NOTE: Due to the graphic nature of the topic/movies, please be careful about mentioning some of the scenes in the movies. Thank you. When I was in high school, I watched many films, many about the Holocaust. There was one that always haunted me. Schindler's List is a film that rocked me to the core, from the moment that a man was shot and killed in front of the factory for being a Jew and Schindler saying: "Remind me to get a new worker." To the scene of the girl in the red dress, one of the few symbolism's in color in a black and white film that shook him not only to the core, but changed his whole outlook in the Holocaust. To Schindler in the end, facing all his grateful workers who give him a ring with the words: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Broke down in tears of regret and pain in the fact he couldn't do more to save the countless thousands of workers which he spent his entire fortune that he amassed in bribes to save them. It is probably the most powerful and accurate films out there talking about the Holocaust. I highly recommend it to anyone.
Off topic but still sort of in; When we were going over the holocaust the movie that was mentioned the most for it was; Life Is Beautiful. I think thats what it was called it was a movie based in Italy I believe about a jewish italian named Guido (Found him very likable) the movie is really good but emotional at points along with that there is boy in striped pajamas (i think it's called that) about a middle class german family who lives close to an execution camp one day a boy meets another across the fence and they become friends though I'm pretty sure most people have seen this movie. I've heard of schindlers list but I don't think i've watched it yet.
You should, it's an AMAZING movie... Steven Spielburg did a fantastic job, and this one violin piece playing during the whole movie haunts you. He covers the holocaust and the cruelty of man to the core, but shows at the same time the goodness of humanity trying to counter it. I remember another movie that I can't remember the name of. It was in my German class I watched it. It was about a Jewish teenager who lived in Germany during WWII. When the Nazis captured his whole family when he was bathing he escaped through the window and managed to survive the whole war hiding the fact he was a Jew. Even at one point fighting for the Nazi's to survive despite all the hate he had to listen to during training and on the field for his religion. One scene he actually was in a classroom listening to the teacher saying that Jews heads were a different size than others and him measuring his head at random and saying it was perfect, and that's one of the things they should look for was larger heads. There were several powerful scenes in the film, like one where he was on a train and saw a group of Jews being beaten in a ghetto. The raw pain on his face and him calling for his mother I'll never forget. Or when he was bathing in a farmhouse as a soldier and his Nazi buddy did a prank on him and he completely panicked due to his circumcision being evident that he was a Jew, which his friend not only apologized, but kept the secret and helped him out until he died during the war in front of him. Or just in the end when he found his brother at a camp at the end of the war and they left the USSR. It was a powerful film that I never forgot. EDIT: Changed the title to something more appropriate.
In my 8th grade world history class, we watched a movie that took place after the war, where German citizens took tours of the concentration camps. They saw the living conditions as well as what the surivivors looked like after the whole ordeal. This was all archival footage done by the US Military to document everything so no one could prove that this didn't happen. It's all in black and white, but it's very haunting film, and not for the faint of heart. Thinking about it, I'm still shaken to the core about the images of men who you could see their skeletal structure through their skin. Life is Beautiful is also a great film. I will say that the dubbing is pretty cheesy because of when it was dubbed, but I think that adds an element to the film that makes it even more haunting and something to remember. It still showed the darkness of what happened, but it took a very different look on it all. It's very tragic, uplifting, and probably one of the most beautiful endings I've seen done on film. There is an old version of The Diary of Anne Frank that I saw several years ago. It was obviously based off the play, but you could tell that this version was made for film. I felt that it was well put together, really conveyed the struggles in the secret annex, and was very touching. There's also a BBC version of The Diary of Anne Frank on Netflix, and while it explores other thing about Anne Frank (essentially adapting the diary and not the play), it felt like it missed the whole point of her story. The first time I saw Schindler's List was only a few months ago. I knew how it's a tough film to get through, and the reason I watched it is probably not the same reason most people do. I watched it to see why it's such a landmark in film-making, not because it's a Holocaust story. That being said, I couldn't help but feel so impacted for what was going on. It didn't flinch away from the dark elements of what happened. A part of me felt that many of the violent scenes were unneeded because it didn't add to the story, but another part told me that they were needed, to show what these people were going through, and why what Schindler did was so important. I feel I need to watch the movie again, to study it as a film, but it's very hard to. I mean, when that solider shoots that woman in the head, I honestly forget that these are actors and actresses and feel like I was a witness to murder. One movie I want to see is Downfall. Yes, my interest is peaked because of the meme, but from what I've heard, the movie is really great, and gives an interesting look at another perspective of the situation. It reminds me of that post on tumblr, where it's two gifs of Hitler's home videos and he's flirting with his wife. It's absolutely haunting because this man who everyone compares to the Devil (and rightly so) was also human; he loved, he cried, and was just like us. That thought is terrifying.
An interview w/Steven Spielburg on Schindler's List: WARNING: It shows some graphic moments of the movie. For me, it's very hard to watch, he said himself that he could've never gotten through making this film without his family. Which I understand, when he speaks about learning numbers from Austrian Holocaust survivors who his aunt was teaching English by the tattoos on their arms... I just had to stop watching the interview...
I saw it in highschool, I think it' s mandatory for every French student to watch it. I can still recall a few shots vividly. Words fail to describe it, no horror movie will ever begin to compare to that. My grandma has been invited to tell her stories in public schools a few times, her dad was a leader in the resistance and got decorated twice for it. No way in hell she' ll ever watch Schindler' s List. When the nazis invaded her town she was riding back from school on her bycicle. She stopped abruptly when she noticed there was a tank right in the middle of the bridge, its canon pointed at her. She saw two nazis ask a question in German to a pedestrian, he didn' t speak a word of German so they shot him on the spot. She rang her bycicle bell and crossed the bridge, looking straight ahead, praying she' d make it to the other end.
Wow... That's amazing, Patman... I know this isn't film, but have any of you guys seen Band of Brothers: Why we fight? When they enter the concentration camp? That whole scene sends a chill down my spine and tears down my face. I can only imagine the soldiers, tired of the war and feeling somewhat triumphant at the same time entering those camps and seeing it for the first time what really happened during the war. I also remember a film we had to watch in German class, about how there was a boatload of Jews sent to the U.S. before the Holocaust fully started and was turned back. The teacher showed us to make us wonder if the U.S. knew what was going on. The film also went heavily into what it was like back then in the U.S. and their feelings towards the Jewish people as to why they were turned back. An interesting fact: Before and during WWII, the Jewish community was the third most hated group in the United States. Behind Japan and Germany, that's what I remember most about the film.
Have you seen The Pianist? I don't know how accurate it was the German soldiers treating the Jew in the town but one scene was where a soldier broke into one of the Jews apartment rooms, made them all stand up but one man couldn't because he was in a wheelchair and very old. They PICKED the wheelchair up with the guy IN IT and just tipped him over the 15th floor balcony along with the chair. Few minutes later took the rest of the family down to the ground floor and made them run then shot them.
