Schindler's List vs 12 Years a Slave

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.

12 Years a Slave

A conventional historical drama would use music to guide how you feel. In those sequences, McQueen takes Hans Zimmer's score out. You have to sit with the suffering with no soundtrack standing between you and it. The silence puts you in the scene and takes away the protection that movie convention usually gives you.

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.

12 Years a Slave

Solomon is forced to whip Patsey on Epps' command. He becomes the tool of a violence he opposes. He does it reluctantly, and then Epps takes the whip and beats Patsey nearly to death. McQueen makes Solomon's forced part in it the film's most devastating scene. The system works so that nobody gets to stay neutral.

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.

12 Years a Slave

McQueen and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt shot on 35 mm film with widescreen anamorphic lenses and kept the camera very close to Solomon's body. A documentary would observe from a safe distance. This camera is close enough to pick up what he goes through physically. The closeness makes its own point. What this body goes through is fact and should not be filed away as history.