Nazi hero

One of the more anticipated DVD releases comes to fruition 10 years after its theatrical run. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List will always stand as one of cinema’s most powerful and important achievements. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a shady businessman and Nazi party member who sought to profit off cheap labor during WWII and wound up saving the lives of over 1,100 Jews. While the Holocaust had been the subject of some movies before, none approached the horror as frankly as Spielberg’s film, uncompromising in its unpleasantness and violence. Audiences were introduced to Ralph Fiennes who played Amon Goeth, an actual Nazi commander who would arbitrarily shoot prisoners from his terrace. Images in this film burn themselves into the brain: A one armed man is shot in the street as he proclaims his worth as a worker; a child descends into a toilet to hide from soldiers. Spielberg directed both Schindler and Jurassic Park in the same year, which makes the success of both films all the more amazing.

Special Features: The two-sided disc isn’t packed with features, but it does include a stirring documentary, Voices from the Shoah List. Hosted by Spielberg, it features interviews with actual Schindler survivors, who give eyewitness accounts of the events covered in Schindler’s List.

Movie: A

Special Features: B

DVD Geek Factor: 9