Martin Scorsese talks about handing over SCHINDLER’S LIST to director Steven Spielberg

As you may or may not know, Martin Scorsese he was originally set to direct the 1993 powerful historical drama Schindler’s List. During a recent interview with Deadline, Scorsese shared why he ended up not directing the film and put it in the capable and caring hands of Steven Spielberg.

There were a number of reasons that led to Scorsese’s decision with this film project, and he explained:

“For Schindler’s List, I hired Steve Zaillian and Steve and I worked on the script. I was going to direct it. But at one point I had reservations. Don’t forget, this is 1990, I’d say. I made The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. The whole point of that film was to start a dialogue about something that is still important to me, which is the nature – the true nature – of love, which could be god, could be Jesus . I’m not culturally ambivalent here, it’s what’s in us. Is God in us? I really am like that; I can not do anything about it. I like to explore it.

Scorsese then went on to explain that he thought Oscar Schindler’s story would probably be best told by a Jew, and why Spielberg was the director he ultimately brought the project to:

“In the case of Schindler’s List, the trauma I had gone through was such that I felt like addressing that subject… I knew there were Jews appalled that the writer of The Diary of Anne Frank was kind. I heard that there were people complaining about Schindler, that he used inmates to make money off them. I said, ‘Wait a minute.’ I could… well, not defend him, but argue who he was. I think he was an extraordinary man, but I didn’t know if I was equipped for that at the time. I didn’t have the knowledge. I remember Steve Spielberg, over the years, always telling me about it. He showed the book while we were on a plane to Cannes and said, ‘This is my dark film and I’m going to do it.’”

“At the time, I used the phrase ‘I’m not a Jew.’ What I meant was, it’s the old story that the journey was to be taken by a Jewish person through that world, and I think Steven learned that too. It came from… [pauses] where is The Fabblelmans, Phoenix set? He told me there were only 200 Jews in Phoenix. I could not believe it. Because I’m from the Lower East Side and grew up with the Jewish community. I wasn’t selfless, but it made sense to me that he was the one who would have to go through all of this. I was worried that I might not be able to do justice to the situation.”

In the end, Scorsese made the right decision and Spielberg went out and made an incredibly powerful film that was beautiful and emotional and heartbreaking.