Script To Screen: “Schindler’s List”
From the 1993 movie Schindler’s List (screenplay by Steve Zaillian, based on the novel by Thomas Keneally).
From the 1993 movie Schindler’s List (screenplay by Steve Zaillian, based on the novel by Thomas Keneally).
Setup: Oskar Schindler has been out riding his horse when he stops on a hilltop and witnesses the clearing of the ghetto in Krakow, tracking the movements of the Girl In Red.
Here is the scene from the movie:
Here is another version of the scene I found online. It focuses on Schindler watching the Girl In Red.
This is a great example of a script conveying the structure and tone of the scene while providing some key specifics. Clearly, Spielberg worked with Zaillian to include those moments and just as clearly, the director knew he would embellish what was written in the script with a lot more, e.g., lining up the men to shoot them with one bullet, then killing the two survivors by shooting them in the head.
The main thing is the brilliant idea to focus on the Girl In Red. The cross cuts between her journey and Schindler tracking her — the specificity of this single endangered character — is what really gets to him. It represents a turning point in the Protagonist’s attitude about working with the Nazis and setting him on a path to help free imprisoned Jews.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script To Screen, a Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more Script To Screen articles, go here.