Schindler’s List, the Pianist, and Life Is Beautiful

Schindler’s List, The Pianist, and Life is Beautiful, each provide different perspectives on the holocaust, and each explores in its own way the themes of alienation, desire, faith and belief, and redemption.

Due to the nature of the holocaust, certain themes, particularly alienation, are inherent in it. Certainly alienation is one of the strongest themes of each of the three examined films and of the holocaust itself. Each film represents the alienating effects of the Jewish ghettos and concentration camps, where Jews were segregated and killed by the thousands. In a particularly effective scene from Schindler’s List, Jewish families are forced from their homes and transferred to a segregated ghetto, as Schindler is moved into one of the fashionable and newly vacated apartments. The oppressive nature of the force involved only serves to accent the alienation, as does the parallel of Schindler moving in when the family is moving out, to cries of “Goodbye Jews”. Each film in this holocaust trilogy has scenes where the alienation is seen on a macro-scale, however, each film also presents alienation