Schindler’s List at 25: looking back on Spielberg’s defining Holocaust drama
A big screen re-release leads to a re-examination of the 1993 Oscar-winner which had a profound effect on both critics and audiences
Twenty-five years ago, Steven Spielberg brought out two of his best movies, in just a matter of months. The films were poles apart in style and subject matter, and the process of completing one while shooting the other left the director exhausted and emotionally ragged. In spring 1993, Spielberg was in Poland, recreating the terror of the Kraków ghetto and the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp for Schindler’s List by day, and each night he was calling Industrial Light & Magic in California to oversee the special effects for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Spielberg’s friend Robin Williams would call him up once a week to tell him jokes for 15 minutes at a time and release the tension.
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