"Schindler's List" a timeless movie, here is an original document from Schindler..

I'm in agreement, Steve, particularly since like you I have had a child since first viewing SL. A lot of movies that might have been a tear jerker before now leave me emotionally devastated and haunted; none more than SL or The Pianist.

I question Spielberg's ability to do that. His film Munich, which should have been a celebration of the lives of the athletes became a muddled morality mess, where the protagonist ultimately rejected Israel as a homeland. I don't know whether that's the film Spielberg set out to make, or whether he was facing pressure from certain forces in Hollywood.

 

I doubt very much that there are many anti-Israel factions within Hollywood's upper echelons that would have made that call; quite the opposite in fact.

 

Same with "Saving Private Ryan". Spielberg was very specific. Either no commercials and uncut, or it
can't be shown. Seems to me it was a while before it showed up on TV (NBC?), but it WAS uncut when shown. (Try to imagine a feminine hygiene commercial during the long opening D-Day landing on Omaha Beach......).

 

That movie was complicated, but I loved the scene where the main fellow tells his superior officer something to the effect that "You can't order me to do anything! I DON'T EXIST!"

 

My father's first cousin was on Schindler's List. The real one, not the movie. His name was Julius Merkrebs. One of the copies of Schindler's List is at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. I saw his name written in the book. He met his future wife in Schindler's factory. After the war, they emigrated to America. I remember them well.

My father fought the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. On one occasion, his commanding officer's head was blown off, just a few feet away.
I was born 9 years after he came back from the war. He never told me about any of his war experiences. I suppose that it was too traumatic for him. But after he died, while cleaning out my parents' house, I found three scrapbooks of love letters he wrote my mother from over there, around 600 letters in all. They were married just before he shipped out, and he probably thought he'd never see her again.

 

Wow, thanks for sharing!

 

yes, thanks for that story.

 

One of only 2 films that made me cry. A harrowing topic but very important. I thought Spielberg told the story in a very tasteful manner.

 

The Schindler Museum (based in the enamel factory) in Krakow is well worth a visit. It tells the entire story of the German (and subsequently Russian) occupation of Poland, rather than concentrating on the Holocaust.

It's actually far more of a sobering experience than Auschwitz which, particularly Auschwitz 1, tends to deal in guided emotional reactions (and pays very little attention to non-Jewish victims).

 

For those interested in a quite "unsentimental" Holocaust film made with incredible skill, check out The Counterfeiters

Right up there with Schindler's List and The Pianist.