Make yourself some notes while you’re watching to help you with your essay later on. Use jot notes. Describe the scene and what happens.
Each column is an essay topic.
Schindler’s evolution (change)
beginning
middle
end
Film techniques
use of colour and black and white
music
camera angles
parallel editing (3 different locations shown at same time)
others?
Groups/ individuals affected by the war
-
Jews
-
Germans
-
Children
-
Stern
-
Goeth
-
Others?
BEGINNING OF FILM:
-rich, member of the Nazi party, calculating, wanting money, charming
-wants to buy a company to make money but needs Jewish help
-secretive, con-artist, manipulative
-hires Jewish workers instead of Polish workers because they’re cheaper
-womanizer; narcissistic (shallow, into himself)
-Stern brings in a one-armed worker to thank Schindler for hiring him
Schindler asks Stern what his use is – he’s mad – it’s illegal
-Schindler rescues Stern off the train
-flame burning in colour, then burns out and film goes to black and white
-shots of Schindler show parts of him – hands, lapel, side of his face
-‘looking down’ camera angle, after
Schindler is caught by his wife with a mistress (makes him seem small / guilty)
-girl with the red coat stands out in a black and white movie – represents innocence, emphasizes an individual in a large mass of bodies – it personalizes the slaughter
-parallel editing: Goeth’s speech to soldiers about making history, against Jewish family having a meal together, against list making tables being set up in the ghetto square
-when Germans invade Poland they win within two weeks and order all Jews to go to
Krakow and get registered
-Jews are not allowed to own anything anymore; they are kicked out of their homes
-Jewish people were moved to ‘the ghetto’ – made up of 16 square blocks
-Polish girl shouting, “Goodbye Jews” and others throwing mud as they walked with all their belongings down the street
-polish girl is example of learned hatred or learned racism
-Jewish business owners handing over suitcases of money to Schindler
-Jewish people were sorted into lines: essential workers or not…
-Jewish people made to shovel snow for no reason

Schindler’s List Listening Guide
MIDDLE OF FILM:
-sees girl in the red coat
-workers have been moved to Plaszow with
Goeth
-Schindler makes a deal with Goeth to get
500 workers back
-gives Stern some food and tells him that he’ll check on him
-worried about rumours that he is “good” but he tells Regina Perlman that he doesn’t do that and it’s illegal
-he yells at Stern and defends Goeth, that he wouldn’t be like that if it weren’t for the war
-then he gives lighter and cigarette holder as bribe to get Jews (hinge maker – rabbi, and boy) to factory – including the old
Perlman couple
-pardoning: justice versus power –
Schindler tries to influence Goeth into being less evil by appealing to his ego;
Goeth tries it with boy with saddle, woman smoking on the job, and Leisek with stains on the tub
-at his birthday he kisses a Jewish mother and daughter, unconsciously disregarding the law – later arrested for it
-watering the trains – still lying about his motives but it’s becoming clear to the audience (and maybe even Goeth) what he thinks, feels, and believes music played during the liquidation of the ghetto;
-during the day it is children singing
-during the night– Bach – fast music
(why?)
-3 scene montage (parallel editing): Jewish marriage in the work camp, Schindler at night club and then at birthday celebration, and Goeth beating Helen in the cellar (why did the director show these
3 scenes at the same time?)
-fast music during the ‘selection’ (removing the sick and old from those able to work) – why? – camera moves very quickly as well
– why?
-children are removed – singing along to children’s music – innocent
-camera follows parents running alongside the wagons that are taking the children away – looking down – children’s perspective
-red coat girl on wheelbarrow – Schindler sees her – close up of his face (why?)
-‘God Bless the Child’ playing as Schindler makes the decision to use all his money to buy the Jews from Goeth
-as he discussed this with Goeth they are seen through a door frame and windows
(significance?) – like a glimpse into what’s really going on
-liquidation of the ghetto – killed many Jews
Helen – chosen because she didn’t have any housekeeping skills and her beauty
-tells Schindler that she thinks that one day she’ll be shot – there are no rules to live by which makes her fear worse
-she means something to Goeth though
Jewish women discuss a rumour about the death camps and being gassed; they don’t believe it because they think they are important as the workforce for the Germans
Goeth: egomaniac
-justice vs. power
-kills arbitrarily
-tries pardoning but can’t follow through
-truly believes Jews are not human
-lies for Schindler to get him out of prison – says Jews have power over man – ‘they cast a spell on you; they’re like a virus’
Children: tricked onto the trucks by singing and music – taken away from their parents
-hiding spots are degrading / disgusting – outhouse hole

Schindler’s List Listening Guide
END OF FILM:
-scene where Schindler and Stern finally have a drink together – intimacy / friendship
-tells Stern he’s going home with all his money but then asks Goeth what he thinks a person is worth (so he can take his Jews with him)
-manipulates law telling guards there will be no killing – they go to jail and he makes money…
-miscalibrates artillery
-allows them to practice religion
-he realizes he could have gotten more people out breaks down and his workers hug him
-close ups on Jewish people’s faces as
Schindler’s List of people he is going to save – making them human
-close ups at end when they’re walking away from Schindler’s camp
-talking to official when trying to save the women from Auschwitz- eyes are completely shaded – takes the diamondsshady… says he will cut him ‘300 fresh units”
-crowd of women entering his factory – his head is above all
-during the ‘no money left’ talk with Stern we only hear Schindler’s voice and see a bit of his arm – focus on Stern’s face
-only a voice and shadow when Schindler invites guards into the factory one last time
-camera focus at the end – we see
Schindler’s face inside the car and then he blurs and we see the Jews outside the car
-coloured candle flame when Schindler allowed the Rabi to prepare for the
Sabbath
-at end and picture turns to colour when the actors are walking with the real people to the grave site
Women: at Auschwitz – heads were shaven, put in the ‘gas’ chamber, saw other going down into the incinerators
-1100 Jews were saved by Schindler and over
6000 descendants were born as a result
-German war criminals were prosecuted