As possibly the world's most influential film-maker, Spielberg has a responsibility. And that responsibility entails NOT using his cheesy, shallow sensibilities to turn one of the most profoundly horrible parts of human history into a soap opera-style piece of fluff. This film is more than just a bad film, it is a downright dangerously bad film that will be watched by millions of impressionable people who might have had few other sources to base their knowledge of the Holocaust on. Most of us agree that the worst thing to do about something like the Holocaust is to forget it, lest it happen again. The next worst thing is to trivialise it to the point where it resembles so many other Hollywood pieces of trash.
What possesses a man who has become rich and powerful in the film industry solely through the making of shallow, transparent films for children to think that he is talented and wise enough to present to the masses a subject which should only be touched by the most careful and socially responsible hands? A Mid-life crisis, and an over-inflated ego, most likely, not that it matters though.
Only someone with many years of study may be a doctor; only an experienced engineer may build a bridge, and even the guy who fixes your toilet must be a qualified plumber. Yet this fool, whose only previous qualifications have been cheap, shallow, movies made strictly for entertainment, thinks he is in a rightful position to educate our children. Because, unfortunately, many people have a frighteningly limited amount of knowledge about the second world war, and Schindler's List will be for many of them their main source of information. Showing it to them in as cheesy and hollow a fashion as almost only Spielberg can, is simply a crime.
What possesses a man who has become rich and powerful in the film industry solely through the making of shallow, transparent films for children to think that he is talented and wise enough to present to the masses a subject which should only be touched by the most careful and socially responsible hands? A Mid-life crisis, and an over-inflated ego, most likely, not that it matters though.
Only someone with many years of study may be a doctor; only an experienced engineer may build a bridge, and even the guy who fixes your toilet must be a qualified plumber. Yet this fool, whose only previous qualifications have been cheap, shallow, movies made strictly for entertainment, thinks he is in a rightful position to educate our children. Because, unfortunately, many people have a frighteningly limited amount of knowledge about the second world war, and Schindler's List will be for many of them their main source of information. Showing it to them in as cheesy and hollow a fashion as almost only Spielberg can, is simply a crime.