Comparison · 3 shared techniques

Platoon vs Schindler's List

Platoon (1986) and Schindler's List (1993) share 3 techniques. Here is how each film uses them.

Platoon (1986) poster

Platoon

Oliver Stone · 1986

Schindler's List (1993) poster

Schindler's List

Steven Spielberg · 1993

Shared

Same technique, two films

Handheld Cinema Vérité

Shooting with a handheld camera so the frame shakes and moves with the action. This documentary-style look, called cinema vérité, puts you uncomfortably close to the character.

Platoon

Robert Richardson's photography gives the jungle sequences a sweaty, disoriented look, like a camera trying to keep up with real events. It is a deliberate step away from the clean compositions of classic war films.

Schindler's List

Kamiński shot much of the film with a handheld camera, often using available light or a single light source. He refused the polished compositions of conventional cinematography. The camera feels like it is trying to keep up with events.

Perpetrator Perspective

Telling the story from the side of the person doing the harm, and letting you inside their head. You start to understand them, which is more uncomfortable than simply condemning them.

Platoon

Stone puts you inside the platoon during the village massacre, the film's version of My Lai. You see the killing from the soldiers' point of view, which makes you feel like part of Barnes' command.

Schindler's List

Spielberg starts with Schindler as an opportunist using slave labor. The film argues that his eventual heroism shows you what everyone else chose when they did nothing, and it refuses to treat him as exceptional for it. You're left asking at what point going along with it becomes unbearable.

Strategic Silence

Removing music, background sound or dialogue from a moment where most films would fill it. The quiet forces you to sit with what is on screen.

Platoon

Stone takes the music out of the most violent sequences and leaves only the sounds of the jungle and combat. When Barber's Adagio for Strings finally arrives, the contrast is devastating.

Schindler's List

John Williams's score runs through the film, but it drops out completely during the Płaszów liquidation sequences. The silence doesn't feel peaceful. You have to listen to the sounds of the event itself, with no music telling you how to feel.

Different

Where they split