In what may be a debut for the second half of a

prodigious career, Steven Spielberg has created what is

arguably the best American film ever made about the

Holocaust: "Schindler's List," an extraordinary three

hours and five minutes based on Thomas Keneally's

1982 historic novel.

Not that Mr. Spielberg had that much competition.

Despite the presence of Jews galore throughout Holly-

wood, the film capital has a long-held aversion to de-

picting the Holocaust. True, in 1960 came "Judgment

at Nuremberg," which uncompromisingly indicted the

Germans; in 1978 came "Sophie's Choice," an inquiry

into the choiceless choices in the death camps. Both

were decent, competent, well-intentioned, yet some-

what pedestrian.

"Schindler's List" rises above the mundane and the

ordinary. It is explicit and graphic: Fountains of blood spurt

from Jews' heads when Nazis shoot them at point-blank