Schindler’s List (1993)
98%RT Audience Score: 97%
Awards & Nominations: Won 7 Oscars
91 wins & 49 nominations total
Schindler’s List blends the abject horror of the Holocaust with Steven Spielberg’s signature tender humanism to create the director’s dramatic masterpiece.
Schindler’s List is like a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but instead of loops and drops, it’s a gut-wrenching journey through the horrors of the Holocaust. Steven Spielberg really outdid himself with this one, managing to balance the heart-wrenching tragedy with his signature touch of humanity. It’s like watching a beautiful painting being slowly destroyed, but somehow still managing to find hope in the midst of the destruction. This movie is a true masterpiece, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful cinematic experiences of all time.
Production Company(ies)
Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment,
Distributor
Universal Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Wide)
Filming Location(s)
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Malopolskie, Poland
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for language, some sexuality and actuality violence
Year of Release
1994
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:NA
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Runtime:3h 15m
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Language(s):English, Hebrew, German, Polish, Latin
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 15, 1993 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2008
Genre(s)
History/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Embeth Davidtz, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Steven Zaillian, produced by Branko Lustig, Gerald R Molen, Steven Spielberg, History, Drama, R rating, box office gross $96.6M, reviewed by Eleanor Ringel Cater, Susan Stark, Henry Sheehan, Michael H Price, Joe Pollack, Philip Strick, James Wegg, Quentin Falk, Ron Weiskind, Lawrence Toppman, Steve Persall, Holocaust, World War II, Nazi party, Jewish workers, Krakow ghetto, Amon Goeth, Itzhak Stern, Emilie Schindler, Poldek Pfefferberg, Helen Hirsch, Dolby Atmos, Stereo, Dolby Digital, DTS, Surround, Universal Pictures
Worldwide gross: $322,161,245
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $651,772,590
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 199
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 71,076,618
US/Canada gross: $96,898,818
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $196,038,458
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 361
US/Canada opening weekend: $656,636
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $1,328,457
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,249
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $22,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $44,508,758
Production budget ranking: 876
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $23,967,966
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $583,295,865
ROI to date (est.): 852%
ROI ranking: 149
Ben Kingsley – Itzhak Stern
Ralph Fiennes – Amon Goeth
Caroline Goodall – Emilie Schindler
Jonathan Segal – Poldek Pfefferberg
Embeth Davidtz – Helen Hirsch
Director – Steven Spielberg
Producer – Branko Lustig, Gerald R. Molen, Steven Spielberg
Writer – Steven Zaillian
Director(s)
Steven Spielberg
Writer(s)
Steven Zaillian
Producer(s)
Branko Lustig, Gerald R. Molen, Steven Spielberg
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 7 Oscars
91 wins & 49 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (129) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (126) | Rotten (3)
Using every ounce of his awe some technical skill, the man who sent T. rex and Indiana Jones racing through our imagination brings us a story of human horror beyond imagination.
April 15, 2021
Eleanor Ringel Cater
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TOP CRITIC
Once in a very great while, a movie insinuates itself so deeply into your consciousness that it offers not vicarious experience but instead, direct experience. Steven Spielberg’s heartfelt, monumental Schindler’s List is such a movie.
April 15, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Susan Stark
Detroit Free Press
TOP CRITIC
This is a movie that succeeds brilliantly not just in bringing a terrible chapter in history back to life, but in meticulously depicting the processes through which a self-obsessed and immature man becomes integrated and responsible.
April 15, 2021 | Rating: A
Henry Sheehan
Orange County Register
TOP CRITIC
There are enough “Spielbergian” set pieces and incidental touches to keep Schindler accessible to those who believe that the best Spielberg is the perky Spielberg of the E.T. and Indiana Jones romps.
April 15, 2021 | Rating: 8/10
Michael H. Price
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
TOP CRITIC
Liam Neeson is a splendid Schindler, tall, handsome, devil-may-care and a poker-playing genius. Ben Kingsley, as Itzhak Stern, Schindler’s accountant and chief aide, is as brilliant as ever, and Ralph Fiennes is evil and powerful as Amon Goeth.
April 15, 2021
Joe Pollack
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
TOP CRITIC
A near-documentary, brilliantly designed and choreographed, [and] a character study in which Ralph Fiennes, the winningly urbane Liam Neeson, and the magnificently impassive Ben Kingsley attain a memorable dramatic intensity.
April 15, 2021
Philip Strick
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
It’s a bad business
May 5, 2022 | Rating: 5/5
James Wegg
JWR
Steven Spielberg’s triumphant Schindler’s List is a remarkable and moving memorial to an historical Holocaust. It is also a timely reminder of what genocide and “ethnic cleansing” really mean. But, above all, it is a cracking movie.
March 7, 2022 | Rating: 5/5
Quentin Falk
Sunday Mirror (UK)
How does one comprehend the magnitude of the Holocaust? Remarkably, Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List defines the horror of Hitler’s “final solution” on vividly human terms without diminishing its scope or impact.
April 15, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Ron Weiskind
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Few films have ever dealt so chillingly with what philosopher Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil.”
April 15, 2021 | Rating: 3.5/4
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer
A towering cinematic accomplishment from director Steven Spielberg that left all other 1993 films in its wake.
April 15, 2021 | Rating: A+
Steve Persall
Tampa Bay Times
Spielberg’s dazzlingly modulated epic Schindler’s List is nothing less than astonishing.
April 15, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Michael MacCambridge
Austin American-Statesman…
Plot
Oskar Schindler is a vain and greedy German businessman who becomes an unlikely humanitarian amid the barbaric German Nazi reign when he feels compelled to turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler who managed to save about 1100 Jews from being gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, it is a testament to the good in all of us.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Liam Neeson delivers his best performance to date as the layered Schindler.
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