How 'Schindlers List' changed Steven Spielberg

Up until the early 90’s, Steven Spielberg was acclaimed as being a great escapist director whos films were just fantasy based and were nothing more than just a good watch but it all changed in 1993 when Spielberg came up with ‘Schindlers List’ a film which changed the course for the director who went from having a disney-esque feel to becoming a serious thought provoking director. This article follows how the film changed peoples perception of Steven Spielberg.

Half an hour into ‘Schindler’s List, the highly emotional epic detailing the horror that was the Holocaust you completely forget that this is directed by the same man that gave us a film starring a whip-cracking archaeologist chasing after the Holy Grail. This film is undoubtedly one of the most powerful films ever made, no joke, but perhaps the most surprising part of this production is that Spielberg has directed it and directed it good. Upon hearing the news that Spielberg would make a film based on one of the most shocking events in history I was a bit sceptical as to how a man who is, at this point, famous for his escapism type films like ‘Close Encounters’, ‘E.T Extra Terrestrial’ and the ‘Indiana Jones’ trilogy was going to approach making this film because despite Spielberg’s undoubted talent he just didn’t seem to fit the bill. Then I saw the film.

I was blown away by the sheer brilliance of it all: how Spielberg put you right in the middle of the action, I was in awe of the decision to put the film almost entirely in black and white: giving the film a documentary feel. After sitting through this film I was left thinking ‘Wow, if Spielberg didn’t get an Oscar for that then he never will’, thankfully he did. I was surprised to learn that this was his first award for best director despite being nominated three times previously for ‘Close Encounters’, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and ‘E.T’ he has always been beaten to the award. I was left perplexed as to how for instance ‘Jaws’, for all it’s nail-biting, adrenalin-filled action was never acclaimed for it’s masterful directing. I was baffled at how ‘Close Encounters’, a film most remembered for its fantastic stand-out images was never been given the coveted Best Director award. Why? Despite being very different in almost every way, ‘Close Encounters’ and ‘Schindler’s List’ are both, I feel, worthy of similar acclaim.

Of course it was ‘Schindlers List’ that was the first of Spielberg’s more serious films, who could forget the harrowing war time film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or even a more recent attempt ‘Munich’. So maybe Spielberg realised that to be taken seriously as a director he would have to break the mould and do something bold, controversial and different to have his film recognised, which probably tells us that as an audience that we like to see a lot more risqué films that are out the ordinary, films that don’t follow the obvious Hollywood narrative because, believe me, with ‘Schindlers List’ is probably Hollywood’s finest hour and it doesn’t even feel like a Hollywood film.