Blockbuster genius Steven Spielberg has once again spoken at length about the film he considers to be his best to date. The work was awarded the most important Oscar 30 years ago
As a celebrated directing legend, Steven Spielberg has made both massive blockbusters and more serious material. One of his greatest dramas is Schindler’s List, about the rescue of over a thousand Jewish people from the Holocaust.
At the 1994 Academy Awards, Schindler’s List was named Best Picture, while Spielberg won the trophy for Best Director. 30 years later, he spoke at length about the historical drama and chose the film as the highlight of his career
Steven Spielberg is proudest of Schindler’s List, although he initially shied away from it
In a major Hollywood Reporter report, Spielberg, stars including Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley and composer John Williams have spoken about the making of Schindler’s List. In addition to the 30th anniversary of the Oscars, the current rise in anti-Semitism was also the reason for the current discussion of Spielberg’s work.
At the very end of the extensive article, Spielberg draws a clear conclusion about Schindler’s List:
It’s the best movie I’ve ever made. I’m not going to say it’s the best movie I’ll ever make. But at the moment it is the work I am most proud of.
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At the time, the drama was Spielberg’s first “adult” film, as the director himself describes it. That’s why he was initially afraid of directing it:
I was terrified of it because Schindler’s List was my first movie of that kind. Because what if I wasn’t mature enough?
I was sure I wasn’t ready to grapple morally or cinematically with the significance of this subject matter, and I felt I lacked the wisdom to discuss the story in the inevitable conversations we all have after our films are finished and released.
Before him, names like Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese had been in talks to direct Schindler’s List. In the end, Scorsese commissioned Steve Zaillian to write the screenplay, which ultimately convinced Spielberg.
