War Horse

          The Official Synopsis:

From director Steven Spielberg comes “War Horse,” an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. “War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war—a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is arriving on Broadway next year. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

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Contagion

It starts with a cough. It ends with death on an unimaginable scale.

"Contagion," the new thriller by Steven Soderbergh, tells a story for our time, a story of raging menace and out of control fear. It offers us thirtysomething days in the life of a global pandemic, a lethal virus that travels like the wind and kills without a trace of mercy. This may not fit any conventional definition of entertainment, but it certainly keeps your eyes on the screen. -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles times

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Water for Elephants

The story is told as a series of memories by Jacob Jankowski, a "ninety or ninety-three year-old" man who lives in a nursing home. Jacob is told what to eat and what to do.

As the memories begin, Jacob Jankowski is twenty-three years old and preparing for his final exams as a Cornell University veterinary student when he receives the news that his parents were killed in a car accident. Jacob’s father was a veterinarian and Jacob had planned to join his practice. When Jacob learns that his father was deeply in debt because he had been treating animals for free as well as mortgaging the family home to provide Jacob an Ivy League education, he has a breakdown and leaves school just short of graduation. In the dark of night, he jumps on a train only to learn it is a circus train belonging to The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. When the owner of the circus, Uncle Al, learns of his training as a vet, he is hired to care for the circus animals. This consequently leads Jacob to share quarters with a dwarf named Walter (who is known as Kinko to the circus) and his dog Queenie. A few weeks later Jacob is summoned to take a look at Camel, an old man who, after drinking Jamaican ginger extract for many years, can't move his arms or legs. Fearing Camel will be "red-lighted" (referring to the practice of throwing circus workers off a moving train as either punishment or as severance from the circus to avoid paying wages),[3] he hides him in his room.

The head trainer, August, is a brutal man who abuses the animals in his care (such as the new elephant Rosie) as well as the people around him. Alternately, he can be utterly charming. Jacob develops a guarded relationship with August and his wife, Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love. August is suspicious of their relationship and beats Marlena and Jacob. Marlena subsequently leaves August and stays at a hotel while she's not performing. Uncle Al then informs Jacob that August is a paranoid schizophrenic and then utters a threat: reunite August and Marlena as a happily married couple or Walter and Camel get red-lighted.

A few days later after discovering that August has tried to see Marlena, Jacob visits her in her hotel room. Soon after he comforts her however, the couple sleep together and then eventually declare their love for each other. Marlena soon returns to the circus to perform (and also to have secret meetings with Jacob), but refuses to have August near her, which makes Earl and Blackie furious.

One night Jacob climbs up and jumps each car, while the train is moving, to August's room, carrying a knife between his teeth intending to kill August. However, Jacob backs out and returns to his car, only to find no one there but Queenie. He then realizes that Walter and Camel were red-lighted and Jacob himself was supposed to be too.

As the story climaxes, several circus workers who were red-lighted off the train come back and release the animals causing a stampede during the performance. In the ensuing panic, August is killed by Rosie the elephant, who plunges the stake which had secured her to the ground into his head. The only one who sees the incident is Jacob. As a result of this incident, which occurred during a circus performance, the circus is shut down. Soon after, Uncle Al's body is found with a makeshift garrote around his neck. Marlena and Jacob leave, along with several circus animals (Rosie, Queenie and others), and begin their life together.

Ninety-three year old Jacob is waiting for his family to take him to the circus. It is revealed that Jacob and Marlena married and had 5 children spending the first 7 years at another circus before Jacob got a job as a vet for the zoo. Marlena is revealed to have died a few years before Jacob was put into a nursing home. After finding out no one is coming for him, elderly Jacob goes to the circus on his own. He soon meets the manager Charlie and begs him to accompany the circus by selling tickets. Charlie agrees and Jacob believes he has finally come home.

Source: Wikipedia

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The American

Jack (Clooney), a seasoned assassin, is constantly on the move/under attack. After a job in Sweden ends in unexpected disaster (including a bullet to his girlfriend’s skull) Jack retreats to the Italian countryside to work on a more low-key assignment: constructing a weapon for a mysterious contact, Mathilde. Happy to finally reside in a danger-free zone, Jack befriends a local priest and falls in love with a local prostitute (very New Testament!). All seems relatively peaceful at surface level, but is it really possible for Jack to put his precarious existence as an international assassin on hold? Of course not!  (Plot summary by Screen Crave)

The Expendables

An all-star cast of action-movie icons headline Sylvester Stallone's explosive action thriller about a group of hard-nosed mercenaries who are double-crossed during a treacherous mission. Approached by the shadowy Church (Bruce Willis) to overthrow tyrannical South American dictator General Gaza (David Zayas) and restore order to the troubled island country of Vilena, stoic soldier of fortune Barney Ross (Stallone) rounds up an unstoppable team that includes former SAS soldier and blade specialist Lee Christmas (Jason Statham); martial arts expert Yin (Jet Li); trigger-happy Hale Caesar (Terry Crews); and cerebral demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture). Traveling to Vilena on a reconnaissance mission with his old pal Christmas, Barney meets their local contact, a cagey guerrilla fighter named Sandra (Giselle Itie), and together the trio scopes out the landscape.. It isn't long before Barney and Christmas have discovered that their actual target is not General Gaza but James Monroe (Eric Roberts), a former CIA operative who has recently gone rogue. Monroe won't be easy to get to either, because his hulking bodyguard Paine (Steve Austin) is a force to be reckoned with. When their mission is compromised, Barney and Christmas are forced to flee, leaving Sandra behind to face almost certain death. But Barney isn't the kind of soldier to abandon a mission, or a hostage, and now in order to get the job done he'll need the help of his old crew. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Inception

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an extractor. An extractor is an individual who steals information by tapping into a person’s deep subconscious during a dream. This is the new way of doing corporate espionage and Cobb is the best of his kind. Unfortunately, Cobb has been accused of killing his wife Mal and is unable to go back home due to his fugitive status. The story starts when Cobb has been hired by Cobalt Industries to extract confidential data from their business rival Saito (Ken Watanabe). When Cobb and his team fail to get the proper information from Saito, they are forced to flee for their safety from Cobalt. Saito catches up with them before they can leave and gives Cobb an offer he cannot resist. Saito demands that Cobb do an inception to Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) and in exchange he will be able to go back home to his family in the United States. Cobb agrees and he forms a stronger team to do the seemingly impossible job of controlling indirectly the thoughts of a different person without him even noticing.  (Summary by Reel Advice Movie Reviews)

Inception Movie Official Site

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

The story begins with the revelation that Seattle is being plagued by a string of unsolved murders, which Edward suspects to be the cause of a newborn vampire that is unable to control its thirst.  Edward and Bella fill out college applications, while Bella explains to Edward her desire to see Jacob, her werewolf friend, again so she can make things right with him. Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire that is hunting Bella, is back in town.  Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that Jacob and the rest of the werewolf pack would never harm her, but Edward is still not convinced. Bella escapes to La Push to see Jacob while Edward is away, and arrives afterwards at her house unharmed. This convinces Edward that the La Push werewolves are harmless to her and he allows Bella to visit Jacob once in a while, as long as she keeps a phone with her at all times. During one of these trips, Jacob confesses that he loves Bella and forcibly kisses her. Bella punches him which breaks her hand. When Edward finds out, he threatens to break Jacob's jaw if he ever kisses Bella without her consent again. A few days later Bella tries to get Edward to make love to her before turning her into a vampire. Edward initially refuses, explaining to Bella that he could very easily kill her. Eventually, upon realizing how much it means to Bella, he says that he is willing to try in the future as long as they are married first. Despite having an aversion to marriage, Bella realizes that spending eternity with Edward is more important to her than anything else and accepts his proposal.  Bella and the Cullens realize that the murders in Seattle are being committed by Victoria and an "army" of newborn vampires that she has created. The Cullen family, abandoned by the Denali Coven, joins forces with the La Push werewolf pack in order to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward and Bella camp up in the mountains, where they are later joined by Jacob and Seth Clearwater, a young member of the werewolf pack, to wait out the light. Bella, as a delicate human, starts to freeze in the harsh weather of the mountain. Jacob warms up Bella with his abnormal body heat, much to Edward's horror. During the night, Bella overhears a conversation between Edward and Jacob, in which they temporarily forget about their hatred towards each other. In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and becomes very upset. He runs off, but at Bella's request, Edward brings Jacob. He threatens to join the fight and get himself killed because he feels that Bella doesn't love him. When Bella begs him not to, Jacob insists that he will unless she asks him to kiss her. Furious, she does so, and while kissing him she realizes that she is in love with him as well. Edward finds out about this, but isn't angry. Bella realizes that she loves Edward more than Jacob.

Victoria eventually finds Bella's hiding spot, but Edward kills her while Seth kills her partner Riley. The Cullens and the Quileute werewolves, meanwhile, destroy her "army", though Jacob is injured when saving Leah Clearwater from a newborn. He heals swiftly under the supervision of Carlisle. Several members of the Volturi arrive to destroy Victoria's army, and end up only killing the one newborn who surrendered. They are also told that while Bella hasn't become a vampire yet, the date for her transformation has been set. Bella visits Jacob in his home to tell him that she has chosen to be with Edward. Heartbroken by her choice, Jacob reluctantly agrees to stop trying to come between her and Edward. Bella then goes back to Edward. They go to Alice, who already knows they're getting married.  Alice has already made a number of plans for the wedding, but Bella edits some of them. After this, they go to Edward's meadow. Edward says that they can make love before marrying if she wants to, but Bella has decided to do things his way: marriage, making love, and then becoming a vampire. They then decide they need to tell Charlie about their engagement. The epilogue is told from Jacob's point of view, who is suffering from a broken heart. He receives an invitation to Bella and Edward's wedding. Inside it is a letter from Edward, thanking him for "everything," and saying that if Jacob didn't want to come, he didn't have to. Jacob, after reading the letter, runs away in his wolf form to escape the pain he feels.

Plot Summary by Wikia Entertainment

Official Website of The Twilight Saga

Iron Man 2 (2010)

"The world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark is the armored superhero Iron Man. Under pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts, and James “Rhodey” Rhodes at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces.”   synopsis from apple.com

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Official Website of Iron Man 2

Robin Hood

After the death of Richard the Lion-Hearted, a skilled archer named Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) travels to Nottingham, where villagers suffer under a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation. He meets and falls in love with a spirited widow, Marion (Cate Blanchett), although she is skeptical of his motives. Hoping to win her heart and save the village, Robin gathers a band of warriors to fight corruption in Nottingham, little knowing they will soon be fighting to save England itself.

Official Site of Robin Hood Movie.

Vertigo

Police detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson is asked by an old college friend, Gavin Elster, if he would have a look into his wife Madeleine's odd behavior. Lately, she's taken to believing that she is the reincarnation of a woman who died many years ago and Elster is concerned about her sanity. Scottie follows her and rescues her from an apparent suicide attempt when she jumps into San Francisco bay. He gets to know her and falls in love with her. They go to an old mission church and he is unable to stop her from climbing to the top of the steeple, owing to his vertigo, where she jumps to her death. A subsequent inquiry finds that she committed suicide but faults Scottie for not stopping her in the first place. Humiliated and haunted by what has happened, he leaves the police force. Several months later, he meets Judy Barton, a woman who is the spitting image of Madeleine. He can't explain it, but she is identical to the woman who died. He tries to re-make her into Madeleine's image by getting her to dye her hair and wear the same type of clothes. He soon begins to realize however that he has been duped and was a pawn in a complex piece of theater that was meant to end in tragedy. Written by garykmcd

For a detailed PLOT SUMMARY, see Spark Notes.

Alice in Wonderland

Disney version of Lewis Carroll's Children's story. Alice becomes bored and her mind starts to wander. She sees a white rabbit who appears to be in a hurry. She chases it into its burrow - and enters the merry, topsy-turvy world of Wonderland! Memorable songs and whimsical escapades highlight Alice's journey, which culminates in a madcap encounter with the Queen of Hearts - and her army of playing cards!

Part of the synopsis written by Tim Pickett, as published in IMDb.

For a detailed plot summary, you may visit BookRags.

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

It’s been two years since Megatron’s body was dropped to the depths of the ocean. Since then a private team of humans called Nest have been working with the Autobots to eliminate the remaining Decepticons. Just when they think their job is nearly done, one Decepticon reveals a terrifying prophecy— “the Fallen shall rise again.”

The Fallen is one of the ancient Prime brothers, descendents of Optimus Prime. But unlike the others, the Fallen hated humans. He planned to destroy the Earth’s sun, giving him access to a powerful energy source and annihilating the human race in the process. In order to destroy the sun, he needed a massive device buried somewhere in Egypt. But his brothers were loyal to the human race and wouldn’t let him destroy the world. Instead, they sacrificed their lives to protect the key—the only object that would engage the device.

Sam (Shia Labeouf) is heading off to college 3000 miles away from his girlfriend MacKayla (Megan Fox), his overprotective and emotional mother, and his anxious father. While packing, he finds a sliver of the energy cube (which was destroyed in the previous film) attached to his sweatshirt. When he touches it, the sliver sends signals into his mind, causing him to see symbols which he later discovers are the lost language of the Primes. These symbols lead him, his girlfriend, his cowardly roommate, and a robot expert to Egypt in search of the key that will engage the sun-destroying device. The Decepticons set out in search of Sam, planning to probe his mind for the symbols and then destroy him.

The Autobots come to his rescue, but Optimus Prime, the last member of the Prime family, pays the ultimate sacrifice. With Optimus Prime gone, the fallen can rise again and set forth his plan to destroy the planet. Now both Sam and the Fallen seek the key; not only does it have the power to engage the sun-blasting device, but it can also resurrect Optimus Prime.

Official Website of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The Lion King

The king of all lions, Mufasa, has a baby called Simba. This greatly angers Mufasa's brother Scar, who would have been next in line to the throne. Scar plots to kill Simba and Mufasa, and leads them to a gorge. There Mufasa is killed by a herd of Wildebeest, and Simba is led to believe by Scar that he is responsible for his death. Simba then runs away, and Scar becomes king of the pridelands. After several years, in which time Simba has grown up, he returns with the help of some new friends to the pridelands, where he has a final battle with Scar and wins back the pridelands.

The Lion King is the highest grossing 2D animated film of all time in the United States, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the film for its music and story. During its release in 1994, the film grossed more than $783 million worldwide, becoming the most successful film released that year, and it is currently the twenty-eighth highest-grossing feature film.

Official Website of The Lion King

Finding Nemo

Marlin (a clown fish) is a widower who only has his son Nemo left of his family after a predator attack. Years later, on Nemo's first day of school, he's captured by a scuba diver and taken to live in a dentist office's fish tank in Sydney.

So, while Marlin ventures off to try to retrieve Nemo, Marlin meets a fish named Dory, a blue tang suffering from short-term memory loss. The companions travel a great distance, at times hooking a ride with turtles and encountering various dangerous sea creatures such as sharks, anglerfish and jellyfish, in order to rescue Nemo from the dentist's office, which is situated by Sydney Harbor. While the two are doing this, Nemo and the other sea animals in the dentist's fish tank plot a way to return to Sydney Harbor to live their lives free again.

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Spider-Man 3

After his previous adventures, Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) hopes to marry his girlfriend Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). But Peter is told by the police that the original killer of his uncle is still on the loose and his trail has been lost. The killer, Flint Marko, runs into a neuclear weapon testing facility and his atoms are fused with sand. After that he becomes the evil SANDMAN. But thats not all, as Harry Osbourne (James Franco) wants his revenge and become the second Green Goblin! Also, an alien life force fuses to Spiderman and starts to poison him / kill him / make him go crazy and Spidey finally rips the suit of. But Peter's rival photographer, Eddie Brock Jr. takes the suit and becomes the powerful yet lethal Venom. Will Spiderman defeat all of these enemies?

Extracted from Ruined Endings.

For trailers, pictures, reviews, casts and more information, go to the Spider-Man 3 Official Site

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

As we rejoin the motley herd from the two previous Ice Age films, Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) nervously pampers his expectant mate, Ellie (Queen Latifah), while his best friend, Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary), bristles at the thought of Manny's domesticated existence. Meanwhile, Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) continues to annoy everybody, and Scrat the rock rat is still trying to get that acorn. When Sid accidentally discovers an underground world populated by dinosaurs, he steals three dino eggs so that he, too, can become a "mommy." After the little ones hatch, their real mom comes to retrieve them, and snatches Sid as well, prompting the others to band together yet in order to rescue their friend. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

 For more reviews, photos, casts, trailers and links, see IMDb, the Internet Movie Database.

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Independence Day

On July 2nd, communications systems worldwide are sent into chaos by a strange atmospheric interference.  It is soon learned by the military that a number of enormous objects are on a collision course with Earth.  At first thought to be meteors, they are later revealed to be gigantic spacecraft, piloted by a mysterious alien species. After attempts to communicate with the aliens go nowhere, David Levinson, an ex-scientist turned cable technician, discovers that the aliens are going to attack major points around the globe in less than a day. On July 3rd, the aliens all but obliterate New York, Los Angeles, and Washington. The survivors set out in convoys towards Area 51, a strange government testing ground where it is rumored the military has a captured alien spacecraft of their own. The survivors devise a plan to fight back against the enslaving aliens.

When the world counter- attacked, the alien ships are invincible to normal weapon systems, then the President of the United States, decides to head to area 51, to formulate a plan to defeat the aliens.  The ultimate encounter occurs when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of mankind.  The war is ultimately won on July 4, our Independence Day.

Synopsis contribution by Gustaf Molin, John Wiggins, and Robert Lynch

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The Dark Knight

Batman raises the stakes in his bourgeois war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker, a psychopathic criminal whose eerie grin, laughter, and inhuman morality makes him as dangerous than what he has yet to unleash.

It becomes an agenda to Batman to stop the mysterious Joker at all costs, knowing that both of them are in an opposite line. One has no method at all and seeks to see the world plunge into the fire he has yet to light. One represents the symbol of hope and uses his own shadow to bring the peace and order he has yet to accomplish doing.

Part of synopsis written by Peteagassi.

Official Website of The Dark Knight

Star Wars (all episodes)

The Original Trilogy

The original trilogy begins 19 years later as Vader nears completion of the massive Death Star space station which will allow him and Sidious, now the Emperor, to crush the rebellion which has formed against the evil empire. He captures Princess Leia Organa who has stolen the plans to the Death Star and hidden them in droid R2-D2. R2-D2, along with his counterpart C-3PO, escape to the planet Tatooine. There, the droids are purchased by Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin, and his step-uncle and aunt. While Luke is cleaning R2-D2, he accidentally triggers a message put into the robot by Leia, who asks for assistance from Obi-Wan. Luke later assists the droids in finding the Jedi Knight, who is now passing as an old hermit under the alias Ben Kenobi. Obi-Wan tells Luke of his father's greatness, but says that he was killed by Vader. Obi-Wan and Luke hire the Corellian space pilot and smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca to take them to the rebels. Obi-Wan begins to teach Luke about the Force, but allows himself to be killed in a showdown with Vader during the rescue of Leia. His sacrifice allows the group to escape with the plans that allow the rebels to destroy the Death Star.

Vader continues to hunt down the rebels, and begins building a second Death Star. Luke travels to find Yoda to become trained as a Jedi, but is interrupted when Vader lures him into a trap by capturing Han and the others. Vader reveals that he is Luke's father and attempts to turn him to the dark side.  Luke escapes, and returns to his training with Yoda. He learns that he must face his father before he can become a Jedi, and that Leia is his twin sister. As the rebels attack the second Death Star, Luke confronts Vader under the watch of the Emperor. Instead of convincing Luke to join the dark side, the young Jedi defeats Vader in a lightsaber duel and is able to convince him that there is still some good in him. Vader kills the Emperor before succumbing to his own injuries, and the second Death Star is destroyed, restoring freedom to the galaxy.

The Prequel Trilogy

The prequel trilogy follows the upbringing of Anakin Skywalker, who is discovered by the Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn. He is believed to be the "Chosen One" foretold by Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the Force. The Jedi Council, led by Yoda, sense that his future is clouded with fear, but reluctantly allows Qui-Gon's apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to train Anakin after Qui-Gon is killed by the Sith Lord Darth Maul.

At the same time, the planet Naboo is under attack, and its ruler, Queen Padmé Amidala, seeks the assistance of the Jedi to repel the attack. The Sith Lord Darth Sidious secretly planned the attack to give his alias, Senator Palpatine, a pretense to overthrow the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. The remainder of the prequel trilogy chronicles Anakin's fall to the dark side, as Sidious attempts to create an army to defeat the Jedi and lure Anakin to be his apprentice.  Anakin and Padmé fall in love and secretly wed, and eventually Padme becomes pregnant. Anakin soon succumbs to his anger, becoming the Sith Lord Darth Vader. While Sidious reorganizes the Republic into the Galactic Empire, Vader participates in the extermination of the Jedi Order, culminating in a lightsaber battle between him and Obi-Wan. After defeating his former apprentice, Obi-Wan leaves Vader for dead. However, Sidious arrives shortly after to save him and put him into a suit of black armor that keeps him alive. At the same time, Padmé dies while giving birth to twins. The twins are hidden from Vader and are not told who their true parents are.

Synopsis extracted from Wikipedia.

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Schindler's List

Schindler's List (1993) is Steven Spielberg's unexpected award-winning masterpiece - a profoundly shocking, unsparing, fact-based, three-hour long epic of the nightmarish Holocaust. Its documentary authenticity vividly re-creates a dark, frightening period during World War II, when Jews in Nazi-occupied Krakow were first dispossessed of their businesses and homes, then placed in ghettos and forced labor camps in Plaszow, and finally resettled in concentration camps for execution. The violence and brutality of their treatment in a series of matter-of-fact (and horrific) incidents is indelibly and brilliantly orchestrated.

Except for the bookends (its opening and closing scenes) and two other brief shots (the little girl in a red coat and candles burning with orange flames), the entire film in-between is shot in crisp black and white. The film is marvelous for the way in which it crafts its story without contrived, manipulative Hollywood-ish flourishes (often typical of other Spielberg films) - it is also skillfully rendered with overlapping dialogue, parallel editing, sharp and bold characterizations, contrasting compositions of the two main characters (Schindler and Goeth), cinematographic beauty detailing shadows and light with film-noirish tones, jerky hand-held cameras (cinema verite), a beautifully selected and composed musical score (including Itzhak Perlman's violin), and gripping performances.

The screenplay by Steven Zaillian was adapted from Thomas Keneally's 1982 biographic novel (Schindler's Ark), constructed by interviews with 50 Schindler survivors found in many nations, and other wartime associates of the title character, as well as other written testimonies and sources. Oskar Schindler was an enterprising, womanizing Nazi Sudeten-German industrialist/opportunist and war profiteer, who first exploited the cheap labor of Jewish/Polish workers in a successful enamelware factory (Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik or D.E.F.), and eventually rescued more than one thousand of them from certain extinction in labor/death camps.

Before the film was made, Spielberg had offered Holocaust survivor and director Roman Polanski the job of making the film, but Polanski declined. Since then, ten years later, Polanski made his own honored Holocaust film, the Best Director-winning The Pianist (2002). Stanley Kubrick abandoned his own plans to make a similar film in the planning stages, called "The Aryan Papers" - based on the Louis Begley novel Wartime Lies.

The unanimously-praised film with a modest budget of $23 million deservedly won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (the first for Spielberg), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Editing (Michael Kahn), and Best Art Direction. It also won nominations for two of its male leads: Best Actor (Liam Neeson) and Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Makeup. Other organizations including the British Academy Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Golden Globes, likewise honored the film. It was the first black/white film since The Apartment (1960) to win the Best Picture Academy Award, and the most commercially-successful B/W film in cinematic history.

Review by Tim Dirks

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