Trivia / Schindler's List

• Creator's Favorite Episode: Steven Spielberg called this his most important film and the best film he's ever made.
  Steven Spielberg: "It’s the best movie I’ve ever made. I am not going to say it’s the best movie I ever will make. But currently, it’s the work I’m proudest of."
• Darkhorse Casting: Steven Spielberg cast the relatively unknown Liam Neeson so that his star quality wouldn't overpower the character. Likewise, Ralph Fiennes was a relative unknown.
• Doing It for the Art: Spielberg refused to accept a director's salary for this film, feeling that doing so would be "blood money," and instead funneled it into the establishment of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. He also deliberately left the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial-inspired Amblin Entertainment Vanity Plate off the film to keep it from appearing "whimsical" and still refuses to autograph any copies of the film or promotional materials.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Ralph Fiennes put on twenty-eight pounds (thirteen kilograms) by drinking Guinness for his role of Amon Goeth.
• Fake Nationality: Schindler (Sudeten German) is portrayed by Liam Neeson (Northern Irish); Goeth (Austrian) by Ralph Fiennes (English), and Stern (Polish) by Ben Kingsley, who is an Englishman of partially Indian descent. Several minor characters, however, are played by Polish actors. Since "Jewish" is not a nationality, virtually all the Jews portrayed in the film are this - most of them native Israeli actors feigning a vaguely eastern-European accent, or in some cases just using an Israeli accent.
• In Memoriam: This film was dedicated to the more than six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
• No Export for You: The movie isn't formally imported and publicly shown in countries where the Jews are seen in a less favorable light due to its perceived bias.
• One for the Money; One for the Art: While Spielberg was always interested in Jurassic Park, his involvement also made Universal greenlight Schindler's List. He was supervising (with the help of his friend, George Lucas) post-production of the other movie while filming in Poland, and described the experience as using "every ounce of intuition on Schindler's List and every ounce of craft on Jurassic Park".
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: When the film first came out, and many still didn't have Internet access to easily look this kind of thing up, the final man seen at a distance who lays a rose on Schindler's grave was popularly believed to be Steven Spielberg. It's actually Liam Neeson. This is kinda odd, considering the huge height disparity between the two men.
• Playing Against Type: Big time in the Japanese dub: Amon Goethe was voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka, a voice actor who was well-know for voicing very heroic roles, including Leo Aioria, Hideyuki Makimura, Otacon and Alan Igor. Voicing a Sadist scumbag like him is definitely very outside of such roles. And that would not be the first time he would end up voicing such kind of villains later, as he is well-known in Japan for voicing another similar character like Goethe: Georg Weissmann.
• Star-Making Role: For Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Embeth Davidtz.
• Throw It In!: In the "I Didn't Do Enough" scene, Schindler dropping the ring is accidental. However, the fumbling for the ring along with the significance of the gift made it stay in the final cut.
• Uncredited Role: Aaron Sorkin was an uncredited script doctor for the screenplay.
• What Could Have Been:
  • While no one doubts the quality of the film ultimately released, Steven Spielberg was originally to serve as a producer, with previously considered directors including Sydney Pollack, Roman Polański (who turned it down due to his own past as a Holocaust survivor, and a relative of some of the Schindlerjuden, though he would go on to direct The Pianist), Sidney Lumet (who felt that he had already covered the subject of the Holocaust, with The Pawnbroker) and Martin Scorsese, who felt that the story could only be properly told by a Jewish filmmaker^note In turn, Spielberg handed his directing gig for the 1991 version of Cape Fear over to Scorsese (he stayed on as producer), and Scorsese would tackle the Holocaust briefly in Shutter Island.
  • None other than Billy Wilder expressed interest in directing the film, having lost his family in the Holocaust himself. Wilder was friends with Spielberg and personally appealed to him after discovering he had bought the rights to the story, but Spielberg was weeks away from shooting in Krakow and had to tell him the truth.
  • The real-life Poldek Pfefferberg lobbied for years to have Schindler's story brought to a wider audience. In 1963, he attempted to talk MGM into making a film version of Schindler's life, but the deal fell through. About twenty years later, he got Steven Spielberg's attention, but Spielberg wasn't sure he could do justice to Schindler's story and tried unsuccessfully to get Roman Polański, among others, to do it instead.
  • Swiss actor Bruno Ganz was offered the lead role of Oskar Schindler. He refused. Years later, he would play Adolf Hitler in Downfall. Other contenders for the role of Oskar Schindler included Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson (how ironic that would have been), Daniel Day-Lewis and Stellan Skarsgård. Ford turned it down because he didn't want his star power overwhelming the seriousness of the film, fearing people would only see Indiana Jones (and presumably wondering why "Oskar" isn't punching the shit out of Goeth at the earliest opportunity).
  • Tim Roth was originally considered for Amon Goeth.
  • Claire Danes was originally considered by Spielberg for a role but her parents turned it down since she would have had to move to Poland for several months in the middle of the school year and he couldn't promise them that she'd have a teacher on set. The part for which she was considered is unknown, although since Danes is only a year older than Anna Mucha, the role she was considered for may have been Danka Dresner.
  • 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.

---