How Does Spielberg Use Silence In Oskar Shindler

Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, is a visual test centred around the idea of “The Power of One”- this means that one person can influence many things, such as saving 1100 Jews, in regards to this text and Schindler. Schindler comes to Germany to make as much money from the war as possible and ends up saving 1100 Jews instead out of his own pocket. This is all due to the event of seeing one innocent Jewish girl walking around in confusion whilst the Ghetto she lives in is being liquidised, wearing a red coat- the only colour we see in a black and white film. Spielberg uses the colour, silence, and close ups to illustrate the change in the character of Oskar Schindler when he sees a picture of innocence in the midst of chaos and strife.

The use of colour in an otherwise black and white film draws the audience’s eyes to the girl wearing the red coat, creating a point of interest in the scene that otherwise would of been more difficult to see when viewing the text. The use of colour also shows us that Schindler is also watching …show more content…
The use of silence and ambient noise furthers the thought that we are viewing the scene as if we are looking through Schindler’s eyes and feeling what he would feel. Spielberg has done this so to jar the viewer from the idea that Schindler is completely ruthless in quest for fortune and so illustrates that Schindler is changing -as this is the first instance that we see Schindler as compassionate and human. The use of silence in this scene work with the partnering of ambient, or background, noise. Ambient noise in this instance gives the scene reality and gravitas -as even though we are looking through Schindler’s tunnel vision we see that he is not ignoring the chaos surrounding the girl in