‘Schindler's List’ is a 1993 historical film directed by Steven
Spielberg. The film starring Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley as
Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern, and Ralph Fiennes as cruel and
heartless Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Amon Goeth. The film had won seven Academy
Awards in categories such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted
Screenplay, and Best Original Score. The film was basically adapted from the
novel ‘Schindler's Ark’ by Australian novelist, Thomas Keneally. As the name of
novel suggested, the storyline was similar with Noah’s Ark where Oskar
Schindler save the lives of 1,200 Jewish people during the Holocaust from Nazi
Germany by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories.
The film did portray the obedience in which one following
the order of an authority (Ciccarelli & White, 2014). As we can see in the
film, Amon Goeth ordered his fellow officer to shot an educated girl for
complaining regarding the mistake in the construction of Plaszow concentration
camp. And the officer also without hesitating shot at the girl’s head following
the order given by Amon Goeth. We can see the obedience did illustrate
throughout the film, for example in event where the Nazi Army follows the
orders by killing hundreds of Jewish children and burning their dead bodies
like a dump rubbish. And also they follow the order by strip off the cloths of
the Jewish women and humiliate their naked bodies. The film also portrays
Operant Conditioning especially positive punishments where behavior occurs
following by a stimulus to decrease the behavior. In the case of this film, the
stimulus is fear of death. The Jewish people were living in the fear of being
killed by the Nazi Army and reduce their mistakes in their daily routine as the
Amon Goeth did not considered to pardon their mistakes and always just simply
killed them. One best example was Helen Hirsch, the maid working in Amon Goeth
house who is physically and mentally tortured as a sex slave and always in the
fear of being punished by her master.
The film also did portray self-determination theory in
term of Relatedness, where someone wanted to be universally interact, connected
to, and experience caring for others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). In the
beginning of film, Oskar Schindler seems only interested in earning profits
from his business. But, after he saw the Nazi liquidation of the Ghetto from
the hill top, especially the little girl with red coat running to hide herself,
he became a changed man who’s only concern was to save as many Jewish lives as
he can. He willing to spend his fortune to bribes few Schutzstaffel officers
including Amon Goeth and Rudolf Hoss to move his 1,200 Jewish workers to a new
munitions factory he plans to build in his home town of Zwittau-Brinnlitz. He
even forbids the SS guards to enter the factory at there. He also bribes few more
officials in buying shell casings from other companies in order to keep his
workers alive since his factory does not produce any armaments during its running.
By the time Nazi surrender in 1945, Schindler was run out of his fortune but
the Jewish people from his list was alive. His caring for Jewish people can be
seen clearly when he regret for didn’t save few more Jewish by selling his car
and his gold Nazi badge. His act of saving 1,200 Jewish that day, contributes
four thousands of Jewish people still live in Poland today. Even though Oskar
Schindler is not alive today, but he is still living in the hearth of Jewish
descendants.
Personally, I am not a black & white movie person,
but after watching the film until the end, it made me realize how much
suffering and pain did the people went through during Adolf Hitler’s Nazi invasion
during World War II. This made me to appreciate my life and what I am having
with me right now. I liked this movie even though it’s running time more than
3-hours. I would give rating 6.5 out of 10 for this movie.
References
References
Baumeister, R. & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for
interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.
doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
Ciccarelli, S. K., & White, J. N. (2014). Psychology. United States of
America: Pearson Education Limited.
