(14) THOMAS KENEALLY –

SCHINDLER’S ARK (1982)

 

“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire”.

 

I assume this needs no introduction, given its adaptation by Steven Spielberg as Schindler’s List – a film often “listed as one of the greatest films ever made”.

The only introduction might be to its original title as published by Aussie author Keneally – Schindler’s Ark. I like to quip that the change to Schindler’s List was because viewers wouldn’t be able to grasp the ark in the title as metaphor from Noah’s ark and instead be looking for a literal ark, the Ark of the Covenant from Spielberg’s film Raiders of the Lost Ark – “where’s the Ark?!”

“Schindler’s Ark is a historical fiction” – the historical part being the actual people and events, particularly the titular Oskar Schindler, its “unlikely hero…saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust”, the fictional part being the “dialogue and scenes added by the author where exact details are unknown”.