Schindler's List Collector's Gift Set

Schindler's List Collector's Gift Set
by Steven Spielberg

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DVD Reviews of Schindler's List Collector's Gift Set

DVD Review: The Movie Deserves A Better DVD Treatment
Summary: 4 Stars

Now ten years after winning the Academy Award for best picture Schindler's List is now available on DVD. The movie Schindler's List presents Oskar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, as a flawed man. Yes, he did save 1,100 Jews from death, but that is towards the end of the movie. During the first two thirds of the movie Schindler is seen as a man who is disloyal to his wife, bribes officials, and uses the tragedy with the Jewish people as a means of acquiring great wealth. Towards the end of World War II Schindler learns that the Jews are to be sent to Auschwitz to be exterminated. He devises a plan, with the help of his financial manager Itzhak Stern, played by Ben Kingsley, to purchase the Jews and save them from certain doom.

As the movie opens we learn that the Jews are being dumped into ghettoes. They are arriving at more than 10.000 a day. They are robbed of their property, they homes, and their dignity. Those Jews who are skilled laborers are spared as they can serve a purpose for the Germans. Those who do not, such as teachers and musicians, are more likely to perish. An hour into the movie there is a segment called The Liquidation of the Ghetto in which those Jews who serve no purpose are murdered. This is a long, tense undertaking to watch. There have been a lot of movies in which there are long rampage scenes, but often the violence becomes repetitive and dull. This time each death is like a blow to the head. It's a horrible experience watching so many murders.

Ralph Fiennes plays Amon Goth, the head of the German SS. Fiennes plays the role of Goth on the right note. His steely eyes and calculating manner are a far cry from the Nazi's portrayed in the first and second Indiana Jones movies. In those movies the Nazi's were portrayed as comic book villains. This time Goth is played as a man who will kill another without hesitation for no other reason than he had no use for them. At times he kills for his own satisfaction. At other times he kills in what he believes is part of his job. There is a scene in which he complains about the mass killing as it means more work for him He is also a man of great contradiction. As much as he hates the Jews he falls in love with on. Watching him fall for his Jewish maid is horrifying. He wants to love her but at the same time he (In his twisted mind) feels she is subhuman. Unfortunately, the maid receives many beatings at his hands because he cannot contain his feelings for her.

This movie is pretty much flawless except for one detail. The movie focuses on Schindler and Goth but not on the Jews themselves. We get to know some by name, but we don't know of their lives before this tragedy took place. We know they are scared , they fighting for survival, and many of them keep hope alive. However, we don't know them. They are background characters. If you would like to see a similar movie that focuses on the lives of the Jews I would like to recommend The Pianist. Having said that Schindler's List is still one of the best movies ever made. I this movie 5 stars.

Now some remarks about the DVD. Universal decided to play it cheap this time and make this a single disc set as opposed to a two DVD set. That means Schindler's List is a flipper. Titanic is just as long and fits on a single disc side. The extras are really nothing to write home about. Now this comes in two versions. The disc buy itself and a $60 collectors edition. I wish I saved my money. It comes in a Plexiglas case for reason I have no idea. I guess if there is a freak earthquake in El Paso and all my DVD's are destroyed I'll still have Schindler's List. It also comes with the soundtrack (I could have bought both the no frills DVD and the soundtrack for about $35) and a book with a bunch of pictures. If you want this movie I suggest going with just the DVD and not the boxed set. I give the DVD of Schindler's List 3 stars.

Description of Schindler's List Collector's Gift Set

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 dramatizing 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