-Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Both actors were making their feature film debuts. -Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon. com.

The true story of flamboyant entrepreneur Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) and his attempts to save Jewish lives under the very noses of his Nazi associates gives Spielberg a focal point of conscience and humanity in an otherwise unrelentingly grim depiction of mankind's worst traits, here memorably embodied by Ralph Fiennes as the sadistic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth. Spielberg's determined and unflinching vision is supported by a dignified score from regular collaborator John Williams, and evocative black-and-white cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, which alternates a semi-documentary feel for the harrowing ghetto and concentration camp sequences with an altogether more decadent sensibility for the Nazis. The single use of colour tells of horror more shocking than any words could convey. It's true that towards the end Spielberg lets his sentimental streak off the leash when he chooses to focus on Schindler's grief, but otherwise this is filmmaking of the highest kind: compellingly dramatic, profoundly educational, and unfailingly emotive in the very best sense. On the DVD: Schindler's List is thinly spread across two discs, with a break at just over two hours into this three-hour movie. It's a little surprising that the feature could not have fitted onto one disc, especially given the absence of commentary or other additional tracks. The 1. 85:1 anamorphic picture is fine, though displaying the graininess of the original film stock. Sound is available in highly detailed DTS. Extras on the second disc are limited to Voices from the List, a 77-minute documentary featuring the personal testimony of Schindler survivors, and an 11-minute feature on Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. There's nothing at all about the making of the movie. -Mark Walker.

Like one of Mozart's operas, the multiple Oscar-winning theatrical version seemed perfectly formed from the outset-ideal casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, music, music, music-so the reinstatement of an extra 20 minutes simply risks adding "too many notes". Yet though this extended cut can hardly be said to improve a picture that needed no improvement, it does at least flesh out a couple of small subplots and shed new light on certain key scenes. Here we learn why Constanze Mozart bears such ill-will towards Salieri when she discovers him at her husband's deathbed: he has insulted and degraded her after she came to him for help. We also see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no pupils: not only has Salieri poisoned the Emperor's mind against him, but the only promisingly lucrative teaching job he can find ends disastrously when he realises that the master of the house just wants music to quiet his barking dogs. In a humiliating coda to that episode, a drunk and desperate Wolfgang returns later to beg for money only to be coldly rejected. The structure of the picture is otherwise unaltered. On the DVD: Amadeus-The Director's Cut finally accords this masterful work the DVD treatment it deserves. The handsome anamorphic widescreen picture is accompanied by a choice of Dolby 5. 1 or Dolby stereo sound options, and it's all contained on one side of the disc (the original single-disc DVD release was that crime against the format, a "flipper"). Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerised by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. Disc 2 contains an excellent new hour-long "making of" documentary, with contributions from Forman, Shaffer, Sir Neville Marriner and all the main actors, taking in the scriptwriting, choice of music, casting and problems involved in filming in Communist Czechoslovakia with half the crew and extras working for the Secret Police. -Mark Walker.

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