Por una cabeza de un noble potrillo
que justo en la raya afloja al llegar
y que al regresar parece decir:
no olvides, hermano,
vos sabes, no hay que jugar...
Por una cabeza, metejon de un dia,
de aquella coqueta y risueña mujer
que al jurar sonriendo,
el amor que esta mintiendo
quema en una hoguera todo mi querer.
Por una cabeza
todas las locuras
su boca que besa
borra la tristeza,
calma la amargura.
Por una cabeza
si ella me olvida
que importa perderme,
mil veces la vida
para que vivir...
Cuantos desengaños, por una cabeza,
yo jure mil veces no vuelvo a insistir
pero si un mirar me hiere al pasar,
su boca de fuego, otra vez, quiero besar.
Basta de carreras, se acabo la timba,
un final reñido yo no vuelvo a ver,
pero si algun pingo llega a ser fija el domingo,
yo me juego entero, que le voy a hacer.
Losing by a head of a noble horse
who slackens just down the stretch
and when it comes back it seems to say:
don't forget brother,
You know, you shouldn't bet.
Losing by a head, instant violent love
of that flirtatious and cheerful woman
who, swearing with a smile
a love she's lying about,
burns in a blaze all my love.
Losing by a head
there was all that madness;
her mouth in a kiss
wipes out the sadness,
it soothes the bitterness.
Losing by a head
if she forgets me,
no matter to lose
my life a thousand times;
what to live for?
Many deceptions, loosing by a head...
I swore a thousand times not to insist again
but if a look sways me on passing by
her lips of fire, I want to kiss once more.
Enough of race tracks, no more gambling,
a photo-finish I'm not watching again,
but if a pony looks like a sure thing on Sunday,
I'll bet everything again, what can I do?
Schindler's List (1993) is Steven Spielberg's unexpected award-winning masterpiece - a profoundly shocking, unsparing, fact-based, three-hour long epic of the nightmarish Holocaust. [Italian-American catholic Martin Scorsese was originally slated to direct the film, but turned down the chance - claiming the film needed a director of Jewish descent - before turning it over to Spielberg.] Its documentary authenticity vividly re-creates a dark, frightening period during World War II, when Jews in Nazi-occupied Krakow were first dispossessed of their businesses and homes, then placed in ghettos and forced labor camps in Plaszow, and finally resettled in concentration camps for execution. The violence and brutality of their treatment in a series of matter-of-fact (and horrific) incidents is indelibly and brilliantly orchestrated. Except for the bookends (its opening and closing scenes) and two other brief shots (the little girl in a red coat and candles burning with orange flames), the entire film in-between is shot in crisp black and white. The film is marvelous for the way in which it crafts its story without contrived, manipulative Hollywood-ish flourishes (often typical of other Spielberg films) - it is also skillfully rendered with overlapping dialogue, parallel editing, sharp and bold characterizations, contrasting compositions of the two main characters (Schindler and Goeth), cinematographic beauty detailing shadows and light with film-noirish tones, jerky hand-held cameras (cinema verite), a beautifully selected and composed musical score (including Itzhak Perlman's violin), and gripping performances. The screenplay by Steven Zaillian was adapted from Thomas Keneally's 1982 biographic novel (Schindler's Ark), constructed by interviews with 50 Schindler survivors found in many nations, and other wartime associates of the title character, as well as other written testimonies and sources. Oskar Schindler was an enterprising, womanizing Nazi Sudeten-German industrialist/opportunist and war profiteer, who first exploited the cheap labor of Jewish/Polish workers in a successful enamelware factory (Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik or D.E.F.), and eventually rescued more than one thousand of them from certain extinction in labor/death camps.
Before the film was made, Spielberg had offered Holocaust survivor and director Roman Polanski the job of making the film, but Polanski declined. Since then, ten years later, Polanski made his own honored Holocaust film, the Best Director-winning The Pianist (2002). Stanley Kubrick abandoned his own plans to make a similar film in the planning stages, called "The Aryan Papers" - based on the Louis Begley novel Wartime Lies.
The unanimously-praised film with a modest budget of $23 million deservedly won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (the first for Spielberg), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Editing (Michael Kahn), and Best Art Direction. It also won nominations for two of its male leads: Best Actor (Liam Neeson) and Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Makeup. Other organizations including the British Academy Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Golden Globes, likewise honored the film. It was the first black/white film since The Apartment (1960) to win the Best Picture Academy Award, and the most commercially-successful B/W film in cinematic history.
Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell), a student at a New England prep school, is one of the few students there from a modest background and attends on scholarship. To pay for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after a retired Army Ranger Lieutenant Colonel named Frank Slade (Al Pacino), who is blind and prone to alcoholism.
Charlie and his friend George Willis, Jr. (Philip Seymour Hoffman) were witness to an act of vandalism at the school. They are pressed by the school's headmaster Trask (James Rebhorn) to divulge the names of the perpetrators, whom they both know. When Charlie refuses to talk, Trask offers a bribe: a letter of recommendation that would virtually guarantee his acceptance to Harvard. Charlie says nothing.
Slade unexpectedly takes Charlie to accompany him on a trip to New York City. Slade reserves a room at the Waldorf-Astoria. During dinner at the Oak Room (at the Plaza Hotel), he reveals the purpose for the trip: to eat at an expensive restaurant, stay at a luxury hotel, visit his big brother, make love to a beautiful woman, and then "blow his brains out". Charlie is taken aback, not knowing how seriously to take Slade.
They travel to Slade's brother's home in White Plains for Thanksgiving dinner without advising the brother they were coming. They appear to be an unpleasant surprise for the family. Slade deliberately provokes everyone, and by the end of dinner, he succeeds in alienating himself from his family. Charlie learns from Slade's nephew, Randy, how Slade lost his sight: by juggling hand grenades while drunk.
Returning to the city, Charlie tells Slade about his complications at school. Slade advises Charlie to inform on his classmates and go to Harvard, warning him that Willis will probably be pressured into not maintaining silence. Later, Charlie and Slade observe Donna (Gabrielle Anwar), a beautiful young woman waiting for her date at a restaurant. The colonel, although blind, leads Donna in a spectacular tango on the dance floor. That night, Slade hires a call girl.
Deeply despondent the next morning, Slade responds to Charlie's suggestion that they test drive a Ferrari. Charlie lets Slade drive the car, which he does at high speed, until they are stopped by a policeman (then-unknown Ron Eldard.) Slade hides the fact that he is blind and the officer issues no citation. When they return to the hotel, Slade tricks Charlie into leaving the hotel room to buy him cigars and asprin. Charlie returns to find Slade preparing to shoot himself. Charlie intervenes, grabbing the gun just before Slade can pull the trigger. After a physical struggle and argument, Slade does not shoot either of them. Slade begins to confide in Charlie, particularly about his dream of finding a woman who would love him.
The two take a limousine ride back to New England, where Slade drops Charlie at school. He and Willis are subjected to a formal inquiry in front of the student body and the student/faculty disciplinary committee. As headmaster Trask is opening the proceedings, Slade returns to the school and joins Charlie on the auditorium stage.
For his defense, Willis has enlisted the help of his wealthy father. Willis attempts to parry the question, saying his vision was impaired, but when pressed, he names the students responsible, while claiming to be uncertain. When pressed for more details, he passes the burden to Charlie.
Although struggling with his decision, Charlie refuses to give the students' names. Trask recommends Charlie's expulsion. Slade passionately defends Charlie, and criticizes the proceedings, as well as the boys' vandalism. Finishing with a speech on integrity, Slade says, "I don't know if Charlie's silence here today is right or wrong; I'm not a judge or jury. But I can tell you this: he won't sell anybody out to buy his future."
The disciplinary committee decides to place on probation the students named by Willis, and decided to give Willis neither recognition nor commendation for his testimony. They excuse Charlie from any punishment, to loud applause from the student body.
As Charlie escorts Slade to his limo, a female political science teacher, part of the committee, approaches Slade, thanking him for his defense of Charlie. Seeing a spark between them, Charlie tells the teacher that Slade served on President Lyndon Johnson's staff. A romantic prospect is hinted at as they part ways.
Slade returns home with Charlie, and the two part ways. Slade walks towards his house, and greets his niece's young children happily; the three enter the house to make hot chocolate.
