Stephen Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film, Schindler’s List, tells the amazing true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a German member of the Nazi Party who used his money and resources to help save hundreds of Jews from being massacred during the Holocaust of World War II, by employing them in his factories, and compassionately making sure they received enough food and water to survive.

The film is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel “Schindler’s Ark”, and opens in 1939 as the Germans occupy Poland, and start forcing the Jews to leave their homes and move into an overcrowded section of Krakow known as The Ghetto. The Jews are treated like animals. They are round up, forced to register and wear arm bands with the Star of David so they are easily identifiable on the streets. They are mocked, harassed, mistreated and murdered by the soldiers. Even the young German children follow in the soldiers’ footsteps.

Second Lieutenant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives in town to oversee the construction of a concentration camp that the Jews are forced to work grueling hours to build for themselves. Goeth amuses himself by using random workers for target practice, leaving the prisoners in a constant state of fear. And once the camp is complete Goeth orders the mass execution of those still in the Ghetto. People desperately try to hide or escape, but ultimately end up getting shot and killed. Men, women, and children, young or old, are all fair game. The despicable Goeth is also constantly abusing and mistreating his Jewish maid, Helen Hirsch (Embeth Davidtz).

Oskar Schindler sees these atrocities and decides to do something about it. He negotiates with Goeth to allow him to run his own factory under his own rules, using the prisoners as his workforce. He hires Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help him with the books, and they start filling his enamelware and munitions factories with the Jewish workers. Stern serves as a conscience for Schindler, helping him to understand what his people are going through, and assisting him in making lists of the Jewish families that he can hire in order to keep them from getting separated, tortured, or sent to the gas chamber. The Jews employed in Schindler’s factories quickly see him as a godsend and a savior, and their only chance of making it out of the war alive.

I had never seen Schindler’s List until I received this 4K release for review. The subject matter covered by the film is both horrifying and important. The film is uncomfortable to watch at times as it portrays this senseless persecution and murder of people solely because of their religion. There are some pretty amazing and emotional performances from Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes does an excellent job at making you hate this despicable soldier. That said, the film was way too long, clocking in at 195 minutes! The same material could have easily been covered in half the time. There were also many moments where characters are speaking foreign languages that were not subtitled. In some cases, perhaps this was to make the viewer feel the confusion the Jews must have felt as the Germans screamed at them in an unknown language, but this certainly didn’t apply to every unsubtitled scene.

I have never been much of a black & white fan, especially when we have the technology to make color films and a filmmaker still chooses not to use it. This was the primary reason I had held off watching this movie for 25 years. The only color portions of this film are the modern-day opening and closing tags, as well as in one scene where Schindler watches a little girl in a red coat try to hide from the Nazis. This artistic use of B&W did nothing to change my opinion on the use of the antiquated format. While the B&W in this case makes the film feel more like a historical documentary, I think the senseless violence could have been even more impactful in full color, without the blood and gore being hidden in the murky shadows of black & white.

Universal’s new 4K Ultra HD release offers a striking picture that is very clear & detailed, with a pleasant amount of grain. Even in more-crowed scenes, individual people and buildings can be identified with great clarity. The B&W 4K Dolby Vision picture yields a wider palette of grays, but there are still some moments where details are hidden in the darkness/shadows. This appears to be a stylistic choice, and not a limitation of the format, as blacks look solid and true, without any signs of crush. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack provides clear dialogue, and excellent presentation of the film’s haunting score, and makes the horrifying screams of terror, and the deadly gunshots of senseless murders sound even more harrowing.

The 4K Ultra HD release comes packed in standard UHD keepcase with a plastic tray to hold an extra disc. It comes with an embossed slipcover, and contains an insert with a code to redeem for a 4K Movies Anywhere digital copy of the film. All of the supplemental material is included on a separate bonus Blu-ray disc. The material new to this release includes a 40-minute 2018 Tribeca Film Festival panel with the director/cast and a promotional featurette for the Shoah Foundation with an introduction by Steven Spielberg. Other material ported from the previous Blu-ray release includes a 77-minute documentary with testimonies from Holocaust survivors and two other short promotional featurettes for the Shoah Foundation.

What’s Included:

Film: (3:15:07)

4K Ultra HD:
• 2160p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Dolby Vision and HDR10
• Audio: English Dolby Atmos, Spanish DTS-HD High Resolution Audio 5.1, French DTS-HD High Resolution Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Blu-ray:

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, French 5.1 DTS Digital Surround
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital (for redemption deadline, see NBCUcodes.com):

• 4K Digital copy redeemable via Movies Anywhere

Extras:

All bonus material is only located on the Blu-ray bonus disc. Most of the bonus material has been ported over from the previous Blu-ray release. The only new features are a 25th anniversary director/cast panel from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, and a promotional featurette for the Shoah Foundation with an introduction by Steven Spielberg.

• Schindler’s List: 25 Years Later (39:56)
  Footage from the 25th anniversary Tribeca Film Festival panel held in 2018 at The Beacon Theatre with stars Liam Neeson (“Oskar Schindler”), Ben Kingsley (“Itzhak Stern”), Caroline Goodall (“Emilie Schindler”), and Embeth Davidtz (“Helen Hirsch”), and director/producer Steven Spielberg. The panel is moderated by film critic Janet Maslin. The participants reflect on the making of the film, its legacy, and what it was like seeing the film again 25-years later. The panel is inter-cut with clips and behind-the-scenes footage. Spielberg talks about balancing his time working on both Jurassic Park and Schindler at the same time, his weekly phone conversations with Robin Williams and watching tapes of SNL in order to keep his mood light during production, casting the film, and more. Neeson talks about preparing for his role, and his emotional journey making the film. The other actors talk about their characters, working with Ralph Fiennes, and more. This is new to this release.
• Voices from the List (1:17:30)
  Director Steven Spielberg provides an introduction to this feature length documentary in which Holocaust survivors provide testimonials about their scary and horrific experiences during the war in Poland. The participants also talk about how their lives were saved by Oskar Schindler. The interviews are from the archives of the USC Shoah Foundation, and are presented in 4:3 full frame format.
• USC Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg (4:55)
  A look at the work the Shoah Foundation is doing, archiving the testimonies of Holocaust and other genocide survivors to teach future generations. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with film director Stephen Spielberg, foundation executive director Stephen D. Smith, director Karen Jungblut, managing director Kim Simon, CTO Sam Gustman, USC dean Amber Miller, and Holocaust/genocide survivors Henry Arzt, Lea Fanarof, Walter Thalheimer, Consolee Nishimwe, Coenraad Rood, and Roman Ferber.
• Let Their Testimonies Speak—Stronger Than Hate (3:50)
  Promotional featurette for the Shoah Foundation, which is helping to give survivors the courage and means to share their stories with the the world. This is new to this release.
• About IWitness (4:03)
  Promotional featurette for the Shoah Foundation’s IWitness tool, which allows students to watch and learn from the video testimony of survivor experiences.

Final Thoughts:

Universal’s new 4K UltraHD release of Schindler’s List is a must own for fans of the film. It provides a solid new presentation as well as a couple new bonus features and 4K digital copy of the film. While I thought the film had some really strong performances and an important message and story to tell, I thought the film was way too long, and don’t know that it is one that I would revisit any time soon (it’s not a particularly feel-good movie). But for those who are already fans of the film, this is definitely the release to own.