Schindler’s List 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-Ray

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Looking back over the years, I tend to think that some of the movies I’ve seen were terrific, until I go back and watch them again 20, 25 or 30 years later, only to discover they weren’t quite as good as I remember them to be.  Often I think that just has to do with age, things that I thought were good when I was 16 certainly are lackluster now.  

It’s true too that the older you get the faster time seems to go by, and so it was with a little bit of shock that I realized that it was 20 years ago that Steven Spielberg first started production on Schindler’s List  (the movie released in theaters in December of 1993).  I remember vividly going to the theater with my husband (who was my then fiancé), and both sets of our parents to see it.  It held a lot of significance for them as they were all initmately tied to that period in history.  My father-in-law was a young man of 17 fighting in the German army.  My dad was a grade school boy whose parents were also on the German side of the camp (my grandfather lost his leg fighting and my grandmother was a nurse).  My mom was born a few short months after the war ended.  I remember the impact the movie had on me, I cried buckets.

This 20th Anniversary Blu-Ray edition is amazing to watch in your home.  The high definition of the Blu-ray disc, and the black & white scape allow you to become completely immersed in the story.  And the movie that I remember from 20 years ago that was excellent in direction, filming, production and sound, is on this Blu-ray disc even more poignant and as moving as I remembered it to be.  The disc set also includes bonus features that shed unprecedented light on the story of Oskar Schindler as well as the USC Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg.

Adapted from the novel by Thomas Keneally, Steven Spielberg’s masterful film tells the incredible true story of the courageous Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson). Initially a member of the Nazi party, the Catholic Schindler risks his career and life, and ultimately goes bankrupt, to employ 1,100 Jews in his crockery factory during the Holocaust. Schindler’s Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) serves as his conscience, as Schindler conducts business with an obstinate and cruel Nazi commander (Ralph Fiennes), who viciously kills Jewish prisoners from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. Filmed entirely in black-and-white on location in Poland, Schindler’s List does not downplay the faults of its magnanimous and unlikely hero, but relates a story of the triumph of the human spirit in the face of horrific devastation and tragedy.

So now it was interesting to to experience Schindler’s List again with our almost 17 year old daughter, I was just a few years older than her 20 years ago when I first saw it.  It was definitely a heavy movie for our daughter to watch, who is a sensitive soul, but we felt she was old enough to take both the historical and emotional elements on the level that Spielberg delivered in this movie.  

Schindler’s List rapidly became one of the most honored films of all time, garnering twelve Academy Award^® nominations and taking home seven Oscars^®, including Best Director and Best Picture for Spielberg.  The film also earned Oscars^® for composer John Williams (E.T., Star Wars), screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Gangs of New York, Mission: Impossible) and director of photography Janusz Kaminiski, as well as art directors Allan Starski and Ewa Braun, editor Michael Kahn and producers Gerald R. Molen and Branko Lustig.

Schindlers’ List 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack includes • Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Copy and UltraViolet •  It is available online and in retail stores nationwide for a msrp of $34.98.

 I was sent a media sample of this DVD for review purposes – all opinions and experiences remain my own and were not influenced by anything received. Published by Tammy Litke.

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