In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
In a television interview with Larry King on Larry King Live (1985), Dustin Hoffman claimed that he was originally offered the role of Itzhak Stern by Steven Spielberg, and accepted it, but was quoted in the media as declining the part, due to a mix-up in communication between his agent and Spielberg. However, he praised Sir Ben Kingsley's performance of Itzhak Stern as "a marvelous job".
Krakow registrar:
Name?
During the clearing of the Krakow ghetto, a SS soldier berates another soldier for shooting the boy he was dragging back to the assembly area. This soldier repeatedly mispronounces the verb "schiessen" (to shoot) with an "i" sound instead of the correct "e", making it sound like he is using the verb "scheissen" (to defecate).
The theatrical version juxtaposed images from the film of the actors portraying certain identified "Schindler Jews" as each actual person placed a stone on Schindler's grave. The VHS version does not use this device, showing only the actual persons, credited by name.
In an unprecedented move, when this film was broadcast on US television by NBC in 1997, it was, at Steven Spielberg's insistence, shown nearly uncensored (a sex scene was slightly edited) with all violence and nudity intact. It was the first program to air with the then new "TV-M" (now "TV-MA") rating. See also: Saving Private Ryan (1998).
English, Hebrew, German, Polish, Latin
$22,000,000 (estimated)
$656,636 19 December 1993
$96,898,818
$322,161,245