[94] Mintz notes that even the film's harshest critics admire the "visual brilliance" of the fifteen-minute segment depicting the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. He describes the sequence as "realistic" and "stunning."[95] He points out that the film has done much to increase Holocaust remembrance and awareness as the remaining survivors pass away, severing the last living links with the catastrophe.[96] The film's release in Germany led to widespread discussion about why most Germans did not do more to help.[97]
Criticism of the film also appeared, mostly from academia rather than the popular press.[98] Sara Horowitz points out that much of the Jewish activity seen in the ghetto consists of financial transactions such as lending money, trading on the black market, or hiding wealth, thus perpetuating a stereotypical view of Jewish life.[99] Horowitz notes that while the depiction of women in the film accurately reflects Nazi ideology, the low status of women and the link between violence and sexuality is not explored further.[100] History professorOmer Bartov ofBrown University notes that the physically large and strongly drawn characters of Schindler and Göth overshadow the Jewish victims, who are depicted as small, scurrying, and frightened – a mere backdrop to the struggle of good versus evil.[101]
Horowitz points out that the film's dichotomy of absolute good versus absolute evil glosses over the fact that most Holocaust perpetrators were ordinary people; the film does not explore how the average German rationalized their knowledge of or participation in the Holocaust.[102] AuthorJason Epstein commented that the film gives the false impression that if people were smart enough or lucky enough, they could survive the Holocaust.[103] Spielberg responded to criticism that Schindler's breakdown as he says farewell is too maudlin and even out of character by pointing out that the scene is needed to drive home the sense of loss and to allow the viewer an opportunity to mourn alongside the characters on the screen.[104]
Bartov wrote that the "positively repulsive kitsch of the last two scenes seriously undermines much of the film's previous merits." He describes the humanization of Schindler as "banal", and is critical of what he describes as the "Zionist closure" set to the song "Jerusalem of Gold."[105]
Schindler's List was very well received by many of Spielberg's peers. FilmmakerBilly Wilder wrote to Spielberg saying, "They couldn't have gotten a better man. This movie is absolutely perfection."[18] Polanski, who turned down the chance to direct the film, later commented, "I certainly wouldn't have done as good a job as Spielberg because I couldn't have been as objective as he was."[106] He citedSchindler's List as an influence on his 1994 filmDeath and the Maiden.[107] Martin Scorsese, who passed the film back to Spielberg and stated his version had different ideas from the final film including a different ending, would later comment "I admired the film greatly."[17] The success ofSchindler's List led filmmakerStanley Kubrick to abandon his own Holocaust project,Aryan Papers, which would have been about a Jewish boy and his aunt who survive the war by sneaking through Poland while pretending to be Catholic.[108] According to scriptwriterFrederic Raphael, when he suggested to Kubrick thatSchindler's List was a good representation of the Holocaust, Kubrick commented, "Think that's about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn't it? The Holocaust is about 6 million people who get killed.Schindler's List is about 600 who don't."[108][b]
FilmmakerJean-Luc Godard accused Spielberg of using the film to make a profit out of a tragedy while Schindler's wife,Emilie Schindler, lived in poverty inArgentina.[110] Keneally disputed claims that she was never paid for her contributions, "not least because I had recently sent Emilie a check myself."[111] He also confirmed with Spielberg's office that payment had been sent from there.[111] FilmmakerMichael Haneke criticized the sequence in which Schindler's women are accidentally sent off to Auschwitz and herded into showers: "There's a scene in that film when we don't know if there's gas or water coming out in the showers in the camp. You can only do something like that with a naive audience like in the United States. It's not an appropriate use of the form. Spielberg meant well – but it was dumb."[112]
Claude Lanzmann, the director of the nine-hour Holocaust documentaryShoah (1985), calledSchindler's List a "kitschy melodrama" and a "deformation" of historical truth. "Fiction is a transgression, I am deeply convinced that there is a ban on depiction [of the Holocaust]", he said. Lanzmann also criticized Spielberg for viewing the Holocaust through the eyes of a German, saying "it is the world in reverse." He said: "I sincerely thought that there was a time beforeShoah, and a time afterShoah, and that afterShoah certain things could no longer be done. Spielberg did them anyway."[113]
At a 1994Village Voice symposium about the film, historian Annette Insdorf described how her mother, a survivor of three concentration camps, felt gratitude that the Holocaust story was finally being told in a major film that would be widely viewed.[114]Hungarian Jewish authorImre Kertész, a Holocaust survivor, feels it is impossible for life in a Nazi concentration camp to be accurately portrayed by anyone who did not experience it first-hand. While commending Spielberg for bringing the story to a wide audience, he found the film's final scene at the graveyard neglected the terrible after-effects of the experience on the survivors and implied that they came through emotionally unscathed.[115] RabbiUri D. Herscher found the film an "appealing" and "uplifting" demonstration of humanitarianism.[116] Norbert Friedman noted that, like many Holocaust survivors, he reacted with a feeling of solidarity towards Spielberg of a sort normally reserved for other survivors.[117]Albert L. Lewis, Spielberg's childhood rabbi and teacher, described the film as "Steven's gift to his mother, to his people, and in a sense to himself. Now he is a full human being."[116]
The film grossed $96.1 million ($209 million in 2024)[118] in the United States and Canada and over $321.2 million worldwide.[119] In Germany, the film was viewed by over 100,000 people in its first week alone from 48 screens[120][121] and was eventually shown in 500 theaters (including 80 paid for by municipal authorities),[122] with a total of six million admissions and a gross of $38 million.[123][124][125] Its 25th anniversary showings grossed $551,000 in 1,029 theaters.[126]
The story reflects the privilege and virtues of a certain race only... The theme of the film is to reveal the brutality and cruelty of the Nazi soldiers to the Jews. It seems the illustration is propaganda with the purpose of asking for sympathy as well as to tarnish the other race.[143]
ThePrime Minister of Malaysia at the time,Mahathir Mohamad, said that Malaysians "have the right to ban any movie." He went on to say, "I'm not antisemitic... I'm anti-Zionist expansion (and) the conquest of Arab territories by Zionists."[143]
The film was also banned inIndonesia, where the Committee for World Muslim Solidarity described it as "nothing but Zionist propaganda."[144]
In thePhilippines, chief censor Henrietta Mendez ordered cuts of three scenes depictingsexual intercourse and female nudity before the film could be shown in cinemas. Spielberg refused, and pulled the film from screening in Philippine cinemas, which prompted theSenate to demand the abolition of the censorship board. PresidentFidel V. Ramos himself intervened, ruling that the film could be shown uncut to anyone over the age of 15.[145]
According toSlovak filmmakerJuraj Herz, the scene in which a group of women confuse an actual shower with a gas chamber is taken directly, shot by shot, from his filmZastihla mě noc (The Night Overtakes Me, 1986). Herz wanted to sue, but was unable to fund the case.[146]
The song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold") is featured in the film's soundtrack and plays near the end of the film. This caused some controversy in Israel, as the song (which was written in 1967 byNaomi Shemer) is widely considered an informal anthem of the Israeli victory in theSix-Day War. In Israeli prints of the film, the song was replaced with "Halikha LeKesariya" ("A Walk to Caesarea") byHannah Szenes, a World War II resistance fighter.[147]
For the 1997 American television showing, the film was broadcast virtually unedited. The telecast was the first to receive a TV-M (nowTV-MA) rating under theTV Parental Guidelines that had been established earlier that year.[148]Tom Coburn, then anOklahoma congressman, said that in airing the film, NBC had brought television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity", adding that it was an insult to "decent-minded individuals everywhere."[149] Under fire from bothRepublicans andDemocrats, Coburn apologized, saying, "My intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say." He clarified his opinion, stating that the film ought to have been aired later at night when there would not be "large numbers of children watching without parental supervision."[150]
Controversy arose in Germany for the film's television premiere onProSieben. Protests among the Jewish community ensued when the station intended to televise it with two commercial breaks of 3–4 minutes each.Ignatz Bubis, head of theCentral Council of Jews in Germany, said: "It is problematic to interrupt such a movie by commercials."[123] Jerzy Kanal, chairman of the Jewish Community of Berlin, added "It is obvious that the film could have a greater impact [on society] when broadcast unimpeded by commercials. The station has to do everything possible to broadcast the film without interruption."[123] As a compromise, the broadcast included one break consisting of a short news update framed with commercials. ProSieben was also obliged to broadcast two accompanying documentaries to the film, showing "The daily lives of the Jews in Hebron and New York" prior to broadcast and "The survivors of the Holocaust" afterwards.[123]
Schindler's List featured on a number of "best of" lists, including theTIME magazine's Top Hundred as selected by criticsRichard Corliss andRichard Schickel,[4]Time Out magazine's 100 Greatest Films Centenary Poll conducted in 1995,[151] and Leonard Maltin's "100 Must See Movies of the Century."[5] TheVatican includedSchindler's List in itslist of 45 important films – the latest-released entry to make the list.[152] AChannel 4 poll namedSchindler's List the ninth greatest film of all time,[6] and it ranked fourth in their 2005 war films poll.[153] The film was named the best of 1993 by critics such asJames Berardinelli,[154] Roger Ebert,[89] andGene Siskel.[155] Deeming the film "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", theLibrary of Congress selected it for preservation in theNational Film Registry in 2004.[156] The film was shown at theBerlinale Film Festival in February 2023, at which Spielberg received an honoraryGolden Bear award.[157]
Due to the increased interest in Kraków created by the film, the city boughtOskar Schindler's Enamel Factory in 2007 to create a permanent exhibition about the German occupation of the city from 1939 to 1945. The museum opened in June 2010.[158]
A portion of Schindler'sBrünnlitz factory became the Museum of Survivors, opening in May 2025, 80 years after the end of World War II. Daniel Löw-Beer, whose family owned the factory starting in 1854, started the Arks Foundation in 2019 to raise funds for the museum. Other buildings may also be restored.[159]
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Bresheeth, Haim (1997). "The Great Taboo Broken: Reflections on the Israeli Reception ofSchindler's List". In Loshitzky, Yosefa (ed.).Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 193–212.ISBN978-0-253-21098-2.
"Schindler's List". British Board of Film Classification. Archived fromthe original on October 15, 2017. RetrievedOctober 14, 2017.
Caron, André (July 25, 2003)."Spielberg's Fiery Lights".The Question Spielberg: A Symposium Part Two: Films and Moments. Senses of Cinema.Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. RetrievedJuly 24, 2014.
Crowe, David M. (2004).Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.ISBN978-0-465-00253-5.
Ebert, Roger (December 31, 1993)."The Best 10 Movies of 1993".Roger Ebert's Journal.Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. RetrievedJune 1, 2020.
Ebert, Roger (October 18, 2002)."In Praise Of Love".Chicago Sun-Times.Archived from the original on October 30, 2018. RetrievedJuly 2, 2018.
Horowitz, Sara (1997). "But Is It Good for the Jews? Spielberg's Schindler and the Aesthetics of Atrocity". In Loshitzky, Yosefa (ed.).Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 119–139.ISBN978-0-253-21098-2.
Mintz, Alan (2001).Popular Culture and the Shaping of Holocaust Memory in America. The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies. Seattle; London: University of Washington Press.ISBN978-0-295-98161-1.
Verniere, James (December 15, 1993). "Holocaust Drama is a Spielberg Triumph".Boston Herald.
Weissberg, Liliane (1997). "The Tale of a Good German: Reflections on the German Reception ofSchindler's List". In Loshitzky, Yosefa (ed.).Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 172–192.ISBN978-0-253-21098-2.
