Schindler's Transformation

Schindler's List marked Spielberg's pivot from entertainer to artist. Shot in black and white with handheld cameras, it rejected the techniques that had made him famous: no spectacle, no reassuring score, no comfortable distance from suffering.

The single girl in the red coat — the only color in the film — shows why. Among thousands of victims, he forces you to follow one child, because individual tragedy registers when mass tragedy numbs. The same instinct that made audiences scream at sharks could make them weep at history.