Holocaust Movies

29 December 2008

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The Holocaust will be an event in history that will never be forgotten and the pain for so many families will never fade. Yet this subject is one that has long since fascinated filmmakers resulting in a string of movies that have tried to uncover and understand what happened.

And 2009 is no different as The Reader is just one of many World War II movies that have and will grace cinema screens over coming weeks. Starring Kate Winslet the film is an adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's novel that looks at the difficulties other generations have with trying to comprehend the Holocaust.

In Ricky Gervais' Extras Winslet joked that any actor that took on a role linked to this topic won an Oscar... and this time she might be right.

FemaleFirst looked backed at this genre of film to highlight some of the best movies that have covered this topic.

Schindler's List

bringing together a high caliber cast of Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes Schindler's List was Steven Spielberg's epic drama of World War II Holocaust survivors and the man who unexpectedly came to be their saviour.

Unrepentant womaniser and war profiteer Oskar Schindler uses Polish Jews as cheap labour to produce cookware for the Third Reich. But after witnessing the violent liquidation of the walled ghetto where the Krakow Jews have been forced to live, Schindler slowly begins to realize the immense evil of Nazism.

When his employees are sent to a work camp, they come under the terrorizing reign of sadistic Nazi Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes). With the help of his accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), Schindler creates a list of "essential" Jews.

Bribing Goeth, Schindler manages to get 1,100 people released from the camp and brought to the safety of his munitions factory in Czechoslovakia.

Despite it's topic the film was a commercial hit as well as being critically acclaimed, going on to win seven Oscars including Best Picture and best Director for Spielberg.

The Pianist

Similar to Schindler's List Roman Polanski's The Pianist was based on the memoirs of talented pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, played by Adrien Brody.

Szpilman is a tall, handsome, winsome man who is revered for his piano performances on public radio. He lives with his family, an intelligent, loving, and spirited bunch, in an upscale flat in central Warsaw. Bombings have begun to torment the citizens of Warsaw, and step by step, the Nazis infiltrate, the Jews are branded and set apart from their neighbours, imprisoned in a ghetto, and slowly exterminated.

The story is told through Szpilman's eyes, and thus carries as much confusion and fear as disgust and torment. Polanski paints Warsaw in bleak shades of grey and black, expressing the helplessness of the Jewish people and the cruelty of the Nazis with captivating photography.

In the second half of the film, which takes place in the early 1940s, Szpilman is alone, having managed to avoid the trains to the death camps.

His struggle to survive, with some help from non-Jews but mostly his own will to thrive, takes place in long, silent, languid stretches filled with the imagined piano music that inspires Szpilman to live.

The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to be nominated for seven Oscars. Despite missing out on Best Picture Adrien Brody scooped Best Actor and best Director for Polanski.

More Holocaust Movies on page 2