vic
Last night I watched the Steven Spielberg masterpiece on channel 109. I saw this wonderful movie at least twice back in the 90's I think...however last night it filled me with strange and deep emotions....almost like I could identify (which is really impossible) with the suffering of those poor human beings in Nazi Germany. It certainly remains on my list as one of the all time great movies
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IceCreamMan
When the movie was released way back then i was working shifts at the time and went to a matinee show , i remember it clearly , it was a wednesday afternoon. I was expecting the cinema to be empty being a matinee , however i was in for a surprise. A Jewish old age home had an outing to the same show and i was the only gentile in the audience and a good 40 years younger than anyone else.... i cried like a baby ..... to put this in perspective i consider myself somewhat of an expert on WW2 Germany and have read numerous works on the plight of Jews and the concentration camps so was quite versed on what happened.
Tokai-SA
Yep, a masterpiece movie.
Lost lots of family during that time.
My late mom could never watch that movie.
domhatch
film has the ability to tell stories in a uniquely engaging manner. with the right director, the proper photographer, good editing, deft use of music and audio and, of course, the right actors, a story can touch the viewer in ways virtually no other medium can reproduce. of course, cock it up, and a great story, even a story that needs, demands to be told, will suck badly. thankfully, with schindler's list, we saw a film in which everything seemed to come together rather precisely. very few people i've ever spoken to about the film have failed to be moved by it. this is a good thing. spielberg is, to my mind, first and foremost, a story teller. film is simply his medium. he's not the first, the last, or the best. he's just really rather prolific, and he's just really rather good. who's the best? may as well ask a bmw driver to crit a merc, or a gibson player to recommend a fender.
l'chaim
dh
ZarK
Agreed. A masterpiece... I've seen it a number of times and will probably watch it again (and again) at some stage. Just wasn't in the right mood to watch it last night... It's obviously not the easiest watch if you have an understanding of the history... Brilliantly done, though.
sharonzaz
Half my fathers family was wiped out in the holocaust.
The film was great, really, had deep emotional
Affect on me despite being subjected to all those facts
from birth by the school system.
I had a friend from an German Afrikaans decent who said to me
a while ago that the numbers of ppl killed by Germans
might have been around 100k the rest was all properganda.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud and tell him that if that's what
he was told then so be it, there is no point of trying to argue that.
Sure, I was horrified. But it's like arguing with someone
who claims the holocaust didn't even exist.
And no, I'm not touchy about it ?
vic
What this movie,and in fact WW2,so clearly illustrate is the utter danger of ideology and the immense suffering it causes as a consequence thereof. May we all learn from this.
Psean
Have not seen it yet( too young when it came out) but it is now definitely on my list of films to watch, along with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Thanks for this Vic
sharonzaz
Also a brilliant movie
vic
Psean wrote
Have not seen it yet( too young when it came out) but it is now definitely on my list of films to watch, along with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Thanks for this Vic
Pleasure Psean....I just HAD to share it with our community
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Banditman
The hardest part of the film to watch is that ending - "I could have got more"
Psean to your film list you can add Hotel Rwanda, and I'd suggest Der Untergang as well. It would perhaps be easier to understand the holocaust if every German had been a committed, indoctrinated Nazi. If not easier to understand then easier to stomache, because it goes deeper than simply ideology. For some it was just that - twisted ideology riding on intolerance. For many it was simply "following orders".
A system can be a focal point or driving force, but it's not in itself the sole problem. Take Rwanda as a prime example. That was based on little more than ethnic hatred. Read "Shake Hands With the Devil" by Lt. General Romeo Dallaire (the Canadian UN commander, who now actually lives there) on the way it unfolded. Including the apathy on the part of the democratic nations of the world, and - to a degree - the interference (at one point verging almost on protection of the perpetrators) by the French.
When Der Untergang was released it caused some controversy in Germany, with some critics arguing that it was an attempt at creating sympathy for Hitler because of the portrayal given. That's plainly far from the truth if you bother to watch the film properly. Hannah Arendt referred to Adolf Eichmann as an embodiment of the "banality of evil". Rudolf Hoess - kommandant of Auschwitz - was an otherwise unremarkable man who'd almost become a missionary before the war, and lived happily with his wife and children outside the gates of the camp. A Hungarian survivor of an Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando once said in an interview, "All of us - every person without exception - are capable of the most unspeakable things just to live another minute". Many, many human beings have been quite enthusiastic in pulling the trigger or closing the chamber doors to ensure that they don't end up joining the victims.
And there's our "problem", the thing that causes us such discomfort and disbelief : accepting that some - if not most - of the worst evils are perpetrated by human beings like you and me given the right (wrong) pressures, freedom to indulge, or incentives. The shining light examples of people who risk all to follow the moral path make it impossible to feel sorry for those who crumble under the same pressure & perpetrate the deeds.
Tokai-SA
Psean wrote
Have not seen it yet( too young when it came out) but it is now definitely on my list of films to watch, along with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Thanks for this Vic
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was brilliant.
This one is also a great movie.
Ignore the Youtube comments...unbelievable.
Looks like the entire movie is on Youtube.
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Tokai-SA
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vic
Tokai SA wrote
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Thanks for sharing.
Riaan-Combrink
Vic, I was also deeply moved by the movie, despite being extremely well versed in the underlying facts. It is indeed the power of the medium in the hands of gifted storytellers and communicators, as said above.
Visiting the Holocaust Museum in Cape Town was, for me, an even more moving experience. I would recommend it a a must-do experience for anyone visiting Cape Town. The wealth of personal stories and reflections on hand is, simply put, quite overwhelming. Don't plan anything after it - you'll need some time to find some kind of balance in your soul. I know I did.
Having spent time working in the DRC and Rwanda, and having studied the Rwandan genocide both academically and professionally, I can only but agree with Banditman that ideology alone is not enough to drive mass atrocities of this scale. The US Holocaust Centre also uses Rwanda as a grim case study to show that man's innate inhumanity to man will unfortunately always outlive the impact the Holocaust had on the psyches of most civilized people. "Never again" was not to be.
vic
Riaan C wrote
Vic, I was also deeply moved by the movie, despite being extremely well versed in the underlying facts. It is indeed the power of the medium in the hands of gifted storytellers and communicators, as said above.
Visiting the Holocaust Museum in Cape Town was, for me, an even more moving experience. I would recommend it a a must-do experience for anyone visiting Cape Town. The wealth of personal stories and reflections on hand is, simply put, quite overwhelming. Don't plan anything after it - you'll need some time to find some kind of balance in your soul. I know I did.
Having spent time working in the DRC and Rwanda, and having studied the Rwandan genocide both academically and professionally, I can only but agree with Banditman that ideology alone is not enough to drive mass atrocities of this scale. The US Holocaust Centre also uses Rwanda as a grim case study to show that man's innate inhumanity to man will unfortunately always outlive the impact the Holocaust had on the psyches of most civilized people. "Never again" was not to be.
+1
When will we ever learn?
Psean
Banditman wrote
The hardest part of the film to watch is that ending - "I could have got more"
Psean to your film list you can add Hotel Rwanda, and I'd suggest Der Untergang as well. It would perhaps be easier to understand the holocaust if every German had been a committed, indoctrinated Nazi. If not easier to understand then easier to stomache, because it goes deeper than simply ideology. For some it was just that - twisted ideology riding on intolerance. For many it was simply "following orders".
Hotel Rwanda's already there? Shooting Dogs too. And thanks, I will have to add Der Untergang too (just looked it up).
I recommend George Victor's
The Pathology of Evil to just about anyone who has any interest in these sort of things. It gives a very interesting account of Hitlers life history going right back to childhood (actually to circumstances before if I remember correctly) gives a slightly different look at his motivation for war.
And for an insider's perspective: Victor Frankl's
Man's Search for Meaning
Banditman wrote
And there's our "problem", the thing that causes us such discomfort and disbelief : accepting that some - if not most - of the worst evils are perpetrated by human beings like you and me given the right (wrong) pressures, freedom to indulge, or incentives. The shining light examples of people who risk all to follow the moral path make it impossible to feel sorry for those who crumble under the same pressure & perpetrate the deeds.
Well said: A difficult one to accept to say the least...
