Mountain Men and Schindler's List (1 Viewer)

[mikemiller1955]

I just rented Mountain Men and Schindler's List.

Both classics.

Mountain Men...................Where there's adventure, lust and greed, trouble isn't far behind. Grizzled fur trappers Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) and Henry Frapp (Brian Keith) head to the mountains in search of adventure and fortune. During their trip, they find and attempt to romance a beautiful Native American squaw. But she's run away from her mate -- a powerful and angry chief who's hell-bent on getting her back!

This was a great movie. I had not seen it in years but it didn't disappoint my recollections. Brian Keith almost stole the lead, the cinematography was unreal beautiful and the action was heavy. If you liked "Jeremiah Johnson", you will love this one. It got bad critic reviews but outstanding public reviews.

Schindler's List............Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, a greedy German factory owner made rich by exploiting cheap Jewish labor. But as World War II unfolds, he becomes an unlikely humanitarian, spending his entire fortune to help save 1,100 Jews from Auschwitz. Co-starring Ralph Fiennes, Steven Spielberg's holocaust epic won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and is an unforgettable testament to the possibility of human goodness.

I saw this when it came out in 1993 at the theater and was not that impressed, probably because it was in "black and white" and because it isn't a "date" movie. I guess my tastes have changed dramatically. Based on a true story it is emotionally stirring as it depicts the atrocities of the prison camp, the gritty lives of the Polish Jewish community and humanitarian role reversals of one man. Definitely thought provoking and truly stirring. A must see or a must re watch. Ben Kingsley's sullen expressions are amazingly poignant.

Next on my queue are Cold Mountain and Lion Of The Desert. Both will be re watches.

 

[Warrior]

Schindler's List............Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, a greedy German factory owner made rich by exploiting cheap Jewish labor. But as World War II unfolds, he becomes an unlikely humanitarian, spending his entire fortune to help save 1,100 Jews from Auschwitz. Co-starring Ralph Fiennes, Steven Spielberg's holocaust epic won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and is an unforgettable testament to the possibility of human goodness.

I saw this when it came out in 1993 at the theater and was not that impressed, probably because it was in "black and white" and because it isn't a "date" movie. I guess my tastes have changed dramatically. Based on a true story it is emotionally stirring as it depicts the atrocities of the prison camp, the gritty lives of the Polish Jewish community and humanitarian role reversals of one man. Definitely thought provoking and truly stirring. A must see or a must re watch. Ben Kingsley's sullen expressions are amazingly poignant.

This movie has had a profound effect on me, hit me right where I live so to speak.

The three scenes that got to me were the "girl in the red coat (the second time we see the girl and the coat)", Schindler when he loses it and keeps saying "I could have done more" and the ending where the actual survivors place the stones on his grave.......................gut wrenching.

 

[Combat]

Schindler's List is a good movie. However, I have always been confused as to the extent it is based on actual events relating to Schindler himself. Most bookstores characterize the book as a work of fiction. It seems to fall into a type of historical fiction. Some real and some fictionalized events and characters. My guess is that a lot of moviegoers believe it is entirely factual in terms of specific characters and events depicted.

 

[Grognard]

It's a movie not a documentary on something that happened 60 years so there is always possible extrapolation from the director (Spielberg) here and there but overall it's pretty close to the reality. From what I know no one even the Jewish community challenged Schindler's track record of savings more than 1200 human beings from the nazis. I believe Schindler is the only nazi party member buried in Israel for that very reason...

 

[jazzeum]

I just did a google search and there does seem to be some controversy about whether it is fact or fiction.

 

[maddadicus]

I just rented Mountain Men and Schindler's List.

Both classics.

Mountain Men...................Where there's adventure, lust and greed, trouble isn't far behind. Grizzled fur trappers Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) and Henry Frapp (Brian Keith) head to the mountains in search of adventure and fortune. During their trip, they find and attempt to romance a beautiful Native American squaw. But she's run away from her mate -- a powerful and angry chief who's hell-bent on getting her back!

This was a great movie. I had not seen it in years but it didn't disappoint my recollections. Brian Keith almost stole the lead, the cinematography was unreal beautiful and the action was heavy. If you liked "Jeremiah Johnson", you will love this one. It got bad critic reviews but outstanding public reviews.

Schindler's List............Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, a greedy German factory owner made rich by exploiting cheap Jewish labor. But as World War II unfolds, he becomes an unlikely humanitarian, spending his entire fortune to help save 1,100 Jews from Auschwitz. Co-starring Ralph Fiennes, Steven Spielberg's holocaust epic won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and is an unforgettable testament to the possibility of human goodness.

I saw this when it came out in 1993 at the theater and was not that impressed, probably because it was in "black and white" and because it isn't a "date" movie. I guess my tastes have changed dramatically. Based on a true story it is emotionally stirring as it depicts the atrocities of the prison camp, the gritty lives of the Polish Jewish community and humanitarian role reversals of one man. Definitely thought provoking and truly stirring. A must see or a must re watch. Ben Kingsley's sullen expressions are amazingly poignant.

Next on my queue are Cold Mountain and Lion Of The Desert. Both will be re watches.

I have Lion of the Desert and it is a wonderful movie, well acted and mucho action. Love the unlimited number of armored cars and period tanks getting blown up. A favorite of mine. Another little known war film for you. Siege of Fir Base Gloria with Lee Ermy. Great non stop Vietnam action picture...Have it in VHS. Not sure of DVD status..Michael

 

[DCN1898]

I have read some things on Schindler and it seems that he did more than was even in the movie. Apparently he made contacts with Jewish organizations in Istambul during the war, letting people know what was going on in the camps.

 

[OzDigger]

I haven't seen Schindler's List and have no intention to. However, the novel Schindler's Ark which the movie is based on is certainly a work of fiction written by the famous Australian novelist Thomas Keneally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keneally#Novels

 

[mikemiller1955]

I have Lion of the Desert and it is a wonderful movie, well acted and mucho action. Love the unlimited number of armored cars and period tanks getting blown up. A favorite of mine. Another little known war film for you. Siege of Fir Base Gloria with Lee Ermy. Great non stop Vietnam action picture...Have it in VHS. Not sure of DVD status..Michael

Michel..........I think I have seen this before, but it was so long ago I can't remember.

Is there a scene in this movie where the bedouins tie their own feet together before a battle so they won't be tempted to flee........"fight til the death", so to speak, or am I confusing it with "The Message" also starring Anthony Quinn?

 

[Warrior]

I haven't seen Schindler's List and have no intention to.

Great Oz, thanks for sharing that bit of information with the rest of us.

 

[maddadicus]

Michel..........I think I have seen this before, but it was so long ago I can't remember.

Is there a scene in this movie where the bedouins tie their own feet together before a battle so they won't be tempted to flee........"fight til the death", so to speak, or am I confusing it with "The Message" also starring Anthony Quinn?

Yes that is the one. They knelt down and tied a rope around the bent knee and ankle it rested on, immobilizing them from retreating. Michael

 

[OzDigger]

Great Oz, thanks for sharing that bit of information with the rest of us.

I'm a caring sharing type of guy.

 

[mikemiller1955]

I haven't seen Schindler's List and have no intention to. However, the novel Schindler's Ark which the movie is based on is certainly a work of fiction written by the famous Australian novelist Thomas Keneally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keneally#Novels

From Wikipedia: Schindler's Ark

It is a historical novel which describes actual people and events with fictional dialogue and scenes added by the author.

I wonder how fictitous the novel, Schindler's Ark, which I have never read was............cause the movie very closely parralled these excerpts.

From Wikipedia: Oskar Schindler

Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a Sudeten German industrialist. He is credited with saving almost 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively. He is the subject of the novel Schindler's Ark, and the film based on it, Schindler's List.

Initially Schindler may have been motivated by money — Jewish labour was least costly — but later he began shielding his workers without regard for cost. He would, for instance, claim that certain unskilled workers were essential to the factory.

While witnessing a 1943 raid on the Kraków Ghetto, where soldiers were used to round up the inhabitants for shipment to the concentration camp at Płaszów, Schindler was appalled by the murder of many of the Jews who had been working for him.

He was a very persuasive individual, and after the raid, increasingly used all of his skills to protect his Schindlerjuden ("Schindler's Jews"), as they came to be called. Schindler went out of his way to take care of the Jews who worked at DEF, often calling on his legendary charm and ingratiating manner to help his workers get out of difficult situations. Once, says author Eric Silver in The Book of the Just, "Two Gestapo men came to his office and demanded that he hand over a family of five who had bought forged Polish identity papers. 'Three hours after they walked in,' Schindler said, 'two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded'".

The special status of his factory ("business essential to the war effort") became the decisive factor for Schindler's efforts to support his Jewish workers.

Whenever the "Schindler Jews" were threatened with deportation, he claimed exemptions for them. Wives, children, and even handicapped persons were shown to be necessary mechanics and metalworkers.

Schindler also reportedly began to smuggle children out of the ghetto, delivering them to Polish nuns, who either hid them from the Nazis or claimed they were Christian orphans.

Schindler persuaded the SS officials to allow him to move his 1,100 Jewish workers to Brněnec (German: Brünnlitz) in dismantled Czechoslovakia (then in the German-speaking Sudetenland province), thus sparing the Jews from certain death in the extermination camps.

However, during the months that this factory was running, not a single weapon produced could actually be fired. Hence Schindler made no money; rather, his previously earned fortune grew steadily smaller as he bribed officials and cared for his workers.

By the end of the war Schindler had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers.

Schindler was buried at the Catholic Franciscans' cemetery at Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the only member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way. Schindler's grave is located near the Zion Gate. Stones placed on top of the grave are a sign of gratitude from Jewish visitors, according to Jewish tradition, although Schindler himself was not Jewish. On his grave, the German inscription reads 'The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews'.

You're missing a good movie.

 

[Warrior]

Oskar was a hero, he died without two nickels to rub together; he saved over 1,000 people from certain death and those individuals went on to have families, as did those people to the tune of if I am not mistaken over 6,000 souls on this earth are the direct result of Oskar's heroics.

It was a very good movie, but those who don't "get it" need not waste their time watching it as the message of the movie will sail over their heads.

I am a better person for having seen the movie and getting it's message.

End of story.

 

[OzDigger]

Whatever guys. I haven't bothered with anything by Thomas Keneally since he horribly twisted the truth with his earlier book The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith where he tried to make heroes out of two early Australian serial killers.

 

[OzDigger]

I still can't understand this hero worship of Schindler. Imo if he was such a decent guy he wouldn't have got involved in exploiting those jews as slave labourers in the first place. I have read differing accounts of Schindler's actions and I suspect the truth lies somewhere between exploitation and hero.

 

[jazzeum]

I'm not going to try to change your mind because it already seems made up but the fact that he's buried in Jerusalem speaks loud and clear. Although he didn't have a good past, the fact that he tried to save us gets high marks in my book. The fact that any German tried to save a Jew gets high marks in my book. Also, speaking generally, if someone changes their ways, isn't that something to be recognized. It shows that there is good in all of us. I like to believe that people are generally good but that it's society that makes them bad.

 

[OzDigger]

Brad, I appreciate what you are saying and agree that most people can change. And more power to them if they do change in a positive way, which is not always the case of course.

The main point I am trying to get across is that we should be cautious about basing our opinions on movies. Especially when the movie was based on a novel written by an author that was most likely more interested in achieving target audience acceptance and high sales rather than historical accuracy.

 

[jazzeum]

That is true Matt but I think the movie is well worth seeing.

 

[OzDigger]

That is true Matt but I think the movie is well worth seeing.

I'm sure it is Brad, but from what I have heard I think it would be too dark and depressing for my taste.