The past couple of months have been fairly uneventful, but I have seen a couple of films recently. Philadelphia was a major disappointment. Tom Hanks was superb and Denzel Washington was fine as always. Here ends the praise. The most interesting thing about the movie was the burgeoning friendship between Hanks, a lawyer fired from a prestigious firm because he has AIDS, and Washington, the homophobic lawyer who grudgingly agrees to represent Hanks in his lawsuit against the firm for wrongful termination. Instead of focusing on that relationship, the film tries to interest us in Hanks' relationships with his enormous family and lover. The result is to dilute them all such that we don't care about any.
To make matters worse, Philadelphia features one of the least interesting courtroom dramas ever captured on film. Nothing happens. Now, perhaps actual trials really are dull. But I didn't go to the movies to see a courtroom simulation-- I want to be entertained. That doesn't mean the trial should throw twists and surprises left and right, but it should be good drama-- witness the trial in A Few Good Men. As a final sin, Philadelphia ends with home movies of a child-- presumably Hanks' character. Who cares? They carry no meaning whatsoever. This device may have worked had the scenes had any meaning in the context of the film, but they were nothing more than a cheap attempt to wring an emotional response from the audience.
Philadelphia may be significant for being the first major film about AIDS, but it would be a much larger achievement if it stood on its own as a good film.
"Good" is far too mild a term for Schindler's List. It is quite simply the most powerful, moving film I've seen in years. Not because of the horrors of the Holocaust it depicts (and harsh as those scenes are, they pale in comparison to films of the actual events), but because of the joy at the movie's heart. Schindler's List isn't a story about the Holocaust-- it's a monument to one man's shining achievement amidst horror and despair. I was weeping by the end of the film, tears of sympathy for Schindler and joy for his triumph.
Schindler, a German businessman, saved the lives of 1,000 Polish Jews, snatching some from the very halls of Auchwitz itself. The significance of this accomplishment is underscored at the end of the film by the following statistic: there are now 6,000 descendants of the Schindler Jews; there are under 1,000 Jews left alive in Poland today.
In a world where, only fifty years after the fact, there are people who don't know about the Holocaust (and others who insist that it never occurred!), Schindler's List keeps the flame of memory alive. There is no justice in the world if Spielberg doesn't finally win his Oscar for it. It's a most engrossing three hours of cinema. Make special note of the only two uses of color in the film, a subtle touch that leaps out to make you take notice.
Go see this film. But allow yourself some time afterward to assimilate it and get your thoughts in order-- Schindler's List will affect you. ]