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"SCHINDLER'S LIST" (1993) (Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley) (R) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Extreme Extreme Extreme Extreme Extreme Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Heavy None Heavy None Heavy Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Extreme Extreme Extreme Extreme Extreme QUICK TAKE: Drama: A German businessman with Nazi ties in WWII Poland, employs Jews at his pots-and-pans factory simply for the purpose of making lots of money before the war is out, but after seeing the atrocities committed against them by the Nazis, he decides to go further and save as many as he can from certain death. PLOT: Oskar Schindler (LIAM NEESON), a German businessman, is a member of the Nazi party simply because it's good business for him. He makes connections with many of the important figures, keeps those ties strong, and opens a pots-and-pans factory designed to help the war effort. He employs Jews as his workers, but does not realize the true intent of the Nazis or what the Jews are going through. He just wants to make enough money to leave rich after the war. On the other, purely evil side, besides the Nazis forcing the Jews to register their names and other information to better keep track of them, there's Amon Goeth (RALPH FIENNES), a powerful Nazi assigned to the Krakow ghetto. He first "liquidates," it, forcing the Jews out into Plaszow, a work camp, with him living in a villa overlooking the entire operation. He uses them as target practice as well and is ruthless in his manner, though Oskar consorts with him simply to make deals. Oskar doesn't see then what is truly happening. At his factory, Oskar employs Itzhak Stern (BEN KINGSLEY), an accountant, who soon becomes a close confidant of what Oskar plans to do next, after learning of the Nazis ultimate plan: To exterminate as many Jews as they can in concentration camps. It is then that Oskar puts into action his plan to save as many of them as he possibly can, even if it means giving up the money he has earned. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? In this case, older kids should see it, know it, and learn from it. Not a matter of favorite actors here or even that it's directed by Steven Spielberg. This is possibly the most important film they will ever see. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For language, some sexuality and actuality violence. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: LIAM NEESON plays Oskar Schindler, a German businessman with ties to the Nazi party, only for business reasons. He hires Itzhak Stern, an accountant, to run his business, and while the work goes on, he drinks, smokes and womanizes, even though he is married. However, his entire life changes when the Nazi party decides to exterminate all the Jews in concentration camps. With Stern, he draws up a list of whom to save. BEN KINGSLEY plays Itzhak Stern, an accountant hired by Schindler to run his business and just ensure that money keeps rolling in. Being a Jew, Stern is subjected to the same measures as other Jews in Krakow and then later on in the Plaszow work camp. At one point early on, he's nearly shipped away on a train until Schindler comes to rescue him and then asks him what would have happened if he had shown up five minutes later. It shows that Schindler is only concerned for himself, but that changes when he sets Stern and himself to work on a list of whom to save from the Nazis' heinous "Final Solution." Stern drinks in one scene, and only after refusing a drink with Schindler for so long, the circumstances being very different that one time. RALPH FIENNES plays Amon Goeth, psychotic, evil, no heart and no soul in his Nazi body. He runs the Plaszow work camp in Krakow, in a villa overlooking the area, a villa that was apparently a synagogue before he took it over. He shoots people without feeling and he badly beats his maid. Besides the worst of his nature, he also drinks and smokes and uses strong language. EMBETH DAVIDTZ plays Helen Hirsch, chosen by Goeth to serve as his maid, and there are moments when, essentially, she is made to look into the eyes of Hell and basically live in Hell as she is badly beaten by him at one point and tells Schindler of some of the other horrors of living with Goeth. In the film, she's an example of a spirit that nearly breaks, but holds on just barely. CAROLINE GOODALL plays Emilie Schindler, Oskar's wife who resigns herself to understanding that he has mistresses and only agrees to stay with him if no "doorman or maitre'd" sees her as anybody else but Mrs. Schindler. Therefore, after that, she's not seen again until much later in the film. FRIEDERICH VON THUN plays Rolf Czurda, one of the Nazis Schindler wines and dines and makes deals with to get his business going and keep it afloat. Czurda drinks a few times. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a brief summary of the content found in this R-rated drama. Profanity consists of at least "9" f words while other expletives and colorful phrases are uttered. Brief sexually-related dialogue is present, as is a sex scene, and lots of nonsexual, female and male full nudity. Violence consists of numerous people being shot dead, with various degrees of bloody and gory results. Those scenes, various moments of potential peril and various disturbing visuals will likely be disturbing and/or suspenseful to viewers. Some of the behavior might be enticing for some kids to imitate. An extreme amount of bad attitudes are present, while a great deal of drinking and smoking also occur. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. For those prone to visually induced motion sickness, there are varying amounts of handheld camera movement in the film. For those concerned with bright flashes of light on the screen, that occurs during the Krakow ghetto "liquidation," when machine gun fire lights up a wall in one of the buildings. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE A man pours a drink into a glass. A waiter delivers a bottle and glasses to a table. A woman wearing a fox wrap drinks from a glass. As Oskar looks at a redheaded woman walking into the room, a woman wearing a black headpiece is seen drinking from a glass. Oskar holds up a significant amount of money and a waiter comes over promptly. Oskar tells the waiter to bring a round of drinks over to the redheaded woman and her Nazi companion. The waiter hesitates slightly in asking Oskar who he should say the drinks are from. A waiter puts two small glasses down onto a table and a bottle for the Nazi and his female companion. The man picks up the bottle and looks at it curiously. Oskar walks with the woman and the Nazi to his table and calls out for an extra chair and "vodka for my friend!" When the waiter asks what the lady will have, the Nazi answers, "Pernod." The Nazi pours vodka into a shot glass for himself and downs it quickly. The Nazi claps at the two girls dancing and calls out, "Come to the table, girls! Drink with us!" Oskar is seated at a banquet table that includes many glasses filled with alcohol, and bottles also on the table. One of the dancing women drinks three times from a wine glass during one scene: Once in an establishing shot, once in a close-up shot, and once when Oskar is asking a waiter about the availability of certain wines. "Tell me about your cellar wines," Oskar commands a waiter. The waiter states that he has "an excellent German Riesling, 1937." Oskar verbally waves it off and asks for French, "A Bordeaux Chateau Latour, '28, '29?" The waiter gives his apologies, as they have none. Oskar asks about a Margaux '29 and the waiter says that they don't have that either. "Burgundy then? A Romanee-Conti, '37?", and the waiter says yes. Oskar and a higher-up Nazi clink glasses, and Oskar drinks. Oskar pours a bit of alcohol from a round flask into its cap and offers it to Itzhak Stern, but he refuses it with one hand up. Oskar pours more alcohol into the flask cap and drinks it quickly. Oskar drinks from the cap of his flask while discussing his business plan in a car with two wary investors. Oskar pours more drink into his flask cap, then a little more, and offers it to Itzhak who looks at it and turns back in refusal. A table is stocked with glasses of alcohol. At a buffet table, a near-full glass of alcohol sits. Oskar tells his supplier, "We're going to need lots of Cognac, the best; Hennessy." He also asks for Dom Perignon champagne. Oskar pours a glass of alcohol and hands it to Itzhak. When Itzhak refuses to do anything with it, Oskar, exasperated, says, "Just pretend, for Christ's sake," and they lift their glasses in a toast. Oskar drinks from his glass and then Itzhak's glass after the toast. With Mrs. Schindler, Oskar drinks from a brandy glass. While Oskar is having lunch, a glass of red wine sits near his plate. Oskar drinks some red wine. Itzhak hands Oskar a bottle of wine to give as a gift to the Obersturmbannfuehrer. Rolf Czurda, the Nazi in charge, drinks from a glass, and Oskar holds one while telling him that he lost a day of production by this snow shoveling. Rolf drinks again from his glass after telling Oskar that he has a right to file a grievance with the Economic Office, but it won't do any good. Oskar drinks from a small glass. Amon drinks from a flask and hands it back to the man walking next to him. At Amon's table, Oskar drinks alcohol from a glass. A maid pours brandy into Oskar's glass, and Amon tells her to leave the bottle. Oskar drinks from his brandy glass a second time, while Amon speaks. Oskar pours brandy for Amon and then himself. A woman pours wine over Amon and the women he's with at a party. Schindler calls for more wine and Amon echoes the sentiment. A woman laughs behind a violinist and accordion player, holding a glass of wine. Schindler buys time with Stern outside the work camp, by giving a bottle of wine to a Nazi, who thanks him for it. After Regina Perlman walks into Oskar's office, he offers her Pernod and Cognac, but she politely refuses. Oskar sits on the edge of his desk and drinks from a brandy glass. Oskar calls Goeth "a man who loves good food, good wine…" Nazis sing drunkenly at night on the balcony of Goeth's villa. Helen takes a bottle of wine from Goeth's collection to open and Schindler grips that bottle, gives her the correct one in its place and puts back the other. Helen starts to open the bottle, but is stopped by Schindler handing her something. Oskar verbally remembers the wine and gets up from where Helen is sitting. Amon tries to sit down, but falls down drunk, spilling wine on the ground. Oskar asks Goeth, "Why do you drink that motor oil? Hmm? I send you good stuff all the time. Your liver's going to explode like a hand grenade." Amon crawls on the ground, trying to right himself, and he does, sitting upright and leaning back. Amon says to Oskar that the more he looks at him, he watches him and notices that he never gets drunk. "That's real control," Amon comments. Amon drinks from his wine glass while sitting opposite Oskar. After Oskar explains to Amon what he thinks power is, Amon replies, "I think you are drunk." Amon drinks the last of his drink. Amon pours alcohol into a glass against the nighttime backdrop of the work camp. As the camera pans behind a female singer at a nightclub, glasses of alcohol can be seen at Schindler's table, and in close-up. A doctor tells Amon that he has to "cut down on the Cognac." Amon asks Schindler if he wants a drink and Schindler responds, "Something cold. Bowle," which is a fruity alcoholic German summer drink. Oskar drinks from the glass. A Nazi holds a small glass of alcohol at a table outside in front of the crowded transport trains, which is also where Schindler and Goeth are. At a table with Amon and a bespectacled Nazi, Oskar has a quarter-filled brandy glass in front of him. Oskar drinks from a glass while discussing the evacuation orders with Itzhak. A champagne flute with some alcohol still in it, sits on a night table next to a woman sleeping in bed. Oskar holds a brandy glass as he attempts to make a deal with Amon to keep his workers. Oskar drinks from a glass as he tells Stern he wants more names on the list. Oskar puts an empty glass onto the desk as Stern types. Oskar drinks from a brandy glass after Goeth refuses to give up Helen. Oskar drinks from a shot glass, across from a Nazi with whom he is trying to negotiate. Oskar puts out beer for the Nazis in appreciation of their cooperation with his rules. Mr. Jereth drinks some alcohol before having a filling removed from his mouth. BLOOD/GORE One of the Nazis fires a gun into the back of Mr. Lowenstein's head. Blood spurts up and he drops to the ground. The camera pans down on Mr. Lowenstein and blood from the gunshot wound is seen on his forehead, while a heavy trail of blood quickly seeps through the snow from the back of his head. The Nazis shoot Diana Reiter, a Jewish engineer, in the head. A gunshot wound is seen, blood sprays and she falls to her front, and then falls backward to the side. We see blood seep from the right. One of the Nazis takes Chaim Gold, puts him face-down on the ground and shoots him in the back of the head. A wound is seen and blood pools quickly. A man lies dead on the ground with his eyes rolled up into his head, and a woman cries over him in German. Nazis barge in after a nurse gives medicine laced with poison to bedridden patients, and one of them shoots one of the deceased patients with a machine gun, and blood sprays and multiple wounds are seen. After, the Nazis check the bodies, lifting the arms and letting them drop. Itzhak sees a man walking with a woman who has blood on her face that streamed from her left nostril. The man's white jacket is blood-stained. A Nazi sees this, demands that the man let her down to die because she's very weak, and when he refuses, the Nazi shoots the woman in the head. As she falls, the blood from her head wound spurts onto the man's face and jacket and keeps spurting as he puts her down on the ground. The blood then spurts onto his pant leg. A man trying to escape from the Nazis through a tunnel, rises up to the street through a sewer hole and sees pools of blood and many dead bodies all around him. He trips and falls backward into a big puddle of blood. A woman's body is seen up close, blood from one nostril across her face. Seven Jewish men stand in a line, the Nazi fires at the first, and five of them fall. He shoots the other two each in the head, and as the second man falls, a thick streak of blood is seen on the wall behind him. A lot of bodies are grouped together outside the Krakow ghetto, during the "liquidation." The Nazis check them for valuables. Amon fires at a woman worker from the balcony of his villa and blood bursts from the top of her head as she falls. Amon goes to the toilet, places his sniper rifle against a corner of the wall, unzips his pants, and we see urine stream down into the bowl. Not hearing an answer about a stolen chicken, Amon takes a rifle and fires at one of the lined-up prisoners and the man falls to the ground. A second Nazi fires his pistol at the man's head, and the force of the shot causes the body to lift up slightly and then drop. Then there's blood on the ground, which becomes a bigger puddle as the wound continues spurting blood for a while. Itzhak tells Oskar a story that Bejeski in the camp told him, about a man who escaped from his work detail, outside the wire. Goeth "lined up everybody from the missing man's barracks," and we see Goeth, with his pistol, shooting a man to the left of Bejeski and to his right. He walks down the line, shooting every other man, and we see these men drop dead to the ground. Goeth has blood spots on his face from the killing. Itzhak says 25 men were killed, and we see the bodies along the ground as Goeth walks past them and the men still standing. Stern passes by the body of the boy Lisiek, dead on the ground from being shot at by Amon. Amon slaps Helen hard and she reels to the side of the room. She covers her mouth, which bleeds through her fingers. A woman in the barracks pricks her finger and with the blood that comes out, she applies it to her face to make her cheeks appear rosier and therefore look healthier in order to pass the required physical and not be shipped off to certain death. Another woman does the same and applies the blood to her lips while other women also apply blood to their cheeks. A young boy climbs into the toilet of one of the barracks, splashing down into waste. Another child, Danka Dresner, tells him that he isn't allowed in there with her and other children, but he just looks up, shoulder-deep in waste, one of the seminal images of the film. Jews dig up the bodies of other Jews for incineration, by the order of Department D to Amon. Bodies are seen riding up a conveyor belt, to be dumped onto a growing, burning pile. A Nazi fires once at the burning body mountain. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE As is known about "Schindler's List," the villains are the Nazis, embodied by Amon Goeth, in charge of a work camp in Plaszow, Poland, and a ruthless, unfeeling, murderous monster. He shoots at Jews in the camp from his balcony in his villa for target practice, he beats his maid horribly, and Oskar Schindler makes deals with him to keep the workers he has, though as the war rages on and the horrors of the Nazi's actions become more clear to Oskar, he vows to save as many Jews as possible. Oskar Schindler, of Czechoslovakia, is a businessman, who's also a member of the Nazi party, but not for the reason of believing in their cause. He sees it as a way of doing business, of making important connections to sustain the business he tries to establish of making pots and pans for the war effort, employing Jews as his workforce. However, he does not see what is happening, for a time in favor of making much money. But that changes as he witnesses more of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and especially when he learns that the Jews will be shipped to concentration camps to be killed in gas chambers. That's when he vows to begin saving as many people as he can. Among the many acts of the Nazis and other people: A Nazi cuts the curls off the sides of a Jewish man's head and mockingly holds them up at the sides of his own head. A boy throws things at passing Jews and a young girl shouts, "Goodbye Jews!" repeatedly, with white-hot anger and hate. Rolf Czurda, the Nazi in charge in Krakow, tells Oskar that Jews shoveling snow has a "ritual significance." A Nazi calls out to the Jews through a megaphone to label their luggage, but not bring it with them as it will follow them later. It's the first of many painful lies. Later, we see the contents of the luggage in piles, such as clothing, shoes, eyeglasses, menorahs and other valuables, and paintings. Jewish jewelers are forced to assess the value of various jewelry, such as diamonds extracted from rings. A Nazi dumps teeth onto a table, and the fillings are to be assessed for value as well. Add to all that the forced evacuation of the ghetto, the work camp which Amon uses for his own shooting range, Auschwitz, and how merciless the Nazis are. Amon laughs at a Polish Jew who says he's been given instructions to clear luggage from the roadway (said to try to protect himself), and he tells him to finish and "join the lines, little Polish clicking soldier," referencing how quickly the man saluted Amon. Amon's woman tells him to make coffee and he replies, "Make it yourself." FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence" and "Blood/Gore" may be unsettling, suspenseful and/or scary to younger viewers and those with low tolerance levels for such material. German shepherds bark with metal muzzles over their snouts. In the ghetto apartment buildings, the Nazis intend to "liquidate" them, forcing everyone out, by gunfire if necessary and there's much machine gun fire that lights up the properties, Nazis firing everywhere, and gunfire is seen through windows all over the Krakow ghetto, like the lights of a pinball machine. All of it is a nightmarish sight. The women who are supposed to be working for Schindler, but are now at Auschwitz, are herded into what looks like the gas chamber, and all are crowded together, unsure of what is about to happen and very frightened. The lights suddenly go out, and they scream, and a few lights come back on. After a minute, water sprays down from showerheads. GUNS/WEAPONS Pistols/Machine guns/Sniper rifles: Carried and/or used to threaten, wound or kill others. See "Violence" for more details. Amon aims his sniper rifle at one of the workers from his villa balcony. He reloads the rifle and a second later, balances his rifle between his shoulders and puts his wrists over it, moving hard from side to side to crack some bones. After he's done, he goes back inside, reloads his rifle and points it at the woman in his bed, who throws a robe at him and exclaims, "Amon, you're such a damned f*cking child." He then goes to the toilet and places his rifle against a corner of the wall. Amon gets frustrated when a pistol doesn't fire at the back of the head of a hingemaker, outside of his factory. Amon tries his own gun after throwing down the other one, but that doesn't fire either, and he gets increasingly frustrated with each unaccomplished click from the chamber. Out of anger, he clocks the man on the back of the head with the gun and the man falls down, clutching his head. During this act and afterward, two Nazis with him discuss what could possibly be wrong with the guns. Nazi soldiers hold guns while listening to Oskar explain that they are not to shoot workers without cause, and indeed, there isn't any cause anyway. Oskar says to Itzhak about his new munitions factory, designed to protect his Jews, "Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can be fired, I'll be very unhappy." IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "I'm f*cking freezing," "You f*cking bitch!" "I wish this f*cking night were over," "Sh*t," "Did your pr*ck fall off?" "God forbid you ever get a real taste for Jewish skirt," "Sweetheart, you're a picture of loneliness," "Just pretend, for Christ's sake," "Ja," "Wakey, wakey," "Why the hell are you following me around?" and "You're a Jewish bitch." Some disturbed kids might be enticed to imitate the racial hatred and violence toward others (or even transpose that to family pets or other animals). Prayers and blessings are heard throughout the film in Hebrew, which may be tempting to imitate. A woman in the barracks pricks her finger and with the blood that comes out, she applies it to her face to make her cheeks appear rosier and therefore look healthier in order to pass the required physical and not be shipped off to certain death. Another woman does the same and applies the blood to her lips while other women also apply blood to their cheeks. A waiter hesitates slightly in asking Oskar who he should say the drinks are from, stuttering on the word "they." Two women dance in choreographed movements in the nightclub. A boy throws things at passing Jews, and a young girl shouts "Goodbye Jews!" repeatedly, with white-hot anger and hate. Itzhak crumples up a paper quickly to age it, and pours either tea or coffee on it, so that it looks many, many years old to convince an SS officer that it is the work paper of a man a certain age. Amon picks his cigarette up from the ledge of his balcony with only his mouth. Amon balances his rifle between his shoulders and puts his wrists over it, moving hard from side to side to crack some bones. Nazis sing drunkenly at night on the balcony of Goeth's villa. Amon tries to sit, but falls down drunk. He crawls on the ground, trying to right himself, and he does, sitting upright and leaning back. In the barracks, while wondering why the Nazis would go to the trouble of assembling a workforce only to kill them (upon hearing of rumors that that's what may happen to them), a woman makes a death sign with her hand, moving it across her throat and making a clicking sound. As the women's train rumbles on wrongly toward Auschwitz, one of the women sees a child in a field across from the tracks make a death sign with his finger, dragging it across his throat. Amon Goeth says "Heil Hitler," before being hung for his crimes. JUMP SCENES None. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) A heavy amount of ominous and tense music occurs in the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY At least 9 "f" words, 1 "s" word, 1 slang term for male genitalia ("pr*ck"), 1 hell, 1 damn, 4 uses of "Oh my G*d," 2 uses of "Oh God," and 1 use each of "For Christ's sake," "God forbid," "Oh, Christ" and "Oy, God." SEX/NUDITY Two women dancing in step with each other wear short outfits, showing much leg. Oskar's picture is taken with the three dancing girls, two of which show some fishnet-stockinged leg. Before she closes up her robe, a silk nightgown is seen on a woman. A woman rises from the edge of a bed and kisses Oskar while on top of him, and he rolls onto her, and she back on him, and she moans. Her bare back is seen, down to her bottom, which is covered up. The woman thrusts on top of Oskar, who grunts and moans and she does too. After Oskar and the woman are interrupted, her left breast can be seen hanging down, nipple too, but in near darkness. Amon's bed partner's bare breasts are seen as she rises to see what he's doing. Amon's woman looks at him on the balcony, then falls back onto a pillow, possibly out of embarrassment, and her bare back is seen as well as some leg. Amon kisses every girl he comes across at a party. Helen is dressed in a sheer nightgown, and her nipples can be seen through it. Amon grips Helen's right breast as he questions her. Oskar kisses various women. Amon's woman comes outside to the balcony, dressed in a bra, panties and pantyhose, puts her hand on Amon's belly and moves it downward. Men and women in the camp, undergoing a semi-annual physical to determine their health, are all nude, everything seen on the women. Men run naked too and in many instances, as they are being examined, their penises are seen. After Oskar tells a fellow prisoner that he's in a cell because he "kissed a Jewish girl," the prisoner asks, "Did your pr*ck fall off?" and they both laugh. One of the Nazis says to Oskar, "God forbid you ever get a real taste for Jewish skirt." A sleeping woman's right bare breast is seen for seven seconds as the camera pans up to Oskar standing by a window. There is a cut back to the bed and her breast is seen for eight more seconds. Women take off their clothes in a room in Auschwitz and are seen fully nude. SMOKING Oskar smokes 16 times, Amon smokes 8 times, and various other characters smoke a few times. Amon picks his cigarette up from the ledge of his balcony with only his mouth. A Nazi lights a woman's cigarette. Giving his supplier a list of what he needs, Oskar says, "And of course who could live without German cigarettes?" Oskar also tells his supplier that he needs "several boxes of Cuban cigars. The best." A laughing woman, standing behind a violinist and an accordion player, holds a long cigarette holder. Itzhak asks Oskar, "How many cigarettes have you smoked tonight?" Oskar replies, "Too many," and Stern counters with, "For every one you smoke, I smoke half," in reference to the cigarette smoke around him. TENSE FAMILY SCENES A man lies dead on the ground with his eyes rolled up into his head, and a woman cries over him in German. A Nazi shoots a man in the chest for trying to stop him from shooting the man's son. Soon after, two Nazis jog with the runaway boy held between them and a Nazi shoots him through the chest, spraying debris. The two Nazis drop him to the ground. Itzhak sees a man walking with a weakened woman who has blood from her left nostril down her face. After the man refuses to give her up, a Nazi shoots the woman in the head. The Nazis forcibly separate the men and the women. Chaja Dresner and her daughter Danka, see the carnage on the street, and Chaja turns her away and they go up to an apartment building where people are hiding, but one of the women hiding under the floorboards refuses to let Chaja in after letting in Danka. Chaja tells Danka, who's screaming for her, that she'd rather have Danka be there than "God knows where." Later, Danka runs back down the stairs to her mother. Chaja exclaims, "Oh my God!" as she sees trucks carrying the children away, and many women, including her, run toward the trucks, trying to rescue their children and Chaja reassures one of the women that their children have hidden. Gunshots are heard in the air during all this. At Auschwitz, the Nazis try to take the young girls away, to the fright and protest of the women, but Oskar stops them, asking them how they expect him to clean the inside of 45mm anti-tank artillery shells without the help of children, whose hands are small enough to do so. The Nazis relinquish the girls. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT The Nazi party and what their ideology and aims were. The Nazis hold on the world, especially in Poland, Germany and other countries. Why the Nazis targeted Jews, homosexuals, and other types of people for extinction. The Krakow ghetto and why so many people were confined to one room. The "liquidation" of the Krakow ghetto. The Plaszow work camp and the jobs of the various prisoners. Amon Goeth and his monstrous ruthlessness and psychopathic nature. Oskar Schindler and what he was before learning that the Jews were to be killed, and afterward. The various families torn apart by the Nazi invasion of their lives. People hide under floorboards in the Krakow ghetto, and later, children hide in the toilet of one of the barracks. Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Oskar tells his workers that with the war over, they can search for survivors in their family, if there are any. One of Oskar's workers asks a Soviet solider who arrived to let them know they are free, "Where should we go?" and the solider advises the workers of where they shouldn't go. The breadth and scope of this Steven Spielberg film, the actors involved, the locations, and how Spielberg tells the story, through various camera movements, even resorting to a shaky-camera style in many scenes. Liam Neeson, an Irish actor, portraying Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, quite effectively. Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth, a performance that makes one wonder exactly how he could stand to play a man like this. Nowadays, he plays Voldemort in the "Harry Potter" films. "Schindler's List" was filmed in black-and-white, but the flames of candles are in color, as well as the faded red coat of a little girl who walks around during the Krakow ghetto liquidation. Intolerance, injustice, and hatred, by the actions of the Nazis. What is learned from watching the film. VIOLENCE One of the Nazis fires a gun into the back of Mr. Lowenstein's head. Blood spurts up and he drops to the ground. The Nazis shoot Diana Reiter, a Jewish engineer, in the head. A gunshot wound is seen, blood sprays, and she falls to her front, then falls to the side, backward. We see blood seep from the right. One of the Nazis takes Chaim Gold, puts him face-down on the ground and shoots him in the back of the head. A wound is seen and blood pools quickly. A Nazi shoots a man in the chest for trying to stop him from shooting the man's son, who ran from the insanity. Two Nazis jog with the runaway boy held between them and another Nazi shoots him through the chest, and debris sprays. The two Nazis then drop him to the ground. A Nazi shoots a deceased bedridden patient with a machine gun and blood sprays, with multiple wounds seen. Other gunshots are heard offscreen, directed toward the other patients. A Nazi shoots a weakened woman in the head and as she falls, the blood from her head wound spurts onto the face of the man holding her, as well as his jacket and keeps spurting as he puts her down on the ground. Then, the blood spurts onto his pant leg. Nazis shoot two men in a tunnel and we see them fall. Seven Jewish men stand in a line, the Nazi fires at the first, and five of them fall. Another Nazi shoots the other two each in the head. As the second man falls, a streak of blood is seen on the wall behind him. During the Krakow ghetto "liquidation," there's much machine gun fire that lights up the building. Nazis fire at a bed, killing whomever is under it, and debris flies around. Nazis fire machine guns into the ceiling, killing whomever is up there. An entire kitchen is destroyed in the gunfire. There's a shot of gunfire seen through windows all over the Krakow ghetto, like the lights of a pinball machine. From the balcony of his villa, Amon fires at a woman worker with his sniper rifle and blood bursts from the top of her head as she falls, and sparks shoot from the ground where some of the gunfire hit, with smoke rising. Amon fires at the chest of a woman sitting on some steps in the camp and she falls to the left. In order to make room for incoming Yugoslavian workers, Amon time tests a hingemaker. Unsatisfied with how slow he seems to be in hourly production, he takes the hingemaker out back and tries to fire a gun at the man's head, but it doesn't work. He keeps trying to fire his own gun after throwing down the other one, but gets increasingly frustrated with each unaccomplished click he hears, and he just clocks the man on the back of the head with his gun out of anger. The man clutches his head as he's down on the ground. Not hearing an answer about a stolen chicken, Amon takes a rifle and fires at one of the lined-up prisoners and the man falls to the ground. Another Nazi fires his pistol at the man's head and the force of the shot causes the body to lift up slightly and then fall back down. There's smoke and blood on the ground, which becomes a bigger puddle as the wound continues spurting blood for a while. Itzhak tells a story to Oskar that he heard from a fellow prisoner, Bejeski, about a man who escaped from his work detail "outside the wire." Goeth "lined up everybody from the missing man's barracks," and we see Goeth shooting a man to the left of Bejeski and to his right. He walks down the line, shooting every other man with a pistol and we see these men drop dead to the ground. Goeth also has blood spots on his face from the killings. He shoots off the top of one man's head and we see the smoke from the gunshot and the man's head lolls forward as he falls forward and then backward. Itzhak says 25 men were killed, and we see the bodies along the ground as Goeth walks past them and the men still standing. Helen tells Oskar that on the first day of working for Amon, he beat her because she threw out the bones from dinner, which were meant to go to his dogs. When Helen asked him, "Why are you beating me?" he responded, "The reason I beat you is because you ask why I beat you." Helen also tells Oskar that one morning, Amon went down the steps by the patio and shot a woman who was passing by, through the throat, for no reason. Amon shouts in anger after opening the stable doors and finding a saddle on the floor. He shoves the stable boy against the wall and asks, "Do you know how much this saddle is worth?" A guard grabs a woman by the hair and drags her. When Amon sees this, the guard stops and explains, "She was smoking on the job." Amon commands the guard to tell her not to do it again, and the guard kicks the woman twice as she gets up. Amon regains his unconscionable ways after considering Oskar's explanation of power, and shoots at Lisiek from offscreen as the boy walks back to the prison camp. Lisiek looks up at the window in reaction. Amon keeps shooting at Lisiek and stops after the third shot. Itzhak then passes by Lisiek, dead on the ground. Amon slaps Helen hard and she reels to the side of the cellar. She covers her mouth, which bleeds through her fingers. Amon takes Helen by the arms and throws her down to the floor. He grips her neck and slaps her again. Then he punches her, though she is offscreen when it happens. Finally, he pushes shelves of glass bottles down on Helen, which break and produce dust around her. As a man runs past, naked during the semi-annual physical, two officers hit him with sticks. Amon says that since he can't take Helen with him to Vienna, he should do the "next most merciful thing;" take her into the woods and "shoot her painlessly in the back of the head." Reviewed off DVD / Posted April 10, 2008