Schindler's List

            ‘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
 

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.