So yeah...why another 2-month hiatus in getting this series finished? Who the hell knows. June was busy, I guess. But we're back now with entry #70 out of 87 in the Best Picture Showcase, and here we may have legitimately one of the most important movies ever put to film, Schindler's List. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian, the film is an adaptation of Thomas Keneally's 1982 novel Schindler's Ark. It is based on the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Jewish refugees from Poland during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. 99% of the film is presented in black-and-white, a deliberate choice so this could be presented as a documentary as much as a motion picture. Spielberg was amazed by the story when he was given a copy of Keneally's book, but he didn't feel he was "mature" enough to direct such a film, so he tried to hire many top directors such as Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski, but ultimately Spielberg wound up taking on the project himself, even though he fully expected the film to be a box-office flop. He even forewent a salary, calling it "blood money". There were too many Holocaust deniers making inroads into the mass media, so the project became very important to Spielberg. The end result is truly amazing. Let's take a look.
