Schindler's List - Collector's Widescreen Gift Set

Product Description

The DVD debut of the Oscar-winning film delivers an outstanding image and sound experience (both 5.1 and DTS tracks are provided), although the single disc needs to be flipped to see the entire film. The centerpiece of the extra features is the new 70-minute "Voices from the List," in which the men and women saved by Oskar Schindler talking about their experiences and memories. The film does an excellent job of complementing the film without overshadowing it in any way. It came out of the Shoah Foundation, which Steven Spielberg started after the film to record first-hand experiences of the Holocaust. A 10-minute featurette updates the foundation's efforts. Unfortunately, there is no insight on the making of the film except a few liner notes. Perhaps the film has such a revered status, deconstructing it might be something Spielberg doesn't want to do, but it's frustrating not to hear from the cast and crew who helped put together one of the 1990s' most distinguished and well-crafted films. --Doug Thomas

Amazon.com essential video

Steven Spielberg had a banner year in 1993. He scored one of his biggest commercial hits that summer with the mega-hit Jurassic Park, but it was the artistic and critical triumph of Schindler's List that Spielberg called "the most satisfying experience of my career." Adapted from the best-selling book by Thomas Keneally and filmed in Poland with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, Spielberg's masterpiece ranks among the greatest films ever made about the Holocaust during World War II. It's a film about heroism with an unlikely hero at its center--Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who risked his life and went bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps.

By employing Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army, Schindler ensures their survival against terrifying odds. At the same time, he must remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) and negotiate business with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. Schindler's List gains much of its power not by trying to explain Schindler's motivations, but by dramatizing the delicate diplomacy and determination with which he carried out his generous deeds.

As a drinker and womanizer who thought nothing of associating with Nazis, Schindler was hardly a model of decency; the film is largely about his transformation in response to the horror around him. Spielberg doesn't flinch from that horror, and the result is a film that combines remarkable humanity with abhorrent inhumanity--a film that functions as a powerful history lesson and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the context of a living nightmare. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

So many good reviews, just adding my perspecitve and recommendaitions.......2007-09-10

Of the hundreds of DVD's that I own, this is the only one that has a deep moral legitimacy and a deep moral message. There are many other DVDs about good people like Gandhi, good efforts like Peace One Day, about herorism and so on, but this one DVD is my most treasured and the one that I watch at least twice a year.

Here are other DVDs in the goodness vein that I recommend:
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Peace One Day
Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut)
Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion
The Snow Walker
Santana: Hymns for Peace - Live at Montreux 2004 [HD DVD]

Steven Spielberg's Holocaust Masterpiece.......2007-09-07

The Holocaust was a difficult time in history. Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List pays tribute to the people that died during that time in one of the best ways ever.

This movie is so incredible. It's moody, heartfelt, and tragic. One of the best movies of all time.

The DVD doesn't have much in the way of extras but the movie itself is one to definitely have.

This is a Must Have.

one of the best films of Stephen Speilberg's career.............2007-09-05

SCHINDLER'S LIST is simply a marvelous example from the exceptional body of work from filmmaker Stephen Speilberg. Set during the height of Nazi occupation in Europe, this take a sobering look at the work of Oskar Schindler [Liam Neeson] and his astonishing transfomation from self-centered lothario to humanitarian. Based on a true story, the work of Oskar Schindler, a gentile who worked as an advocate for Jews by offering them work in his crockery factory, as well as offering them refuge, all the while under the nose of a bloodthirsty Nazi [Ralph Fiennes], is portrayed vividly in this 1993 production.

Initially, Speilberg didn't intend for this film to be anywhere close to the success that it became. SCHINDLER'S LIST went on to win numerous well-earned Academy Awards, critical acclaim, as well as recognition for Stephen Speilberg, as a director and a visionary artist. The acting is beautiful, the black-and-white shots make a bold and chilling impression on the viewer, as well as the minimal use of color (with the exception of the infamous "little girl in the red coat"--you'll have to view the film to fully understand the significance and symbolism of this recurring character). This is a very important story that recounts a very painful chapter from our past, as human beings, at a time where seemingly "civilized" individuals senselessly brutalized and murdered tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, and other scapegoats in the name of the Third Reich and fascist violence. Don't miss this one. It truly is a remarkable example of exemplary cinematic storytelling.

A movie everyone should watch!.......2007-08-09

Schindler's List is not a wonderful happy film. It's a great historical fact movie that not only explores one mans experiences during WWII but the great majority of Nazi "Unwanted Peoples", Jews, Gypsies, etc.

It's a film that is important for everyone to watch because if we do not learn and remember what has happened in the past we are destined to repeat it.
Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)Schindler's List (Full Screen Edition)

Spielbergs finest moment .......2007-07-26

In the list of major films that Spielberg has made this is the one above all others that everyone should see.
Its the true story of Oscar Schindler, a paid up member of the Nazi party who saved the lives of around 1,100 Jews in WW2.
Liam Neeson plays Schindler brilliantly, but the whole cast are excellent. It would be unfair to pick out any one person, such as Neeson, since for example Ralph Fiennes is also brilliant as a ruthless camp commandant. I've seen the film 3 or 4 times now and its one of the few films that has brought me close to tears, as true horror of the Holocaust is brought to life.

What Schindler did shows a side of humanity that most of us will never see. At great personal risk, because he realised that people were being slaughtered, he bribed Nazi officials and ensured in the process that his factory never produced anything useful for the Nazi's. Scene after haunting scene is left etched on your memory. Perhaps for me, where Schindler hoses down the people who are packed into the trains in unbearable heat sums up the whole movie for me. He needn't of helped them, they were going to die anyway, but he did. We all know about mans inhumanity to man, but here is a demonstration of one mans great humanity. So whilst the film is very sad and emotional on one level, because of Schindlers actions the film doesn't leave you in a state of manic depression at the end!

Its a fabulous movie and at 3hours and 7mins it is long, but you will never look at your watch, its that good.

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