Schindler’s List (1993 vs 2023) Cast – Then and Now by HollywoodNuts
The 1993 American historical epic drama film Schindler’s List was produced, directed, and written by Steven Spielberg. The 1982 book Schindler’s Ark by Australian author Thomas Keneally served as its inspiration. The movie centers on Oskar Schindler, a German manufacturer who, during World War II, employed more than a thousand predominantly Polish-Jewish immigrants at his factories, preventing them from becoming victims of the Holocaust. It features Ben Kingsley as Schindler’s Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Liam Neeson as Schindler.
As early as 1963, plot ideas for a movie about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were put forth. One of the Schindlerjuden, Poldek Pfefferberg, made it his life’s work to recount the tale of Schindler. When businessman Sidney Sheinberg wrote Spielberg a review of Schindler’s Ark, he became intrigued. The novel’s rights were purchased by Universal Pictures, but before agreeing to direct it, Spielberg sought to pass the script to a number of other directors since he wasn’t convinced he was ready to do a movie about the Holocaust.
Over the course of 72 days in 1993, principal photography took conducted in Kraków, Poland. Spielberg used a black-and-white camera and took a documentary-style approach to the project. Filmmaker Janusz Kamiski sought to convey a timeless quality. Itzhak Perlman played the main theme on the violin, while John Williams wrote the score.
The film Schindler’s List had its world debut on November 30, 1993 in Washington, D.C., and it was released in the US on December 15, 1993. The movie, which is frequently ranked among the best movies ever produced, won praise from critics everywhere for its tone, performances (especially from Neeson, Fiennes, and Kingsley), setting, and direction by Steven Spielberg. It was also a financial triumph, making $322 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. Seven of the twelve Academy Awards it was nominated for—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score—were awarded to it. Numerous more honors were bestowed upon the movie, including three Golden Globes and seven BAFTAs. On its list of the top 100 American films ever, the American Film Institute placed Schindler’s List at number eight in 2007. The Library of Congress identified the movie as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 2004 and chose it for preservation in the American National Film Registry.