Schindler's List - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Schindler's List or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Schindler's List

[kylie]

Steven Spielberg offered the job of director to Roman Polanski. Polanski turned it down because the subject was too personal. He had lived in the Krakow ghetto until the age of eight, when he escaped on the day of the liquidation. His mother later died at the Auschwitz concentration camp. After learning this, Spielberg immediately and repeatedly apologized for bringing up such a traumatic memory. However, Polanski would later direct his own movie about the Holocaust which contained many autobiographical elements, The Pianist (2002).

[ruby]

According to Czech filmmaker Juraj Herz, the scene where a group of women confuse a shower for a gas chamber was taken direct from his own The Night Overtake Me (1986) shot for shot. Herz wanted to sue, but he couldn't come up with the money to fund it.

[charlie]

Juliette Binoche was offered a role, which she has described in interviews as a woman who was to be raped and then murdered, but she turned it down. She had already turned Steven Spielberg down once that same year, passing on the role of Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park (1993) to make Three Colors: Blue (1993).

[bessie]

In 1962, on his birthday, Oskar Schindler planted a tree on the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem.

[elmer]

DIRECTOR CAMEO (Steven Spielberg A liberated Schindler Jew among the hundreds crossing a field near the end of the film.

[brent]

The film's tagline "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire" is a quotation from the Talmud.

[harry]

The first film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, and BAFTA Awards, as well as Best Picture - Drama at the Golden Globe Awards.

[jesus]

During production, the atmosphere was so grim and depressing that Steven Spielberg asked his friend Robin Williams if he could tell some jokes and do comedy sketches while Spielberg would watch episodes of Seinfeld (1989). Some of Williams' sketches, while played through the speaker phone to the cast and crew, ended up being part of dialogue material for his character in Aladdin (1992), the Genie.

[jeffrey]

After the book's author Thomas Keneally wrote a miniseries-length script, Kurt Luedtke was hired by Steven Spielberg to write the screenplay, but he gave up after four years' work, reportedly because he was unable to come up with a believable reason for Schindler's conversion from opportunist to sympathizer. Steven Zaillian, who had already written a script when Martin Scorsese was still directing, was called back. Together with Spielberg, he conceived the scene where Schindler witnesses the ghetto liquidation, with the focus on the red-coated girl.

[bryan]

This film and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) are the two films for which Steven Spielberg would best like to be remembered.

[jessica]

Steven Spielberg watched episodes of Seinfeld (1989) every night after work to lighten his mood.

[morris]

Claire Danes was originally considered by Steven Spielberg for a role, but she turned it down because he couldn't provide her with tutoring on the set. The part for which she was considered is unknown.

[steve]

As of 2018, features Liam Neeson's only Oscar nominated performance.

[veronica]

Embeth Davidtz deliberately chose not to meet Helen Hirsch, the character she was playing in the film, until after shooting had been completed.

[jamie]

Ranked #3 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time (2006).

[liam]

According to the art directors, no green paint or clothing were used on the set because the color would not show up well on black and white film. Special attention was paid to how much lighting or paint was used, in order to appear correctly on film, regardless of how unrealistic it seemed in real life.

[steve]

Harrison Ford was the first choice for the title role, but declined, saying that some people would not be able to look past his Indiana Jones persona to see the importance of the film.

[lonnie]

Branko Lustig previously produced War and Remembrance (1988), which also featured Rudolph Hoess as a character.

[michele]

The only film released in the last quarter century to make it onto the American Film Institute's top ten list of best American movies of all time.