Editing in the movie Schindler’s list (1993)

History is a story of a certain place in a certain time. A movie which comes from history should be able to cover those things smoothly. Therefore, spatial and temporal aspect in a historical movie is the most important aspect which should be maintained along the story of the movie. Continuity editing has been believed as the method which can handle those problem since filmmakers started to learn about editing. As Bordwell and Thomson (2008) said that the basic purpose of the continuity system is to allow space, time, and action to continue in a smooth flow over a series of shots. Schindler’s list (1993) is one of the best historical movie who used classical continuity editing and won an award in that aspect. Continuity editing in Schin dler’s list helps the movie maintaining it’s temporal and spatial aspect which is important, concerning its genre as a historical drama movie.

Although the dominant method which is used in the movie was continuity editing, the other editing style like graphic and rhytmic match was also used in the movie and play an important role to create certain context of time and space in the story. For example, at the begining of the movie, there is a scene which is using graphic match. It is when the smoke of the candles are rising up (figure 1), and then the scene changes to the smoke which blow up from a locomotive (figure 2). This scene indicates the Changes of time in the story, from the present time to the past. However, although the time is changing, in this case, graphic match is also used to indicate

that the story took place in the same place, only the situation which is different. Furthermore, the time changing is not only shown by the graffic match but it is also supported by the color scheme of the scene, from full coloured to black and white. Beside that scene, There are also other scenes which used graphic or rythmic match as the editing style, but firstly, I want to discuss further about continuity editing in Schindler’s list, and how it helps to captivate the reader’s mind about the coherence of setting and narration.


One of the functions of continuity editing in Schindler’s list is to contrast the contidition between two situations in the story. This way is usually called as parallel editing or crosscutting. As we know that in Schindler’s list there are two groups of people involved, Germans and Jews. The condition between them are very far different because one is colonized by other. The crosscutting is used to show some irony between them, about the sorrow and arbitrariness, love and despair, and violence and celebration which is shown at the same time. The first irony is

shown when a Jew couple forced to move from their house into a small flat, and at the same time, Schindler is moving to the house which previously belong to that couple. These scenes were shown one after another and shot in the same camera distance (medium shot). The intention is clear, which is to build the sense that those situation are occurred at the same time but contrasted to each other. We can see that Schindler is shot in his laying position (figure 3), with hands in his head which seems to enjoy his new house, while, the Jew couple, who previewsly live there, are standing against each other in a messy small room with a grumpy conversation about their condition (figure 4).

The other crosscutting which contrast one situation to another in the same temporal relation is when Amon and Helen is in the basemen of the house and there is a wedding ceremony in the Jew basecamp. In this scene the irony being shown is the scared, loneliness, and despair


of Amon and Helen compared with love and sacred atmosphere in the wedding ceremony. From this crosscutting part, we can also compare the using of staging and lighting to support the distinction among these scenes. In the wedding scene the couple is standing side by side staticly so that they seem to have an even power relation. It is different with Amon and Helen shot. In that scene, Helen is just standing with a stright scared face while Amon is moving around her so that we can see that Amon in this situation has more power. Beside the power relation, the crosscutting also try to depict the comparisson between happiness and sadness by using tonalities of lighting in the wedding scene, crowd of people around the couple, the darkness of the basemen and shadow in the face of Helen and Amon.

These paralel scenes are actually also paralel with other scene. It is when Schindler was celebrating his birthday. The significant comparison between these three scenes are started when in the wedding scene the groom was crushing the lamp bulb, then a second after that, Amon was slapping Helen in the beasemen, then not long after that the scene changes to Schindler who was applausing the performance in his birthday party. The story shows these three paralel scenes one after another, which compare the Violence of Amon against Helen (Hitting) and the celebration of married couple and Schindler’s birthday (Kissing).

If we discuss it in a bigger picture, crosscutting makes the reality in the movie more vivid. What I mean is, in life, some situation can occur at the same time although in different places. For the audience it gives them unrestricted knowledge about what happened in the story more than the characters in the story themselves. Those also symbolize the irony, the play of power in the reality, the comparison between the one who powerless and poweful... _Continued later :)