Spielberg’s Darkest Hours

“Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Academy Award-winning epic about the Holocaust, is coming to television Sunday night, but it won’t look like any other prime-time telecast you’re used to--not on commercial television, anyway. PBS, yes--but this will be on NBC.

No advertising interruptions. More than three hours long. Most of it in black-and-white. Violence and nudity strong enough for NBC to have given the film commercial television’s first TV-M rating, meaning it is not intended for children under 17--even though it’s starting at 7:30 p.m.

The movie is getting special treatment, NBC says, because of its quality and its sobering subject matter. “Schindler’s List,” says John Agoglia, president of NBC Enterprises, was a passion of Spielberg’s. “He devoted an enormous amount of time getting this produced and he succeeded in producing a film which is memorable in every sense of the word.”

And the filmmakers are excited about the prospects of reaching a new audience.

“For us it’s a big thing that it’s going on TV,” says one of “Schindler’s” executive producers, Branko Lustig, who also is a Holocaust survivor. “We are fighting for every member of a family to see it because this is not just a movie, this is a message for people not to forget things that happened 50 years ago.”

Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally, “Schindler’s List” tells the true story of Nazi party member and war profiteer Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,100 Jews from the Nazi death camps during World War II. The film stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ben Kingsley as the Jewish manager of Schindler’s factory, and Ralph Fiennes as a particularly monstrous Nazi.

Though there have been many features (“Sophie’s Choice”) and television projects (“War and Remembrance,” “Holocaust”) dealing with the Holocaust, “Schindler’s List” became a phenomenon when it was released theatrically.

Agoglia says that when NBC purchased the rights to air “Schindler’s List,” the main concern was, “how do we best present it to reflect the subject matter and the quality of the film?”

The answer was provided by the Ford division of Ford Motor Co. When Ford learned “Schindler’s List” was to air on NBC, the company quickly entered into negotiations to sponsor the premiere broadcast. “The main reason we purchased this movie was to elevate the Ford primary brand,” says Gerry Donnelly, marketing communications manager for Ford.

“The movie provides significant historical interest, which gives us the opportunity to associate with a movie that will make a strong statement about individual courage that obviously led to more than 1,000 Jewish lives being saved during one of the darkest chapters in human history. It’s really our intent to make the movie available to people.”

Donnelly says that after viewing the movie anew, Ford determined that it wouldn’t “make sense” to run normal commercials during such an emotional, moving and often intense film.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate,” Donnelly says.

“We had a meeting with NBC in Los Angeles and then we met with Steven Spielberg’s people at Amblin Productions. We all thought this message was so important we agreed not to do commercials.”

Another departure from the norm is the fact that there won’t be local breaks for affiliates and that NBC won’t run promotions for other programs.

Before the film starts, there will be a 60-second Ford commercial made specifically for the broadcast. There will then be a 30-second introduction from the general manager of the Ford division and another 30-second intro from Spielberg.

The only breaks during the film will be two one-minute, 45-second intermissions. “There will simply be a black screen with the words ‘Schindler’s List, brought to you by Ford,’ ” says Donnelly. “There will be a little clock in the lower right hand corner that will tick down. We will play soft music from ‘Schindler’s List.’ ”

At the conclusion, there will be a close from Ford, a repeat of the commercial and then Spielberg will talk for 90 seconds about his Shoah Foundation, which is currently taping the testimony of Holocaust survivors.

Spielberg, who helped launch NBC’s top-rated series, “ER,” has “cooperated to an enormous degree” with the editing for television, says Agoglia. Though the network will not say what has been cut, Agoglia insisted it was minimal. “This is not a slice-and-dice sort of process,” he adds.

Considerable nudity and violence remain, but NBC and Ford feel those scenes are not exploitive and need to be there to preserve the film’s integrity and message.

Although the broadcast carries a TV-M rating and the theatrical film was rated R, network executives and the filmmakers hope high school students will watch with their parents. “Every parent has to make their own choice,” says Agoglia.

Lustig says he believes children 12 and older are mature enough to watch and understand the movie. In fact, tapes of “Schindler’s List” and teacher study guides are already in 25,000 schools and libraries across the country. And Lustig has appeared at several high schools to screen and discuss the movie.

“I remember I had one school here in Los Angeles and there were about 600 girls there,” he says. “There was a very active discussion after the movie. If they can watch all of these action movies and horror movies they can see on TV today, they can watch this too.”

Lustig hopes the film’s message of “Never Forget” teaches viewers a strong lesson. “I think it’s time for people to learn something,” he says. “Obviously, the movie didn’t make the big changes I suspected it would make, because look--everywhere there is a war around the world. History is again starting to repeat itself.”

“Schindler’s List” airs Sunday at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.