Schindler's List: A Novel And Film Comparison
One man killing over 11 million people in the course of less than 15 years seems outrageous. This event is so big that it is still widely talked about even today. There are books and movies reflecting the topic, specifically Schindler’s Ark, and Schindler’s List, respectively. But each type of media will portray the details in these events differently, whether it is the use of detail, the way you see it, or even the historical accuracy. Especially in this case, where it’s based on true accounts from people that actually witnessed and were victims; There are going to be many similarities and differences between the two.
There are many similarities between the novel Schindler’s List and the movie Schindler’s List. One of the major similarities, which seems initially consequential, is when Stern and Schindler met in the same way in the same place in both. Stern was an extremely important character, almost as important as Oskar Schindler himself. Stern was Schindler’s accountant, and I would venture to say he was the basic building block of the plot. He helped Oskar in buying a factory and getting his business started. The factory being one of the most important settings all throughout both the book and the movie, without his help, there would be a huge gap in the plot. The same theme; ‘he who saves one life saves the entire world’ is present in both the novel and the film. This is extremely relevant to both, because the plot is the same. Oskar Schindler is known as a man who saved the life of over 1100 Jews during the Holocaust. This theme applies directly to him, and it basically means if you make the effort to save even one man’s life, you have made it easier to save more, as Oskar has proven. The theme is spoken in the film, and it is directly stated in chapter two of the novel, said both by the same person; Stern himself.
Although those are the most major changes, there are many minor ones. These include the ‘little girl in the red coat’. She was a fairly minor detail in the novel, while in the movie she was seen in small scenes, in a very big way. Schindler’s List was shot in black and white, to help the viewer resemble the time in which it happened, which was the late 1930’s and the early to mid-1940’s. The little girl in the red coat is seen as the only color in the movie. She resembles the innocence that was lost in the war, and she later appears as the only color while they are burning the Jews. She was dead, in a wheelbarrow. Another seemingly minor similarity is how Amon Goeth, the antagonist in the movie and the book, has changed his ways in both. This is important because he is known for killing masses of Jews, and because he changed, and learned to do what Oskar calls ‘pardoning,’ he has saved some Jews that he would have killed, one being a man who couldn’t get stains off of his bathtub, and was told to leave by Amon. In a case like this, he certainly would have killed him.
When you have similarities, you’re bound to have differences as well. Each version lacks at least one thing that the other one doesn’t. There are many differences that aren’t as specific as the similarities, but they still have a major effect on either the novel or the book. For one thing, the novel tells the real life story of Oskar Schindler, with a mix of realistic conversation, which actually took place at the time. That being said, the movie is more of a narrative, making it more entertaining than the novel. Schindler's List (the novel) is extremely descriptive in telling the life and story of Oskar, while the movie is very descriptive in telling a story about Schindler's camp, and how he saved so many Jews. The book starts out talking about Oskar Schindler as a teenager, and the movie completely wipes that out, and starts out with a club scene with all of the Nazi's. The early life chapters helped set the setting, and let you know what led up to him joining in with the Nazi's, while the movie as said before, completely lacks any information about his earlier life. Another minor difference is that Oskar and Amon, as crazy as it may sound, are portrayed more as 'womanizers' in the movie. There was lacking information showing more than one or two instances about woman with them in the novel, while there were multiple scenes supporting this fact in the movie.
I feel like the book did more justice than the movie did. Although professionally directed with great actors, it did leave out minor scenes, that although didn’t have an effect on the plot, still helped me understand what was going on in the novel. I think that in words, you can describe things so much more, and that makes the Holocaust seem even more disturbing. Although you can show the oppression and every other undeserving thing that happened to the Jews in the 30’s and 40’s, you don’t always get as in to the movie than you do the book. This is understandable though, because Steven Spielberg had to squeeze a 400 page book into a three and a half hour movie, and keep the intense plot. He did make an impact, though. I sympathized with the Jews throughout whole movie, about everything that happened. You have more time to read the book and take in what the author is trying to get across, especially a novel with a topic this controversial and extreme.
There are many ways to capture an event or idea, but which one is better? Obviously they all capture details differently, but when you think about them as a whole, one will be lacking information that the other contains, or one might make up details that weren’t in the other, and in this case, Spielberg definitely portrayed the details of the Holocaust in a good manner, but it lacks the descriptive skill that Keneally emphasizes throughout his book, another reason for why I enjoyed the book more.