Schindler's List.

I remember the day that my Dad took me to watch the premier of Saving Private Ryan back in '98. I won't write a review or any of the sorts, because all you have to do for that is go to IMDB, and you're set. I will say, however, that the movie gave me a new, fresh, and (at the time) shocking outlook into movie making. I think I didn't grasp a grand majority of the themes the first time I saw it, because I guess I was too young to understand them...maybe, I don't know. But I think I did understand the overall story. I've seen the movie many more times since; understanding now Spielberg's message and appreciating even more his flawless portrayal of World War II. Needless to say, It's still my favorite war movie of all time.

When we left the theater, my Dad and I talked about the movie among other things. I remember telling him more about the carnage, and violence than anything else, obviously. Still, as a whole, I liked the movie a lot, and couldn't wait for it to come out on VHS. haha, yeah... tracking.... tracking...

On the drive home, my Dad told me that if I liked war movies like Saving Private Ryan, then we would watch The Killing Fields (his all-time favorite) and that we should rent Schindler's List. About the latter, I remember him telling me that it was Spielberg's most famous movie, better than Saving Private Ryan, and with not even half the action sequences. Thanks to my ever-royal ignorance at that age, I was somewhat turned off by the Schindler's List idea, because I assumed it was going to be boring, and not as exciting as Saving Private Ryan; added to the fact that it was in black and white. So, we put it off, and it was somewhat forgotten.

I always had the itch of watching Schindler's List as years went by, but for some odd reason I never picked it up. This changed in my Junior year at SF State, during my Values in American Life class. Prof. Leonard was giving us a lecture on the Jewish culture, when he brought up the movie, asking how many of us had seen it. I didn't raise my hand, of course. He went on to say that it's considered the 2nd greatest movie of all time, drawing comparisons with the book we were reading at the moment (Art Spiegelman's Maus), and so continued with his lecture.

I went back home and downloaded it (so what?... sue me). I wanted to see it as soon as I could. And so, eleven years after my dad told me about it, I saw Schindler's List for the first time. I'll admit that, by end of the movie, I was in tears...what a masterpiece. Again, I won't write a review about the film; there's rottentomatoes for that. Thinking in retrospect, I'm actually glad I saw the movie later in life, with a more matured mind, and what not. This is probably the most powerful film I've seen to date. And I'm probably saying that too because I just saw the movie last night. Regardless, I loved it. It's very different from Saving Private Ryan, but still another astonishing account on World War 2 by Mr. Spielberg; and even more impressive was how he unforgivably handled such a delicate subject as the Holocaust.

This is a film everyone should see. My improved knowledge in media aesthetics also helped me understand why the movie was shot in black and white, but it doesn't take any academic study to realize how this feature of the film actually helps you to get more involved in the story. Anyway, I'm going to leave it here, and let you decide for yourself if Schindler's List deserves to be one of the top greatest movies of all time. I think it is.