Schindler

Schindler's List (1993)

Information at Internet Movie Database
Themes
- Conversion
  - Schindler's change in character from one who only wants to serve himself to one who sacrifices his safety and wealth for others.
  - Another movie that follows this theme of transformation through entering into relationship is Schindler's List. (submitted by Edie Bird, Fayetteville, Arkansas)
- Freedom
  - Clip from Schindler's List (starting as the folks from the factory gather to give Schinlder the ring - "He who saves one life..." through them driving away dressed in prison clothes.
    
    Luther in his Small Catechism:
    He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person. He has purchased and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. He has done all this in order that I may belong to him, live under him in his kingdom, serve him in eternal righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true. (A Contemporary Translation of Luther's Small Catechism)
    
    John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
    
    Luther in his lecture on Galatians: "By this fortunate exchange with us He took upon Himself our sinful person and granted us His innocent and victorious Person. Clothed and dressed in this we are freed from the curse of the Law, because Christ Himself voluntarily became a curse for us, saying: ?For my own Person of humanity and divinity I am blessed, and I am in need of nothing whatever. But I shall empty Myself (Phil 2:7); I shall assume your clothing and mask; and in this I shall walk about and suffer death, in order to set you free from death." (284)
    
    Luther's "Happy Exchange" (submitted by Pastor Jeff Whillock)
- Friendship
  - The relationship between Schindler and Stern
- Guilt
  - Amon Goethe (touching his reflection in a mirror): "I pardon you."
- Holocaust
- Hope
  - Amon Goethe: "You're cruel Oskar. You're giving them hope. Now *that's* cruel!"
- Institutional Evil
  - Holocaust, war, and Schindler's initial participation in them presented as institutional evil.
- Power
  - Oskar Schindler: Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't.
    Amon Goethe: You think that's power?
    Oskar Schindler: That's what the Emperor said. A man stole something, he's brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for his life, he knows he's going to die. And the Emperor...pardons him. It's a worthless man, he lets him go.
    Amon Goethe: I think you are drunk.
    Oskar Schindler: That's power, Amon. That is power.
- Savior/Saving
  - Schindler saves Jews from the Holocaust. Stern saves Schindler from Schindler's own destructive character.
- Scapegoat
  - Amon Goethe: "They cast a spell on you, you know, the Jews. When you work closely with them, like I do, you see this. They have this power. It's like a virus. Some of my men are infected with this virus. They should be pitied, not punished. They should receive treatment because this is as real as typhus. I see it all the time. It's a matter of money? Hmm?"
- War

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