Comparison Of Oskar Schindler's List Vs Spielberg

Would you ever think a member of the Nazi party would save over a 1,000 Jews during the holocaust? Because Thomas Keneally’s novel and Steven Spielberg’s film, Schindler’s List is the account of one such individual. Oskar Schindler was a German manufacturing tycoon in occupied Poland who decides to hire and protect his Jewish workers from certain death in labor camps. In the novel, Thomas Keneally shows Oskar Schindler’s roguish and rebellious personality by describing his manner and appearance with descriptive language, characterization, and dialogue whereas in the movie, Spielberg does this through expositions, point of view shots, and shot reverse shot. Between the two tellings of the same story, there is a common theme in the presentation: attention to detail. This can be seen in the novel through descriptive …show more content…
In the novel, dialogue is used for this purpose and can aid in depicting the personality and motives of a character. “‘We will have to risk regret,’ one of the two told him. He assessed their assurance, their perilous indifference to him, a man of assets, newly turned thirty-four. ‘On a spring morning,” he told them, ‘I can spare a few hours for driving.’” (110). Oskar has a gift for assessing others and their motives through speech and facial expression. In movies this same effect can be achieved by shot-reverse shot, allowing the audience to switch from face to face of the participants in the conversation and see their expressions. In the movie, Oskar talks to Amon about killing his workers and setting up a subcamp, this scene goes from face to face as their expressions change. This allows the viewer to see the expression displayed on the face of each party in reaction to the speaker. These two techniques are extremely effective, but when all three of the literary and the cinematic techniques work in harmony they add great depth to a