Schindler's List leaves Netflix in two days, and Spielberg picked Neeson for being a nobody
The iconic film critic says a movie is “brilliantly acted, written, directed and seen” — praise so sweeping you’ll want the who and the what behind it.
Before Liam Neeson was the guy you call when you need a particular set of skills, he broke out in a role that more or less upended the war film genre. We all know him these days from Taken, or maybe shouting into a walkie-talkie in an ice lorry, but Schindler's List is where his serious big-screen reputation actually began.
Schindler's List is leaving Netflix on 1 September 2026.
The film that changed Neeson's career
It’s genuinely hard to remember now, but before all the stoic vengeance roles, Neeson was relatively unknown. According to Steven Spielberg, that lower profile made him perfect to play Oskar Schindler – a clever, slippery German businessman who ended up saving the lives of hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. The real Schindler was an enigmatic sort: Nazi party member on paper, actually a reluctant hero in secret. Neeson played him with the kind of gravitas you don’t really get in action thrillers about missing daughters – and it landed him his first (and so far, only) Oscar nomination.
Spielberg’s instinct for choosing the right actor paid off: Schindler’s List, released in December 1993, was both a commercial and critical juggernaut. The film’s budget? Just $22 million. Its original run at cinemas? A staggering $321 million worldwide – remarkable for a black-and-white historical drama nearly three-and-a-half hours long. It was released mere months after Spielberg’s other little blockbuster, Jurassic Park, making 1993 absurdly profitable for him.
Critical response and legacy
When it comes to war films, Schindler’s List sits on a tier of its own: seven Oscars from twelve nominations, including Best Director for Spielberg and Best Picture at the 1994 ceremony. It was almost universally predicted to sweep that year’s awards season, and it did just that.
The film didn’t just crush at the box office and the Oscars; critics went wild for it, too. Its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 98%, just behind Spielberg’s E.T.. As for Neeson, it’s the highest-rated project of his career, full stop. Roger Ebert, never one for faint praise, gave it four stars and later doubled down – the highest mark in his system. He added it to his canon of Great Movies and expanded on why it mattered:
‘The power of Spielberg's film is not that it explains evil, but that it insists that men can be good in the face of it, and that good can prevail.’
If you’re among the small, shrinking number of film fans who still haven’t experienced Schindler’s List, fair warning: it’s a heavy watch. Many viewers say it’s so emotionally devastating that one viewing is probably enough for a lifetime. But it’s absolutely essential cinema, landing on basically every best-of list that matters. Not for the faint-hearted, and soon, not for Netflix subscribers either.
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Stars: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
- Release date: December 1993
- Oscar wins: 7 out of 12 nominations
- Runtime: 195 minutes