And the countdown continues in my quest to watch and find something inspiring in every single one of Yahoo’s 100 Movies to See Before You Die.
Oskar Schindler: Look, All you have to do is tell me what it’s worth to you. What’s a person worth to you?
Amon Goeth: No, no, no, no. What’s one worth to you!
I watched this a few months ago but kept putting off writing about it because it was so exhausting to watch, which might explain how I’ve avoided it for more than a decade. It’s one of those movies you watch with intensity, admitting it was a great one. Then you never ever watch it again because it’s too damaging to your psyche. Liam Neeson is Schindler, the sympathetic Nazi (is this an oxymoron?) who bribes SS officials to keep his business running using relatively healthy Jewish labor and Ralph Fiennes is Goeth, the evil Nazi who is more than happy to exterminate all of them. Neeson eventually runs out of money trying to keep his workers alive and out of Auschwitz, but he manages to do so till the war is over. See, I’m exhausted and depressed just writing this. The only thing inspiring about the events in this film is that they are in the past.
Scottie: You shouldn’t keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn’t have been that sentimental.
Jimmy Stewart has acrophobia. Can’t you just hear him say that in his Jimmy Stewart Accent™? He can’t handle heights anymore, and this is problematic in San Francisco, what with all the hills. Anyway, his handicap keeps him out of police work, but he gets suckered into following an old college friend’s wife, who is supposedly possessed. Of course he falls for this mysterious, off-limits woman (Kim Novak) instead of the awesome Midge, his BFF and an artist with a seriously kick-ass apartment (see below). I will not reveal the plot (there’s a TWIST) or its turns (there’s ANOTHER twist), but I will tell you that it is a stylish flick from the opening credits to the last scene. I’d expect no less of Hitchcock, though. I’m inspired to return to San Francisco, a gorgeous town of which so far I’ve only scratched the surface. Oh, and to someday have a room with a view like Midge has in this film.
