Daily Dialogue — August 21, 2013

Oskar Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more.
Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.
Oskar Schindler: If I’d made more money… I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I’d just…
Itzhak Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Oskar Schindler: I didn’t do enough!
Itzhak Stern: You did so much.

Schindler looks at his car.

Oskar Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people. (removing Nazi pin from lapel) This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. (sobbing) I could have gotten one more person… and I didn’t! And I… I didn’t!

— Schindler’s List (1994), screenplay by Steve Zaillian, book by Thomas Keneally

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is overcome with emotion suggested by Sabina.

Trivia: Billy Wilder contributed to the first draft of the screenplay. Wilder had many relatives who died in the Holocaust, and tried to convince Steven Spielberg to let him direct the film. Spielberg was already prepared to shoot the film in Poland, and turned it down.

Dialogue On Dialogue: A man overcome with regret at realizing the value of human life nearly too late in his own life.

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