efore the war, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) was the Playboy of the Eastern World, a hard-drinking, womanizing wastrel. After the war, he was essentially a failure. But during the Holocaust a mysterious grace fell upon him and he bravely, cleverly schemed to save the Jews working in his factory from the Nazi death camps. From this true story Steven Spielberg created a film that is an austere act of historical witness, a powerful and suspenseful drama, a high moral act and, finally, a movie that escapes the bounds of conventional criticism.—R.S.