A classic comes to DVD

“Schindler’s List” DVD

Starring Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley…

“Schindler’s List” DVD

Starring Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley

Directed by Steven Spielberg

“Schindler’s List” is a film that fans have demanded be released on DVD since the inception of the technology. Now, years after a number of the most requested titles have been released — “The Godfather” films and the “Indiana Jones” trilogy, and the first three “Star Wars” movies will be released later this year — “Schindler’s List” has finally seen the light of DVD day.

But the result is a little disappointing.

From the technical end, the film on its own makes the DVD worth buying. Steven Spielberg’s masterwork is as powerful as it was when it was first released. The story of a man’s redemption and the struggle for survival within the confines of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II is one that will always resonate, thanks to Spielberg’s meticulous direction and the stark black-and-white cinematography, which looks better than ever. And the detailed, disturbing sound of the film — the dogs, the screams, the bullet-crack coming from the Lugers — is equally as powerful thanks to DVD’s ability to bring those details to life.

All of the elements that made “Schindler’s List” an instant classic when it was released make it a film that should have a place on your DVD shelf right next to “The Pianist.” But it’s not a DVD worth buying for its extra content.

There are only two extras to speak of, “Voices from the Past” and “The Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg.” The “Voices from the Past” feature is an 80-minute documentary featuring many of the living survivors of the Holocaust saved by Oskar Schindler. It’s an excellent feature that provides viewers a more complete look at and scope of the events in the film.

“The Shoah Foundation Story” gives those fans of the film inspired to help those survivors of the Holocaust a look at the Shoah Foundation, started by Spielberg after the completion of the film. Shoah is an organization committed to “overcome prejudice, intolerance and bigotry — and the suffering they cause — through the educational use of the foundation’s visual history testimonies.” Like “Voices,” “The Shoah Foundation Story” is a feature that gives viewers more insight into the impact “Schindler’s List” has had on Spielberg and the world.

But that’s it.

Where’s the in-depth look at the making of the film? Where are the interviews with the actors that give insight into what the experience was like working on the film and how it affected them?

These things aren’t present on the DVD, and it suffers for it. Two of the beauties of DVD technology are giving filmmakers the ability to present their films in the best way possible, both in terms of picture quality and sound, and the extra features that give viewers the behind-the-scenes look at the film.

The “Schindler’s List” DVD only follows through on the first half of the technology’s promise — a disappointment considering how greatly anticipated this DVD was. But the film itself, one of the best films of the ’90s and one of the most powerful films in the history of American cinema, makes the DVD a must-own.