MovieChat Forums > Schindler's List (1994) Discussion > A passive crowd

A passive crowd

posted 9 years ago by ngkpedrosa
11 replies | jump to latest

Is it me, or do you think the crowd in the last scene was too passive and unconvincing? No one cried or laugh in euphoria when hearing the german's defeat. Only a few women cried when seeing Schindler's breakdown as if the rest of them didn't feel the man's sadness.

I think this is the most important scene of the movie. Spielberg should have prolonged the scene with the crowd bathed in tears, all hugging and hailing the hero, etc.

If the scene was made that way, I think no one will be able to save the tears after watching it.

[–] fud-slush 9 years ago

...but this wasn't like hearing the news whilst ambling through Times Square, it was about hearing it after years of hell; of seeing friends & family murdered or starved, tortured, butchered, & raped again & again. You can't suddenly ignore all that & start jumping around like a kid going to Disneyland.

Spielberg is hardly a stranger to sentimental scenes, but perhaps he was simply recreating roughly what happened at the factory. I'm sure some of them did feel for him, but I think there's still a reasonable chance they had other things on their mind too.

[–] RomaVictorrrr 9 years ago

Hold on. Had Spielberg done a joyous, victorious scene, we'd defend that, too. And who knows how people truly reacted in real life?

You can try to reason it if you want to, but it's not necessarily "realistic" to make it a downer ending. It's not necessarily "historical" either as far as i know. It's Spielberg's careful handling of the audience's emotions and his well-honed and varied storytelling techniques.

A joyous scene would've given us a sense of closure (which I would've preferred), but that's probably the opposite of what the movie was going for. Spielberg made a deft, artistic move keeping it anti-climactic and focusing on one question: What MORE could Schindler (and by extension, we in the audience) have done?

[–] fud-slush 9 years ago

There's was no way they could have ever felt any sort of closure at that moment, & I'm not sure what you mean by anti-climactic...wasn't the the women & children not going to the gas chambers climax enough? I thought it a reasonably strong one; the factory scene afterwards was more of a coda.

I wasn't expecting to feel any personal closure...what closure could there possibly be after a movie about the Holocaust? I don't think I could ever feel any personal closure on the Holocaust, & if there were, there'd be something wrong with me. I can't imagine any Jew alive today who survived it has had any either. There was no way a film like that would seek to give the audience closure anyway; it's not about entertaining them.

I'd only defend a joyous scene if that had actually happened, but there's no way it would have done. Perhaps it was based on personal testimony. Any sense of relief or happiness would have been experienced when they arrived at the factory, months before. Of course there'd have been a little more relief when the war was officially announced as over, but then where do they go? No homes, miles from anywhere, friends & relatives wiped out, the unearthly horrors of camp life still fresh in one's mind, fear, suicidal tendencies...would you be jumping up & down with glee? I wouldn't.

[–] RomaVictorrrr 9 years ago

I meant "Anticlimactic" only in regard to the original post and that scene, not the overall movie. The OP was expecting something more from that scene and instead got the somber ending. I meant "Closure" only in terms of THIS movie, not the entire Holocaust. Heaven forbid anyone feel any closure on the Holocaust.

I'd only defend a joyous scene if that had actually happened, but there's no way it would have done. Perhaps it was based on personal testimony.

If Spielberg had done a joyous scene, would you assume it actually happened that way and defend it as such? Maybe we should look up some personal testimony. I'd like to know, but I think it was a purely artistic decision made by good screenwriters and filmmakers.

If I had been taken from my home, labeled as an enemy in the country I grew up in, forced to emigrate when i didn't want to, ending up in a concentration camp where people die, having to work in a factory where death is possibly waiting for me right outside the door, and was suddenly told the war was over...

Uhhhh, yeah, i'd be jumping up and down with glee singing Hallelujah. Or Hava Nagila!

But that's just me.

[–] ngkpedrosa 9 years ago

No that's not just you. I believe everyone would have done the same in that situation.

They were told that they no longer need to work for their life, be pointed with a gun, abused and humiliated. Finally liberated. That is really something

I think people in real life would not think of something else after hearing such great news. I myself would be jumping and crying unconsciously.

That is why I think the scene could be made more realistic. After we saw all of their suffering and Schindler's sacrifice, a heavy emotional scene will be a perfect closure to the movie.

[–] this_seat_taken 9 years ago

The war's end and liberation were expected, the workers listened to radio broadcasts. They were conditioned to not celebrate because they were afraid to do anything that would anger the guards. At Plaszow, a simple wedding ceremony was done quietly so the guards wouldn't hear it. At Brinnlitz, Schindler warned the guards to stay away from the factory floor, and that they would be fined for killing a worker. He had to bribe the guards, who listened in amazement to a Shabbat song that Schindler permitted. If Goeth was in charge, the guards would have crushed a celebration of anything.

[–] RomaVictorrrr 9 years ago

Fud-slush thinks it's because they were too rattled to celebrate.

You think it's because they were conditioned not to celebrate.

Which is it? Do you have any evidence from that scene in particular that shows they were still afraid of the guards? Wouldn't it have been even more triumphant that after all these years of fearing the guards, they suddenly had nothing to fear. And it was the guards themselves that needed to fear.

I don't know. I think Fud-slush's reasoning has a bit more weight.

But I still think a celebratory scene would've been very uplifting for the audience but Spielberg had the exact opposite intention--to NOT give us closure, to keep us disturbed by it, and wondering what more we could have done. Maybe for us to feel guilty, too, but I could be reaching there.

[–] arcooper 8 years ago

I'm not sure about Schindler's camp, but in most camps the prisoners were too weak to do much of anything at that point.

I know in general society in Nazi-occupied territories, people danced in the streets after they were liberated.

[–] ngkpedrosa 9 years ago

Ok so I went to youtube and found a video titled "Oskar Schindler - Part 6, A&E Biography on Oskar Schindler by Martin Kent"

At 4:17 one of the survivor named Sol Urbach testified that after Schindler brought the news about the liberation, everyone went emotional.

[–] RomaVictorrrr 9 years ago

Ooh, good work. Nice documentary, too.

The survivor says it all and now that sounds like a good ending, AND a more realistic one.

Spielberg purposely went the other way.

[–] fit_ov_fury 8 years ago

I think this is the most important scene of the movie. Spielberg should have prolonged the scene with the crowd bathed in tears, all hugging and hailing the hero, etc.

maybe thats why he's a film maker and you're not.