'Schindler's list' and 'The pianist': Two Holocaust films in the assesment of online film reviewers

The growing importance of cinema in shaping cultural memory of the Nazi era and the Holocaust since the 1990s has been widely recognised. This article focuses on an analysis of online reviews of 'Schindler's list' and 'The pianist' as these two films had the greatest popular recognition and brought the topic of the Holocaust to a large international audience. These online reviewers are not professional academics or critics but their opinions are becoming increasingly important for the success of new releases and represent the view of the non-professional film audience. The analysis showed that online reviewers expect films to sugarcoat the harsh realities of the Holocaust experience and to interpret history through the actions of centrally motivated characters.