Schindler's List

[Borg]

Watched this film again over this past weekend....what a powerful movie.

Now,...there aren't many films that I would want as "required" viewing for my daughters. But, I have an 18 year old daughter, that I might have to have a sort of...movie/lesson night and have her watch it.

However, there are a couple of uncomfortable sex scenes that I am a bit unnerved by...but the movie is such a powerful movie to bring home an atrocity that is ever fading into history, and the reality of such evil becomes more and more unbelievable to younger people.

What are your thoughts about having younger family members see this film?

[Jacob]

I guess I've only seen an edited version. No sex scenes that I can recall and yet somehow still a very powerful film.

[SeattleUte]

18 is old enough.

[Green Lantern]

Watched this film again over this past weekend....what a powerful movie.

Now,...there aren't many films that I would want as "required" viewing for my daughters. But, I have an 18 year old daughter, that I might have to have a sort of...movie/lesson night and have her watch it.

However, there are a couple of uncomfortable sex scenes that I am a bit unnerved by...but the movie is such a powerful movie to bring home an atrocity that is ever fading into history, and the reality of such evil becomes more and more unbelievable to younger people.

What are your thoughts about having younger family members see this film?

When that film was in theaters, a local businessman paid a bunch of money to what is now the Broadway theater and asked that any high school senior be able to see the movie free of charge. So that's when I saw it. I would have been an immature 17 years old and yet the movie still had a powerful effect. I don't recall the message of the the movie being diluted by the sex scenes.

[Tim]

Watched this film again over this past weekend....what a powerful movie.

Now,...there aren't many films that I would want as "required" viewing for my daughters. But, I have an 18 year old daughter, that I might have to have a sort of...movie/lesson night and have her watch it.

However, there are a couple of uncomfortable sex scenes that I am a bit unnerved by...but the movie is such a powerful movie to bring home an atrocity that is ever fading into history, and the reality of such evil becomes more and more unbelievable to younger people.

What are your thoughts about having younger family members see this film?

Just to be clear, you're not referring to the scenes of the people being forced to line up naked in the large open area of the concentration camp as "sex scenes." There was nothing sexy or even sex-related about those scenes. I assume by "sex scenes" you're referring to the couple of scenes that involved Göth and his mistress. I think it was critical to show the way he so freely and insensitively went on with his twisted, sad life while in the canyon below him thousands of innocent people were made to suffer. I believe one of those scenes was followed by Göth standing on his balcony and indiscriminately picking off random people with a sniper rifle.

Show it to her. She needs to see that inhumanity starts and resides on an individual level, not just in the philosophical description of a broad movement like "Nazism."

[Borg]

Just to be clear, you're not referring to the scenes of the people being forced to line up naked in the large open area of the concentration camp as "sex scenes." There was nothing sexy or even sex-related about those scenes. I assume by "sex scenes" you're referring to the couple of scenes that involved Göth and his mistress. I think it was critical to show the way he so freely and insensitively went on with his twisted, sad life while in the canyon below him thousands of innocent people were made to suffer. I believe one of those scenes was followed by Göth standing on his balcony and indiscriminately picking off random people with a sniper rifle.

Show it to her. She needs to see that inhumanity starts and resides on an individual level, not just in the philosophical description of a broad movement like "Nazism."

Yes...this: "Göth and his mistress".

[Mormon Red Death]

When that film was in theaters, a local businessman paid a bunch of money to what is now the Broadway theater and asked that any high school senior be able to see the movie free of charge. So that's when I saw it. I would have been an immature 17 years old and yet the movie still had a powerful effect. I don't recall the message of the the movie being diluted by the sex scenes.

I think he paid for every high school senior at any salt lake movie theatre to see it. I saw it at the century theatres on state and 33rd south.

[Green Lantern]

I think he paid for every high school senior at any salt lake movie theatre to see it. I saw it at the century theatres on state and 33rd south.

Oh really? The old dome theaters? Cool. Why the hell did I drive all the way down town? It was snowing like crazy.

[old_gregg]

When that film was in theaters, a local businessman paid a bunch of money to what is now the Broadway theater and asked that any high school senior be able to see the movie free of charge. So that's when I saw it. I would have been an immature 17 years old and yet the movie still had a powerful effect. I don't recall the message of the the movie being diluted by the sex scenes.

that is really cool.

[pellegrino]

This is a must see for everyone. I'd add to it Liliana Cavani's 1974 film The Night Porter and I'd also recommend Vittorio De Sica's 1970 The Garden of the Finzi-Contini. De Sica's was highly acclaimed (Oscars for best adaptation, best foreign film) but it has its faults. Cavani's film is highly controversial because ofu sexual content. The 70s saw attempts in German and Italian cinema to deal with fascism and its problems. If anyone is interested I can provide a list

If your kids like to read and you want them to understand the inhumanity and tragedy of the Shoah then they should also read Primo Levi's If this is a Man. I think this surpasses Elie Wiesel's Nightfor its complexity and beautiful poetry.

[thesaint258]

I don't really have anything to say about the movie, but it reminded me of an experience on my mission. I went to Mauthausen, which is located pretty close to Linz. As bad as places like Auschwitz were, Mauthausen was worse. It was designed as a labor camp for the educated and upper classes of Europe, and it was the only camp in Europe used for the Nazis' political enemies (later POWs and prisoners from other camps were sent to Mauthausen). It and its sub-camps were also supposed to provide the stone for the massive rebuilding of Berlin and Linz that Hitler wanted to start.

When you walk around, there are plaques all over the walls stating that a person or persons were executed in a certain spot. Today, only a few of the barracks still stand. Most of them are gone now, replaced by mass graves. The camp had sections of barracks walled off, and now signs in the entrance to each section tell you how many people are buried in that small plot of land. Just outside the camp's walls is the quarry. Prisoners were forced to carry rocks up the "Stairs of Death" which were very uneven steps (some were up to two feet high). When the steps were filled with people, guards at the top would shoot someone or push a prisoner back, toppling everyone behind them, killing and injuring many. They also threw people off the edges of the quarry.

It's hard to describe how you feel when you go there. It's somber, and in some ways it's hard to believe that so many people died there, let alone suffered there. I remember hearing and reading the stories of the kinds of torture those people endured, and it amazes me that there are people who can do those kinds of things to others. I think it's important to remember that there are such people, and I think it's important to remember the people who suffered at their hands simply because of a religion, a social status, or a certain viewpoint.

If any of you are in central Europe, you should take the opportunity to visit a concentration camp. It's really an experience.

[Borg]

258-
Excellent recount of your experience, thanks.

I have often wondered, in a gospel sense, what the responsibilities and what the correct response of the lowest rank of the guards are/were?

You would have to know that what you are doing, or have been ordered to do, is so so wrong. But to disobey an order is death to you as a soldier.

I would have begged to be sent to the Russian front or other main battlefield rather than have to endure treating people in such ways.

Truly, that is what life on earth would be like totally void of the Spirit of Christ. Watching that film, and knowing what events went on, I can just imagine the adversary just watching......and laughing. So sad.

[wuapinmon]

14 and up is fine for that movie. When you can grasp cruelty and why it's truly wrong, you're ready. The sex scene doesn't show any sex, just some boobs, which aren't going to turn most people to stone.

This is a must see for everyone. I'd add to it Liliana Cavani's 1974 film The Night Porter and I'd also recommend Vittorio De Sica's 1970 The Garden of the Finzi-Contini. De Sica's was highly acclaimed (Oscars for best adaptation, best foreign film) but it has its faults. Cavani's film is highly controversial because ofu sexual content. The 70s saw attempts in German and Italian cinema to deal with fascism and its problems. If anyone is interested I can provide a list

If your kids like to read and you want them to understand the inhumanity and tragedy of the Shoah then they should also read Primo Levi's If this is a Man. I think this surpasses Elie Wiesel's Nightfor its complexity and beautiful poetry.

Primo Levi's The Periodic Table is another great book about Auschwitz.

[pellegrino]

Primo Levi's The Periodic Table is another great book about Auschwitz.

it is, but for me it just doesn't have the immediacy that If this is a Man does. For me, If people are only going to read one, then that has to be his survival story. The Periodic Table shows a mature Levi, much more thorough in his analyses of the human psyche, but there's just something about If this is a Man that gives a sense of urgency in its narration that I didn't feel with The Periodic Table. It's as though Levi is going to burst if he doesn't tell you the story, it's that important to him.

[happyone]

... It's hard to describe how you feel when you go there. It's somber, and in some ways it's hard to believe that so many people died there, let alone suffered there. ...

If any of you are in central Europe, you should take the opportunity to visit a concentration camp. It's really an experience.

I'll echo these sentiments. As a teenager, I visited the concentration camp at Dachau outside of Munich twice, once in 8th grade and again in 10th on school field trips.

At the time, the admin areas had been restored along with the gas chamber and crematorium, but only one of the prisoner barracks had been rebuilt. The admin areas had been made into a museum with artifacts and photos

Looking at the sign over the main gate that read "Arbiet mach frie" (SP) the irony of it really made an impression on me