MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

 

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 56 Days to go: 40

Movie #384:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Since that midnight showing of Chamber of Secrets back in 2002, I don’t think there was a single Harry Potter film I didn’t attend a midnight screening for. I was certainly not going to miss the first showing of the final installment. Being the end of the series, though, the midnight screening was handled a little differently. Instead of a single night of screenings of a single film, my local AMC theater offered an entire week of screenings — Monday thru Thursday — of the entire series, much like I’ve done for these posts. My husband, mother-in-law and stepdaughter went every night and watched two films, all leading up to the final night of Deathly Hallows part 1, followed by the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. That final morning, though — Thursday, July 14, 2011 — I had a growing suspicion and I took a test to confirm it. I was pregnant. It was scary and unexpected, but also thrilling and incredible. And I will always associate my first knowledge of my darling little princess with the final Harry Potter film. It’s fitting, really, because life, as we know, goes on. In our world as well as this fictional one.

From the very start of the series, death has always been an accepted and even integral part of life in the magical world. So it follows that death is an integral part of this last film as well. Indeed, it is his unnatural obsession with thwarting death, with living forever, that corrupts Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) so completely. No one is meant to live forever, and the twisted desire to will result in the ruination of your soul. It is for this reason that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) goes to die in the forest. It is the next logical step in the mystery, and the next step in destroying Voldemort. And as Neville (Matthew Lewis) says when they all think Harry has died, he still lives within them, just as all their fallen comrades do. “People die every day.” But not Harry. Harry is the boy who lived.

The maturation of Neville Longbottom over the course of the eight films is easily one of the most moving among all the characters. Not only has he changed physically (and oh, has he changed — Neville’s transformation from a schlubby kid to a tall, impressive young man is perhaps the best example to kids that they won’t always be the awkward dope they are at 11), but he’s grown in confidence and abilities too. He’s a leader now, and an inspiration to others. He’s also a courageous fighter, and it is he, not Harry, not Ron (Rupert Grint) and not Hermione (Emma Watson) who kills Voldemort’s snake Nagini.

Other characters get some triumphant moments in Part 2 as well. Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) stands up to Snape (Alan Rickman) and Slytherins looking to turn over Harry alike, as well as to use the spell she’s always wanted to use, in the protection of Hogwarts. Likewise, it is Luna (Evanna Lynch) and her rare and logical reasoning that directs Harry to the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw (Kelly Macdonald) to find the lost Ravenclaw diadem, long since turned into another of Voldemort’s horcruxes. And prototypical nurturer Molly Weasley (Julie Walters) has always been a formidable mother to her children, but mostly just a loving and gracious host the rest of the time. Not so when Ginny (Bonnie Wright) is threatened by mad killer Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). “Not my daughter, you bitch,” she shouts, and she unleashes some seriously badass magic, shriveling Bellatrix into nothing and then exploding her apart. Take THAT, you evil witch!

Helena Bonham Carter, of course, is a phenomenal actress, and no scene is better than her acting as Hermione disguised as Bellatrix via Polyjuice Potion. The uncertainty and stilted nature of her carriage and speech is masterful and so unlike the unflinching cruelty Carter infuses Bellatrix with normally. It may have been a longshot, but I really would’ve liked to see a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her in this film. She earned it, completely.

The movie is different from Rowling’s text in several places, as it needs to be in order to transform the story to a visual medium, but the spirit of the narrative remains largely intact to a really impressive degree. There are thrilling action sequences, weighty emotional scenes, and an almost zen acceptance of the inevitability of what’s to come. Be it the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis) leading Harry, Ron and Hermione into Bellatrix’s vault at Gringott’s Bank, and their subsequently wild escape on the back of a dragon, the terrifying release of the Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement, Snape’s loving and heartbreaking memories of Harry’s mother Lily (Geraldine Somerville) (and Snape’s role in Dumbledore’s plan), Harry’s talk with Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) in the heavenly King’s Cross Station, or Harry’s final battle with Voldemort, the film moves seamlessly between moods and tones and creates a world as fully realized on the screen as it was in our minds when reading the books. “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry, but why should that mean that it’s not real?”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 does not hold back at all, and several lives are lost in the course of the film. Characters on both sides are killed, and many of our favorites are still being mourned by fans. (I will never ever get over my beloved Fred (James Phelps) having to perish.) But death is a part of life, and no one can live forever except in our hearts. Which they do, as evidenced by the children we have to carry on our names and legacies, and the children Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione have as they start a brand new cycle of life and growth by sending their own children off to Hogwarts. A new generation to grow and change, to face their own trials, their own triumphs, and their own lives.

Life, as we know, goes on.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 57 Days to go: 40

Movie #383:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

So now the quest for horcruxes begins in earnest. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are preparing to set out as soon as Harry turns seventeen and is no longer a minor under magical law. For Hermione, who has non-magical parents, this means wiping their memories entirely, so as to protect them from anyone who might want to get to her. For Harry, his own muggle family the Dursleys (beautifully played over the course of seven films by Richard Griffiths, Fiona Shaw and Harry Melling) are evacuating the house on Privet Drive. And soon the Order descends on the house to pick up Harry himself, secreting him away to the newly protected home of the Weasleys. (Several of whom will be disguised as Harry himself — a fun bit of comedy and special effects to get the ball rolling. The Weasley twins (James and Oliver Phelps), especially, are great fun at all times. If you do not have a favorite, and if that favorite is not Fred (James), then I don’t understand you at all.)

This first action sequence is both thrilling and terrible, as the Order is attacked by Death Eaters and not everyone makes it out alive. Mad-Eye (Brendan Gleeson) is killed, but sadder still is the loss of Harry’s loyal owl Hedwig. This, plus the injury to George, sets the tone right from the start: No one is safe. Lives will be lost. The final confrontation is near.

But before that confrontation can come, the three friends are forced to go out on their own and fumble about, trying to find the missing horcruxes, to figure out what they even are, and to prepare themselves for the meeting with Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). And Voldemort is preparing too. As we see in Harry’s dreams and visions, Voldemort is after something as well. He wants a wand, the Elder Wand, in fact, a wand said to be the most powerful in the world.

The animated telling of the story of the three brothers, wherein the legend of the Deathly Hallows emerges, is one of the most beautiful and haunting sequences in any of the films. Narrated by Hermione, the tale identifies the three magical objects known as the Deathly Hallows — the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak. These three items can help one become master over death, able to defeat it, and they will be invaluable to the wizard that claims them.

More than any of the other films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is about the relationship of these three friends, about their fears, their strengths, their weaknesses, their passions, and their loyalty. It’s about the strong sibling-esque bond between Harry and Hermione, the brotherly love (and sometimes rivalry) of Harry and Ron, and the growing love and closeness between Hermione and Ron. The movie is almost naturalistic in this sense, focusing simply on the mostly aimless wanderings of three young adults, trying to make their way, to reach their goals. But for all that simplicity, there is also quite a bit of action and suspense in this final installment before the end.

There are several attacks on the trio as they live on the run from Death Eaters and Snatchers, both in the woods, on the London streets, and at the home of Xenophilius Lovegood (Rhys Ifans). There are also the scenes involving the locket horcrux, when the friends sneak into the Ministry thanks to the Polyjuice potion to steal it from Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), plus the scene in the Forest of Dean when the patronus of a doe reveals to Harry the location of the Sword of Gryffindor, which can destroy the horcrux. (This is the third time Harry nearly drowns, though he is thankfully saved by Ron, who rejoined his friends thanks to the deluminator left to him in Dumbledore’s will — an object that first appeared in the first scene of the first film in the series.) The actual destruction of the horcrux is also pretty harrowing, playing on every one of Ron’s insecurities. And then there’s their capture and escape from Malfoy manner, as Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) tortures poor Hermione and dear sweet Dobby the Elf (voiced by Toby Jones) loses his life to save the others.

Sadly, not every aspect of Rowling’s exquisite book could be included in the film, and the tale of Kreacher (voiced by Simon McBurney) — one of my most favorite, most heartbreaking scenes in the novel — is all but entirely lost. But the overall story of the first half of the book is held remarkably intact and I find myself incredibly grateful that the finale was split into two films. For how much more could you cut?

Next, we open on the close, in which Voldemort has the Elder Wand (stolen from Dumbledore’s tomb) and things will finally come to an end for Harry Potter.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

 

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 58 Days to go: 41

Movie #382:  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Darkness has come to Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his Death Eaters are out in full force, young Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) has been charged with a deadly task, enigmatically-aligned Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) has made an unbreakable vow to help him, and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) seems to know his time is limited.

He doesn’t let on about that knowledge to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), though, or anyone else in the Order. Dumbledore is a man who always keeps his cards very close to his chest. What he does, however, is pass on as much knowledge to Harry as he possibly can, in private sessions where he teaches Harry about Voldemort, by sharing his memories of him in his pensieve. It is in these sessions Harry and Dumbledore confirm Voldemort’s use of horcruxes — a dark device used to hold a piece of his soul so that he may never completely die — and that he had planned, back when he was in school, to create seven of them.

The horcruxes include the diary Harry destroyed in Chamber of Secrets and a ring that apparently blackened Dumbledore’s hand over the summer (the story is thrilling but best saved for another time, or so he says). The rest, they will have to find, and the quest they take for one — a locket — turns out to be harrowing, potentially deadly, and possibly fruitless. (It is here Harry almost drowns for the second time, being pulled under by the souls of the dead who inhabit the cursed lake near which the horcrux resides.) It does not bode well for Harry’s future success.

Other evil lurks around corners, too, as one student is cursed and Ron (Rupert Grint) is poisoned by efforts which Harry is certain are Draco’s. He confronts him, they battle, and Harry winds up using a spell on Draco he read in a mysterious old potion book. The spell cuts Draco to shreds, and Severus is forced to heal him. (This also tips Severus off to the fact that Harry is using this book, which used to belong to Severus himself, though the reveal is not handled well in this movie at all, and the entire impact of the mysterious Half-Blood Prince is diminished for other plot points.)

One of those plot points deemed far more important for the film to explore is the blossoming of young love at Hogwarts. Ginny (Bonnie Wright) is dating Dean Thomas (How to Get Away with Murder‘s Alfred Enoch), much to Harry’s chagrin. Ron is snogging Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave) on a near-constant basis, and it’s killing Hermione (Emma Watson). And Cormac McClaggen (Freddie Stroma) is licking his finger’s in Hermione’s general direction while Romilda Vane (Anna Shaffer) is smuggling love potion into Harry’s dorm room. It’s silly at times, heartbreaking at others, and another reminder that aside from a magical battle of good and evil, Rowling’s Harry Potter stories are all really about the act — the pain, the joy, the hardships and the trials — of growing up.

Of course, a Harry Potter story as dark as this one probably wouldn’t be enjoyable at all if not for the delightful comic relief of one Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who returns to Hogwarts as Potions Master while Snape finally takes his place teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Slughorn is a perfect example of a Slytherin who is not bent on badness, but merely self-interest and ambition. He likes to “collect” famous or prominent or skilled wizards in order to get himself a bit of prominence or favoritism in the bargain, be it tickets to Quidditch matches or being published in the Daily Prophet or simply running with an influential crowd. But he’s really much more funny than cloying, and as he likes to enjoy his Butterbeer, he’d probably be fun to hang out with. Slughorn’s scenes are always offering up a joke or a funny line-reading, or even a flabbergasted exclamation of “Merlin’s Beard!” But the best scene of all is when Harry drinks the Liquid Luck potion in an attempt to worm the information he needs out of old Slughorn. Broadbent is a natural (if uncommon) comedian, but Daniel Radcliffe really stretches his comedic legs in this scene, acting almost drunk and leisurely in the most delightful way. It brings a definite stream of brightness into an otherwise dour film, filled with foreboding turns of events.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is when everything comes to a head and all-out war is near. There’s no going back for this, just as there’s no going back to Hogwarts for Harry. When we return tomorrow, it’s the beginning of the end.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 59 Days to go: 41

Movie #381:  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

If you’re going to pit Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) against Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), it had better be a major battle. No wand sparks and streams of green and red light emitting from forcefully pointed sticks. There had better be destruction. Chaos. All hell breaking loose. Thankfully, the filmmakers of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix understood this, and the final battle in the film is one for the ages, with fire and floods and shards of glass and complete havoc wreaked inside the Ministry of Magic, nearly tearing it apart. It’s everything a magical confrontation of the two most powerful wizards should be. It even ends with Voldemort briefly possessing Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and tormenting his mind in terrible, frightening ways. But even the terrorizing, merciless acts of Voldemort don’t hold a candle to the real villain of Order of the Phoenix: Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton).

Dolores Umbridge is a Ministry official intent on quashing talk that Voldemort has returned. In an effort to discredit Harry’s and Dumbledore’s claims that he has, she takes the open Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts and then uses her influence with the Minister Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy) to appoint herself High Inquisitor — a position of great power than allows her to fire teachers, ban activities and use corporal punishment (or even torture) on students. As a teacher she is practically useless, offering the students no actual skills or defenses, instead insisting on teaching them strictly theory via a child’s textbook, as a means to simply pass their assessment tests but not gain any real knowledge, but as High Inquisitor she’s a despot, cruelly interrogating students with veritaserum (or the Cruciatus Curse, if it suits her), having them followed, and forbidding any and all activities that could be considered independent or against her rule. She is racist against “half-breeds” like centaurs, she is gleefully sadistic and power-hungry, and she is the enemy of free thought.

In every way, Dolores Umbridge gives off a feeling of unease, like she is not to be trusted, and once again, this is evidence of J. K. Rowling’s imaginative and thoughtful storytelling. If something is dolorous, it is mournful, bringing about pain or grief or sorrow. And umbrage is a feeling of offense or annoyance or hostility. Rowling gives her villain a name using homonyms of these words to express someone who, despite her sunny, perfectly pink wardrobe, affection for fluffy kitties and high, cheerful voice, is incredibly off-putting, offensive and hostile. She brings nothing but grief and sorrow and pain to people at Hogwarts, interfering with the school on every level, and eventually deposing Dumbledore as Headmaster when the Ministry attempts to arrest him for building an army against them.

Dumbledore’s Army, as it is called, comes into being not by Dumbledore’s hand, but by Harry’s as he, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) convince other students that Voldemort is out there and that they have to learn how to defend themselves. The students band together and meet in secret, in the hidden Room of Requirement, practicing stuns and patronuses and all sorts of other defensive magic, with Harry as their teacher. It’s one of my favorite sequences in all the films — indeed, I think Order of the Phoenix is the best of the films overall — because it involves so many of our favorite students interacting with one another and building confidence in their abilities. Plus you get to see many of their patronuses — always a favorite insight into their character.

The characters in Order of the Phoenix expand as well, as we’re introduced to many people outside of Hogwarts who are also part of the titular Order, secretly amassing against the Death Eaters. In addition to characters we already know, like Sirius (Gary Oldman), Lupin (David Thewlis), Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the Weasleys (Mark Williams and Julie Walters) and (to Harry’s displeasure) Snape (Alan Rickman), there is also Tonks (Natalia Tena) and Ministry guard Kingsley Shacklebolt (George Harris). And there is the introduction of the headquarter’s secret location, in the hidden Black family home, where House Elf Kreacher (voiced by Timothy Bateson), will prove important later. And at school we also meet the unique and incomparable Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) who, in addition to Fred and George Weasley (James and Oliver Phelps), Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) will become instrumental to the cause as well. But there aren’t just new good guys, however, as one of the most notorious followers of Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), is broken out of Azkaban and proves to be a deadly addition to Voldemort’s crew.

There are a lot of things going on in Order of the Phoenix, both inside Hogwarts and out, and it is clear that an all-out war between good and evil is inevitable and forces are mounting. The magical world is no longer limited to the school, just as, at fifteen the world tends to open up beyond that of your school and home life. Bigger issues are at play, and sometimes terrible things will happen, but, in Hogwarts as in life, Harry is best equipped to handle them because of his friends, because of his loved ones and because, “We have something worth fighting for.” As the forces of good and evil come ever closer to confrontation, Harry and the members of the Order are all going to have to cling to those things more than ever.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 60 Days to go: 42

Movie #380:  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The plot thickens!

Once we get to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the books have more than doubled in size, but the movies have stayed around the same length, leading to a film jam-packed with action. The central conceit is the Triwizard Tournament, which brings in students from two new schools to compete against a Hogwarts champion in three different challenges. That alone is a formidable plot, adding all sorts of new characters, locations and complications to life at Hogwarts, but it’s not the only thing going on. There’s also the Quidditch World Cup, attacks by Death Eaters, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) being mysteriously and nefariously entered into the tournament, evil and prophetic dreams featuring a fetal dark lord, Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) and a creepy lip-licker we’ll come to find out is Barty Crouch Jr. (David Tennant, before he became the 10th Doctor), a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in the form of Alastor Moody (Brendan Gleeson), and the full-fledged return of a living breathing, long-toed, long-nailed Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). That last thing, too, is a particular setback, considering Voldemort wastes no time whatsoever killing people, namely handsome upright Hufflepuff citizen Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson).

Note: The look Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ginny (Bonnie Wright) exchange the first time they get a good look at Cedric can be roughly translated as “Team Edward, please!”

For all that activity going on, though, there’s also quite a bit of emotional maturation. Harry’s classmates are all now at the age when they’re starting to have romantic interests, and those issues bubble up not only with the arrival of the comely students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, but also with the advent of the Yule Ball, at which Harry and Ron (Rupert Grint) prove to be the worst dates ever and Hermione shows the first signs of frustration at Ron that are not entirely due to his stupidity. It’s also the first time real feelings of rivalry, jealousy and anger emerge between Ron and Harry. The two are often sullen, angry and confused, as any 14-year-old boy with raging hormones is apt to be. And who could be anything but thoroughly tickled at Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson) getting delightfully pervy with Harry in the bath? Honestly I’m not sure which is funnier, her aggressive flirting or his palpable discomfort.

Goblet of Fire is also as good a time as any to expound on one of my favorite aspects of Rowling’s storytelling: her made up magical words all share roots with words that have comparable definitions. Dumbledore (played by Michael Gambon starting in Azkaban, after Richard Harris passed away) has a pensieve in his office, which holds and lets one revisit memories, just as “pensive” means thoughtful. Gillyweed gives you gills. Expelliarmus expels the wand from your hand. Leviosa is like “levitate.” Reducto reduces. The Imperio Curse acts like an imperial order, forcing the victim to do your bidding. The Cruciatus Curse is excruciating torture. And Avada Kedavra calls to mind the word “cadaver.” As all these spells and plots come together, it’s more and more obvious that the Harry Potter series is one of the most thoughtful and well-planned stories ever. I am continually impressed by it.

Of course, a movie with a lot of magical action can not live on words and emotions alone. There have to be special effects, and Goblet of Fire impresses on that front as well. Every time I watch it, I positively marvel at the Hungarian Horntail dragon awkwardly climbing over a Hogwarts roof, breaking and dropping tiles as he goes. Or the challenge in the Black Lake, when Harry grows fins and gills to explore a world filled with creatures both familiar and legendary and never-before imagined. The seaweed is just as perfectly tangled as the merpeople are terrifying and the grindylows are grasping and deadly.

Interestingly, Goblet of Fire is also the first time in the series Harry nearly drowns. It will not be the last. But the image and concept of being pulled down under water, unable to break free, is certainly indicative of the same kind of pressure Harry faces in his life, as the threat of Voldemort and his destiny comes closer and closer to overpowering him.

Things really start to ramp up for Harry and friends in Goblet of Fire, and the journey is only going to get more and more difficult, more and more harrowing, more and more deadly. Tomorrow, we’ll meet one of the series most cruel villains in the guise of a pink tweed bureaucrat.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Schindler’s List

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 200  Days to go: 140

Movie #238:  Schindler’s List

It’s hard to know what to even say about Schindler’s List that hasn’t already been said a hundred times. It’s such a gorgeous film: stark, brave, unrelenting. It’s such an affecting story — beautifully tragic and tragically beautiful. Spielberg’s direction is masterful, as he manages to strike a balance between the film’s horrors and hopefulness so that it leaves your heart both heavy and light. Like Schindler (Liam Neeson) himself, I weep for all the more he could’ve done. Like Stern (Ben Kingsley), I am so grateful for and moved by all he did. The events of this film are so far from me personally, and yet they strike at the center of basic humanity, thereby affecting us all. It’s a film not just about Jewish lives, but about all our lives.

Oskar Schindler, it has been pointed out many times, was not a righteous or noble man. He was a lothario, a war profiteer, and an opportunist. He was a shrewd businessman who wasn’t very good at legitimate businesses but knew how to ingratiate himself with powerful people. He took advantage of the second world war in order to make himself a wealthy man, and he was successful at it. But along the way, he also managed to save over 1100 Jewish lives. At first, his motivation for using Jews in his factory was, quite simply, that he didn’t have to pay them like he would the non-Jewish Poles in Krakow. In fact, he moved to Krakow for the express purpose of making use of this slave labor workforce the Nazis has gathered in the ghettos. It was very convenient. By the end of the war, however, he’d argued with the SS, been to see every commandant that he could, and been to Auschwitz and back (among other things) in order to keep his workers — the Jews on his list — from being murdered. And he spent every penny he had on bribes and kickbacks and gifts so the German army would never come knocking.

It’s an incredible thing, when you think about it, the sacrifice and complexity of this years-long heroic act he achieved. He was openly defying and manipulating Nazi officers, and yet he had to do it in a way that didn’t cause too much suspicion or notice. When he is visited by a woman living in Krakow under false papers, who is hoping he will save her parents, he is furious and scared at this reputation he is getting. He doesn’t want to be entrapped and imprisoned, but he also doesn’t want people he knows to be killed, and as soon as he hears their names, he saves them. As the war goes on, and he becomes bolder in his efforts to keep his list intact, he brilliantly used his high-powered friendships with Nazi elite to get out of scrapes. He entreated and cajoled and threatened, in constant danger of his own death for being a “Jew-lover,” all to save this one small corner of the world.

It wasn’t such a small corner, though. As the closing title card indicates, Schindler’s Jews and their descendants now number over six thousand, compared with only four thousand left alive in all of Poland. That’s amazing (and awful) (and astounding). It’s as if someone took an endangered species from the brink of eradication and gave them a safe environment in which to thrive, only the endangered species was people and it’s both shocking what one group of people can do to another and infinitely impressive what one man was able to accomplish to counteract it.

Unlike a lot of other films with heavy subjects, I find Schindler’s List very rewatchable. The images are so profound, the music so lovely and haunting, and the performances so memorable. People have called the use of black and white exclusively (with the exception of a little red coat) gimmicky, but I disagree. I think the fact that the film is all in gray mirrors the very gray areas Oskar Schindler himself existed in, and I think it makes the story itself stand out and be as noticeable as it should be. I think the girl in the red coat is an example of the tipping point in all of us, the one atrocity we notice in a given situation that really brings it home and makes it meaningful. I think Neeson embodied all parts of this man and made him real while doing ample justice to his legacy. I find Ralph Fiennes more terrifying here as murderous bully Amon Goeth than he could ever hope to be as evil Lord Voldemort. I find the faces of the Jews etched in my mind, be it all those hiding in the ghetto, or the architect as she awkwardly falls down dead, or the gushing blood from any number of head wounds, or the way none of them ever look a German in the eye, or Helen (Embeth Davidtz) as she stands before Amon in the thinnest of nightgowns, trembling in fear of whatever may come, or little Olek climbing down into the latrine waste to hide, or the faces of all the women at Auschwitz as they stand in the baths, naked, with their hair completely shorn, afraid they are about to be gassed. And while I am moved through a series of emotions as I watch, I am guaranteed to cry at Oskar’s pain over not having saved just one more Jew.

Honestly, I applaud and admire the acts of this man, as everyone should, and I am in awe of the faith that carried a lot of these people through such an unthinkable time with so many terrible losses. And I believe that this is what makes you a good person — not abiding by a certain religion or holding to a particular set of rules, but by helping those around you who need help and giving of yourself to better the life of someone else. It doesn’t have to be on a large scale or done via grand gesture, but remembering and respecting our humanity is what makes us humane, and that’s something we all should strive for. Schindler’s List reminds me of that.