The Grey Zone (2001)

The title of Tim Blake Nelson's harrowing drama of Jewish death camp prisoners who rise up against their captors to "destroy the machinery" refers as much to the compromise and cloudy morality of collaboration as to the gray world coated in the smoke and ash of the crematoriums. Inspired by real-life events at the Auschwitz death camp, The Grey Zone stars David Arquette as a soul-deadened laborer whose being fiercely jolts to life when he finds a young girl alive among the gassed corpses. He's the heart and soul of an outstanding cast that includes Steve Buscemi and Daniel Benzali as revolt leaders, Allan Corduner as the shunned camp doctor, and Harvey Keitel as the commandant. Nelson's rapid pacing, intimate shooting, and terse, jagged dialogue give the moral debate a discomforting immediacy as it races a deadline. When doom hangs in the air, sure death creates unique priorities. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

 A powerful, but very disturbing movie
This is not a horror movie, but it is a movie of real horror. It is about the horrors of Auschwitz, what it took to run that place, what some were forced to do to stay alive for a bit longer, and what bravery some showed in trying to stop the horror even for a few hours or a few days. It is not for the squeamish, those who are afraid to see piles of naked bodies being stuffed into ovens, or hearing the screams of the dying as they were being gassed. Then there are the conversations among the living about staying alive, being dead, what they should or shouldn't do, and the Nazi's torturing prisoners to get information they think they need.

There was indeed a prisoner riot at Auschwitz, but not every detail in this movie is historically accurate. However, there are no exaggerations of the horror and monstrous acts. In fact, they are probably still understated. The acting in the movie is very good, but beware before you watch it. Seriously, this movie could traumatize someone not prepared for what they are going to see in this harsh movie.

It is not all bleak, however, there is tremendous power in the scenes involving the preparations and smuggling of material to prepare for the sabotage and riot. There is also the girl whom the prisoners try to hide and revive because she survived the gas. Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, played wonderfully by Allan Corduner, is based on a real life person of the same name who was forced into doing autopsies on twins for Josef Mengele in order to try and protect his own wife and child. His moral dilemma is among the most crushing in the movie. Steve Buscemi's role as Hesch Abramowics is also very memorable. He is a complete cynic, or is he? You have to decide. Asking yourself what you would do in the horror of Auschwitz is part of the movie. It is easy to say you would refuse, but dying just for yourself isn't the issue, you have a spouse, and probably children. Do you just walk with them into the poison gas and or shove their bodies into the ovens?

Really, a very powerful and powerfully disturbing movie. For the right people, this is very much worth seeing and thinking about. Be beware before you watch it. You will be disturbed by it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI November 23, 2007

 Almost
This is an almost impossible topic to do well; Nelson and company came very close. There are a few historical errors, and the relationship between SS and prisoners - with the exception of the people like Nyszli - was rarely as "conversational" as the film suggests. The hierarachy within the sonderkommando itself is also missing, which was a key part of what they had to contend with. Typically, SS spoke directly (in the form of giving orders) to non-Jewish kapos; not to the class of prisoners who figure centrally in the film. Likewise, the frenetic pace of the work when there was a transport to be "disposed of" was not shown here. I assume this was in the interest of everything being "matter of fact," which _is_ generally true to the sonderkommando's everday adaptation to their task.

I found the mix of accents confusing - why did only the Germans get them? And some of the interaction around planning the rebellion needed a bit more context, I think.

That said, there is more here that is _essentially_ true than in most Holocaust films. The grayness of the film itself fit its subject. When the "ash speaks" at the end, in the form of the incinerated girl, I was initially put off. Why this flight of poetry in the midst of such an unpoetic film. But it was short and on point enough to add at least something.



June 28, 2007

 gut-wrenching, heartfelt...
The women in this astounding film are incredible; Mira Sorvino, in particular--who turns in another Oscar-caliber performance. What I can't get over is the fact I had no idea she was even in it. The entire time I was watching this tremendous re-enactment I kept thinking (whenever her character was on screen) who is this woman? Where did they find her? I simply could not connect her to the wonderful, scene-stealing job she did in Mighty Aphrodity; the actress is that good here.

I do my best to keep from writing lengthy reviews (very often skip over them as well when wanting to find out about a film am interested in, etc.) so I won't go into the plot and what happens. Will only say that, although I always look foreward to seeing Harvey Keitel on screen, I only wish that he had refrained from going with a German accent. Not many American actors can do a foreign accent and do it well, not even Meryl Streep--and I don't care what some people might say about that. Accents never sound right. They should have just hired a German actor to play the part, etc.

All in all, kudos to the folks for making the film. It just might leave you choking back a sob or two. Strong stuff. Am currently reading Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Muller (and I have read others on the subject.) This film struck me as pretty authentic--and am glad it was made.

Thank you to one and all for all the hard work that made this unforgetable motion picture possible.. June 12, 2007

 Never again!
This movie takes you into the holocaust in a way that makes the characters more than ciphers. There is a story here, and images that will haunt you for years to come. Yes, the Jews had to do a lot of the Nazis' dirty work - it was part of the torture that the Nazis designed, as they thought they could never be held accountable. The Jews who cooperated maybe got to live a little longer, maybe got a little more food, an extra blanket. It's amazing what the will to survive will do to a human being. And, without those survivors telling their stories, holocaust deniers would not even need to exist. There would be nothing to deny.

Again, the images in this movie are haunting, moving, and should cause one to think and to dig deeper into what we think we know about the holocaust, and about man's inhumanity to man. We may think we know what horror man is capable of. We can only remain aware as long as our eyes remain open - and our hearts remain connected to our souls.

Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State June 2, 2007

 Grim and unrelenting realism
Prior to watching this dvd, I had read accounts of the true events it depicts, namely the heroic but futile uprising of the crematoria sondercommando at Auschwitz in 1944, during the Germans' frenetic gassing of the half million Jews of Hungary. These men, whom Auschwitz survivor and acclaimed author, Primo Levi, called "the ravens of the crematoria" were all Jews and were kept alive for the grisly work of herding their fellow-Jews into the gas chambers and then burning the bodies in the crematoria ovens. They received privileges denied other Jewish prisoners for carrying out this hellish work but were themselves murdered and replaced after about 3 months because the Nazis considered they knew too much about their heinous crimes. With Dantesque and nightmarish realism the movie depicts the horror of the men's existence, their brutalisation and their simultaneous efforts to cling to a shred of humanity, for example saving the girl who survives the gas,and to make a stand against the monsters who have forced their moral corruption. Also noteworthy is the courage of the Jewish women who smuggled explosives to the men of the sondercommando and who were themselves subjected to hideous torture and subsequent execution.
This is not an easy film to watch, but it helps to lay to rest the oft parroted claim that the Jews of the Holocaust did not fight back at the same time as it reminds us of the barbarism and appalling inhumanity of Nazified Germans in WW2. May 27, 2007

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