Not that the internet needs one more review of Schindler’s List. Let’s be honest and say that all these years later, and this is as engrained in the finality of cinema as Citizen Kane, The Wizard of oz, or Casablanca. 30 more years could pass, and nothing will change in regard to Steven Spielberg’s historic accomplishment. I somehow missed the official 30th anniversary of this film last year, and was reminded of it earlier this year when The Zone Of Interest caused many to reference this classic. It had been years since I saw this, and what I saw was the TV version. I remember at the time, that they were claiming to be airing the film unedited, so parents should be aware. But, I was still young, and I just didn’t see this in its initial theatrical run. So, this is my second time through, and Apple had it on sale for quite a while, so I was able to pick it up.

I really can’t offer anything more to this conversation because this film is perfection. I remember it looked stunning, as Spielberg shot the film almost entirely in black and white, playing with the selective use of color. This is easily Liam Neeson’s strongest performance, as many people started to misuse his talent as his career progressed. But, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley both give memorable performances. The score is instantly recognizable, the story is heartbreaking, and the ending is deeply afffecting and moving.

However, I’m also a blind film critic, and the sole reason I bothered to mention this was that I loved the audio description track that Deluxe made for this, with the narration done by Ron Snow. I recently was made aware of the fact that Ron passed a few years back, and he has his voice on so many terrific projects that he floats in and out of my days rather regularly. he usually has a heaviness to his voice, which he’s traded for astute reverence for the subject matter, and whoever wrote the script did so with careful consideration for the material. the audio description script for this film certainly doesn’t shy away from anything, and also makes use of Spielberg’s selective choice of color. At the end of the film, when the survivors are visiting the grave, they made such a smart decision to point out that the real person was often accompanied by their actor counterpart, specifically even name checking Ben Kingsley.

It’s hard to say that I love this film, or that I enjoy it. There’s this understanding that there are films out there that are great, and define the medium, but they aren’t the kind of film you can just watch any day any time. Of course, the absurd reality in that statement is that just watching a holocaust drama is so triggering that we can’t do it on a daily basis, but these people were real, and this was their reality on a daily basis.

I’ve never understood the concept of Holocaust conspiracy theorists who claim it never happened. The danger is that as we continue to lose the population who remembers living through it due to age, we also lose the anchor to this time period, leaving profound works like Schindler’s List and The Zone Of Interest as reminders of what once was, with the hopes that people will see more fact than fiction.

I may not be able to add much to the conversation on the importance of Schindler’s List, but I will confirm that I believe this film is perfect, and the audio description by Ron snow was done so incredibly well.

Final Grade: A+