5 best long Netflix movies to watch right now

Long Netflix movies: 2. Schindler’s List (1993)

Directed by Steven Spielberg 

Runtime: 3 hours, 15 minutes 

I’m daunted into even writing about Schindler’s List due to its incredible prestige, gorgeous cinematography, and gut-punching sequences. Surveying the Holocaust primarily through the eyes of a businessman (Liam Neeson), his accountant (Ben Kingsley), and an SS lieutenant (Ralph Fiennes), Spielberg’s depiction of one of the most tragic moments in the world’s history is imbued with stark melancholy and sweeping despair in every frame.

Based on the true story of how Oskar Schindler saved numerous Jewish people from the hands of the Nazis, this movie typically finds itself in many people’s “I haven’t seen it because it’s too long/important/emotional” lists. I’ve been there, too. But believe me when I tell you: Schindler’s List delivers. It brilliantly toes the line between general and focused, literal and symbolic, color and grayscale. This Best Picture winner contains some of the most indelible filmic images of all time.

Steven Zaillian’s adaptation of Thomas Keneally’s book of the same name fleshes out the film’s protagonists into real people, keeping its characters from becoming stereotypical heroes and villains within a context that stratified the two more than ever before. It also contains a haunting score, employing the gifts of composer John Williams and violinist Itzhak Perlman. If you so choose to watch any of the movies on this list, I’d implore you to watch this one first.