Steven Spielberg's immensely emotional Schindler's List (1993) is easily his last best film; I have a love for Munich (2005), but that sure doesn't beat what we got with his 1993 Oscar winning freight train. I not being Jewish, find it hard to imagine those with that certain connection watching this film. There are moments that I can barely watch, myself, but that is definitely Spielberg's the point.
Oskar Schindler was not a good guy; in fact, he was a greedy businessman who wanted to make profits off of the cheap labor for his factory; taking advantage of people and the war. However, his own selfishness caught up to him and turned his views around as soon as he witnesses how the Holocaust affects the Jews. It's such an interesting and moving experience seeing Liam Neeson play this character, especially with this being his best performance.
This is one of those films that being in black-and-white, you wouldn't expect to look radiant on Blu-ray. Well, it does. This is now one of the most gorgeous looking films converted to the newest format. Watching the little girl with the red coat has always been some of the most frightening scenes in film; well now it looks even more perfect without there being a grainy shift feeling. It is immeasurable to any other conversion I have seen so far and on a quality level, is something you need to own.
Aside from the exquisite quality of the film, the special features are always something to look forward to if you are a cinephile. Unfortunately, the special features in this Blu-ray deal are the worst thing about it. You get 3 disks, the first being the Blu-ray version of the film; the second being Part 1 of the DVD of the film; along with the third which is Part 2 of the DVD of the film as well as a 70 minute emotional "Voices From the List" feature which has interviews from survivors and the history of Schindler's cause, a 5 minute history of how making Schindler's List led Spielberg to creating the USC Shoah Foundation as well as what it is, and finally a feature on what IWitness is.
It's very disappointing that this Blu-ray bundle only includes these special features, because two of the features were already on the DVD version that came out years before. Any fan of film will want more from the extras side of this, but in the end, this is what we get. I'm incredibly happy with the remastered Blu-ray version and that overshadows the features we don't get. I love this deal and cannot talk about how amazing this film looks. This is a must own for any and all film lovers who need their high-def fix of the classics.
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