The 22nd Best All-Time Film

(9th 1973-1998)

Schindler's List

It usually goes without saying. Schindler’s List is one of the best, and one of the most important, films of all time. But perhaps it doesn’t go without saying anymore. 

When I was a youth minister, I made it a point of showing at least one movie a year that dealt with the horror and evil of fascism in the Twentieth Century. It is the sort of lesson from history that we have to constantly remind ourselves of. If we ever forget, we will be in danger of repeating it.

Well, since those days we have seemingly forgotten. The Zeitgeist in Western Culture has returned in many ways to what it was at the start of the 1900s. Nationalism, racism, hatred of immigrants and refugees, and disregard for the mechanisms of democracy have never been higher. Country after country has either turned to autocratic leaders or flirted with doing so. Concentration camps are again in operation and everyone is turning a blind eye to them. Armed conflict is happening on the European continent again. And in the US, one of the only two major parties has abandoned its principled stand in favor of a cult of personality.

No. We are not yet arrived at the point of no return. But we are on the doorstep.

So, go watch Schindler’s List again and ask yourself if you want to be so cavalier about white supremacy and other, similar, forms of hatred.