Even though Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List won the Academy Award for best picture in 1993 and is regarded as the pre-eminent film on the Holocaust, to English Professor Al Filreis it is still, without question, "a lousy movie." Filreis expressed his loathing for the 1993 film during an animated discussion, aptly titled "What's Wrong With Schindler's List?" at the Kelly Writers House on Friday night. Spielberg's Schindler's List traces the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who risked his life to save 1,000 Jews from death in perilous Nazi Germany during World War II. Supporting his claim, Filreis argued that Spielberg's film glosses over many of the complexities of the Holocaust by attempting to summarize the horrific event in one simplified feature-length Hollywood film. "It shows that one aspect [of Schindler] but it has truth claims that are very strong and powerful," Filreis said. "Its truth claims are that [it] is the film about the Holocaust. It's clearly made to be the final statement." Yet in the face of the tragedy of the Holocaust, Filreis added, such claims are absurd, as "closure [and] definiteness [are] not appropriate." Filreis voiced concern that many people, unfamiliar with the tragedies of the Holocaust, mistakingly view the film as an accurate historical summary of more than 15 years of terror. "Kids were interviewed in the Midwest who had never seen anything about the Holocaust and would never hear anything again," Filreis said. "This was it." "A good Austrian saves Jews. That's the story. Congratulations -- now you have the Holocaust," he added. Filreis pointed out that the story of Schindler is just one in a series of many different experiences. He also accused Spielberg of sentimentalizing Schindler's character and falsely attributing heroism to a man who was simply able to act upon injustice because he was in the right place at the right time. "Spielberg forgot that this was a pragmatic triumph of good over evil. [And that] you have to treat the story with modesty," Filreis said. He went on to suggest that to neatly package thousands of experiences into one film wrongfully represents the different stories of the Holocaust. College junior Liz Silver, a Jewish Renaissance Project fellow, organized the event, the first collaborative effort between the JRP and the Writers House. The evening's discussion was especially relevant to Silver, whose grandfather was rescued from death as a member on Schindler's now-famous list. The discussion, which packed students, a handful of Penn professors and Philadelphia residents into the Writers House dining room, followed a traditional Shabbat dinner. "It's important that we know that Schindler's List is not the only defining moment in Jewish history," College junior Dori Kamlet said in agreement with Filreis. "Everybody had a lot of great points and I am very pleased with tonight," Silver added. Filreis and Film Studies Progam Director Millicent Marcus will co-teach a freshman seminar in the fall entitled "Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and in Film." The course will be a part of the College of Arts and Sciences' pilot curriculum.
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