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NCEA L3 English 3.2 Essays
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English 3.2 - External Exam Essay2018 Statement: The idea behind a text is the thing that matters.
Preconceived ideas can sometimes ruin a film. This is why the idea behind a
text is the thing that matters. This is demonstrated in Schindler’s List, directed
by Steven Spielberg. Schindler’s List is based on true events and a real person.
Historical films such as this have many ideas which are applicable to today’s
society in which we live. Through the use of film noir, motifs, and symbolism.
Spielberg is able to convey to us that the idea behind Schindler’s List is the
thing that matters. Why does it matter? Because we are able to learn about the
human condition, the difference one individual can make, and the triumph of the
human spirit.
Schindler’s List uses a film noir style so that the director can use colour
sparingly in important moments in the film. It also allows the director to use
shadowing to convey a specific mood. The film noir style in this film revealed
the idea that amidst evil, an individual can still do good. During the liquidation
of the Krakow ghetto, Schindler watches from atop a hill. Amongst all the
shooting and violence, Schindler sees a young girl in a red coat walking through
the violence. The red coat is the only thing in colour throughout the movie, so
the audience pays close attention to it. Schindler is horrified as the young girl
symbolises the true innocence of her - which is extrapolated to all Jews - and
how helpless she is to her enslavement and repression. The red in her coat
represents the blood of the Jews and her age shows Schindler she has done
nothing wrong. She is living proof that people witnessed the loss of innocence
of young people like her, and did nothing. The film noir style reveals that the
Jewish situation was everything to do with racism and nothing to do with their
actions. Schindler felt compelled to make a change because from this point he
made a conscious effort to increase the living conditions of the Jews that he
came in contact with, and then went on to save them from mass extermination
, English 3.2 - External Exam Essay
by buying them off the Nazis. The idea of the difference that one individual can
make is the thing that matters in this film because although you can see the
negative effects of racism and bigotry, what Spielberg really wanted us to
understand was the difference one individual can make. This can be
implemented into any walk of life - especially in New Zealand’s society because
of the high suicide rates that we have, and how one person has the capability to
stop another from taking their life. Schindler’s List teaches us that one
individual can make a difference in the world - and that isn’t necessarily
shouting from a rooftop that deafens people to other opinions, it can be a quiet
and silent difference that may go unacknowledged for a period of time.
Motifs are a repeated element that has symbolic significance. Throughout the
film, trains were used as motifs to represent the constant degradation of the
Jews. Trains transported the Jews to the ghetto at the start of the film, then to the
forced labour camp, then to Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, and finally to
Schindler’s factory in Czechoslovakia - a safe haven. Trains represented the
cycle of dehumanisation and degradation that the Jews endured. The idea that
one person can make a big difference, and the idea that good always trumps
evil, is revealed as we see the trains safely transporting the Jews to Schindler’s
‘safe haven’, away from Nazi scrutiny. This enforces a sense of security -
something unfamiliar to the Jews during the Holocaust, as they were able to put
their trust into Schindler to keep them safe. In turn, after Nazi Germany finally
fell to the Soviet army, Schindler’s Jews, or the Schindlerjuden, wanted to help
their war hero as he once helped them. This highlights a universal idea that we
should treat others how we want to be treated. This is one of the most important
ideas behind a text, and it matters because we can relate it to the wider world in
light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Schindler’s ‘list’ of individuals is
like the ‘essential services’ list. Those deemed essential are not in jeopardy of
unemployment, likewise in the film those deemed essential were exempt from
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