The Grey Zone
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Movie Reviews of The Grey Zone
Movie Review: Tim Blake Nelson's story of the 12th Sonder-Kommandos
Summary: 5 Stars
I knew that "The Grey Zone" was about a sonder-kommando unit at a Nazi concentration camp, which in and of itself would be an intensely dramatic situation. The sonder-dommandos where the Jews at death camps, such as Auschwitz II-Birkenau, who escorted their fellow Jews to die in the gas chambers, then took the bodies to the crematoriums, and disposed of the ashes. For four months the sonder-kommandos carried out their duties, and enjoyed (for lack of a better word), extra food, cigarettes, and even clean sheets. "The Grey Zone" is set in October of 1944, which meant that the end of the war was in site as Allied troops were moving on Germany (this is before the Hitler's last great counter offensive, the Battle of the Bulge), so four months could well mean being alive. Of course, this is if the Nazis do not decide to kill everybody in the camp before it is liberated.Actually, there are a lot of "ifs" behind this 2001 film, directed by Tim Blake Nelson and adapted from his stage play. If you have a chance to live in a death camp, do you take advantage of that opportunity even if it means collaborating witn the Nazis who are gassing your people? In many other cinematic tales of the Holocaust there is the recurring idea that the sonder-kommando were worst that the Nazis, because they betrayed their own people, and the biggest "if" of all in this film remains what would YOU do if you were in this situation? You can say, "No, I would never do that," but then how many stories about the differences between behavioral intentions and overt behavior do you want me to tell you?
I thought that haunting question was what "The Grey Zone" was about, but then I discovered that this was actually a historical drama, in the sense that it was based on a specific historical event: the October 7, 1944 uprising when members of the 12th sonder-kommando succeeded in blowing up two of the four crematoria at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. We learn at the end of the film that the ovens were never replaced and the significance of this accomplishment can only be guessed at in terms of how many lives were saved because the largest of the Nazi death camps had its capacity cut in half. But the actual revolt ends up being a relatively small part of the film. More importantly, it sets up another moral dilemma for the men of the 12th sonder-kommando.
The leaders of the sonder-kommandos are played by David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, Steve Buscemi and David Chandler, and they have planned the revolt, while Natasha Lyonne and Mira Sorvino lead the women who work at the munitions plant and having been stealing gunpowder to be used in the attack. I mention the names of the actors without the characters both because names had been replaced by numbers in the camps and because having people like Arquette and Buscemi unforgettably acting against type is pretty memorable. The crisis comes on the eve of the uprising when a young girl (Kamelia Grigorova) survives the gassing and an impromptu decision is made to save her. The idea of burning her alive is too much for these men, but the question is whether they can risk what they are about to do for one person (you can see why this worked as a stage play and again, why the uprising itself is not really the main point of the story). This plot twist is critical, because without it "The Grey Zone" become less about moral dilemmas and more about one of the few times concentration camp inmates fought back against the Nazis. Would the 12th Sonder-kommandos have done what they did if they did not believe the end of the war was in sight? Why did the previous 11 groups never even try to do anything similar? Questions abound in both this film and its wake.
Nelson's play is based in part on the book "Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account," by Miklos Nyiszli (Allan Corduner), who did the autopsies for Dr. Josef Mengele's infamous experiments on twins. He is a collaborator of a different type, doing his grim work because SS-Oberscharfuhrer Eric Muhsfeldt (Harvey Keitel) has promised to keep Nyiszli's wife and daughter alive. Again, the question of what you would do to stay alive or to save the lives of those you love, comes to the forefront, as does the question of what would then be considered going too far and where would you draw the line? Consequently, "The Grey Zone" is part of what I would call the second generation of Holocaust films, that go beyond providing the details on what happened in the camps and telling stories which are set in concentration camps. They are still about the Holocaust, but in a different way from what we have seen, most notably on the television mini-series "Holocaust" and "War and Remembrance."
Movie Review: What more could I say?
Summary: 5 Stars
What could be said about that time in human history? I suppose someone could go on and on, and volumes could be filled, with facts and stories and dramas, all laid out, like the bricks paving the pathway of the infinite. And yet that would not be large enough to represent how important the subject matter is. However, one crumb, one shred, one sliver of the reality is all that should ever be needed for anyone and everyone to "get it." Period. I think this movie had more then enough of an abundance of just enough minimalocity for anyone to get it. The DVD didn't have enough special features for you? You need all the extras and bells and whistles when it comes to human slaughter? The sound was too low and you had to strain to hear? Well maybe it's time we all quiet down and listen. The plot was too slow? What, didn't they get to the killing quick enough for you? And once they did, were you getting bored waiting for the next exciting plot twist? Unreal. Dialogue weak, not great enough performances, plot too slow, accents not authentic enough, and the camera work not smooth enough? Yea, like what really helps gives a good impression of the holocaust is a smooth glossy slick piece of work. This movie wasn't hopeful or uplifting enough? Something happens, which I can't reveal, which raised my spirits high enough to evoke a joyful cheer out of me, even if it was only a second or so of glee. Comon', you know you cheered too! You know the moment I mean, right? Too much of the "F" word? At the point when society turns upside down and mass murder becomes institutionalized and accepted, I can't think of a better word to use. It is just a word and it's more then about time that society grows up and evolves past such trivial hang-ups anyway. Oh, I forgot this is a movie review and not a society review. Anyway, as far as this movie is concerned, I think the visual part was just enough to make it real, without being gratuitous. I think the dialogue was plain enough to make you identify somewhat with a group of people who it's hard to imagine being, or being in their shoes. I think the lack of accents helped with this wasn't the only accents the German ones? I guess the German Nazi are the "Them" of this movie. The best dialogue in the movie was the voices heard from inside after the gas chamber doors were sealed. I don't think any other vocalizations in the movie were more important. It's too erie that they sort of resemble the sound of a crowd on roller coaster, the mass screaming. of coarse there is a huge difference here also. The plot was what it should be given that it was taken from a historically factual event. This was a great movie that managed to keep the focus on what is really important. I recommend that everyone should see this movie. And anyone with children should, when they feel there kids are mature enough to handle it, watch it with them.
I just can never get over that anything like this could ever happen, that it was even possible. But it really did, and not just once, but many times. And it is happening now. What more could I say.
Movie Review: Terrifying Tale of Unspeakable Horror
Summary: 5 Stars
THE GREY ZONE is the finest film yet made about the horrors of the Nazi Final Solution for the extermination of the Jews and other undesirables in the concentration/death camps such as Auschwitz and Birkenau. While other movies about the Holocaust may be more accessible to the public at large and thus more apt to win Oscars, THE GREY ZONE is based upon hard facts and tells those facts in the most visually compelling and emotionally devasting manner imaginable. Tim Blake Nelson directed and penned the screenplay based on his own play of the same name which in turn was based on the writings of camp survivor Dr Miklos Nyiszlis. The title is descriptive on many levels: the constant darkness of the atmosphere around Auschwitz from the smoke and ash debris of the crematoriums, the different zones with the camp that designated the various levels of waiting for annhilation, and that zone (grey) between life (white) and death (black) that allowed some of the Jews to elect to be Sonderkommandos - workers who lead their own people to the showers, reassuringly taking their clothes, locking them in the gas chambers, then unloading the bodies onto carts to transport to the crematoriums where they actually had to place the corpses into the ovens and cart away the ashes after the burnings. As the 'desparation of doing anything for survival' makes the indvidual do the incomprehensible, so does this film explore how crushed were the minds of these fated men and women.Nelson achieves a harrowing sense of reality by uncompromisingly showing all phases of life and death in the camps and he does this so successfully in his choice of terse taut dialogue, quiet voices, lingering images of eyes, and a pacing that seems as formidable as the facts at hand. He keeps the lighting, the atmosphere, the scoring, and the acting level at such a suffocatingly low key that the story becomes just that much more devastating. He also has drawn superb performances from an outstanding cast: David Arquette is brilliant in his embodiment of all that is pitiful in the destiny of these events, Allan Cordunes is stunning as Dr Nyiszlis, Harvey Keitel IS the Nazi in control, and Mira Sorvino, David Benzali, and Steve Buscemi are equally superb.
The living memorial of this true story is that it tells of the only uprising of the Jews in the camps in a 1944 incident that managed to permanently destroy about half of the crematoriums in Auschwitz before that uprising ended in the mass execution of the perpetrators. A case in point of the sensitivity of this film: during the uprising the hauntingly beautiful "Alto Rhapsody" of Brahms is superimposed on the action - one of those inimitable moments of the marriage of arts as any ever captured on the screen.
This is a very fine film but it may not be one that everyone can tolerate seeing. It is extrememly vivid, it does not spare the eye, but it never stoops to sensationalism. Even in the most gruesome of scenes there is a palpable presence of the indestructable human spirit. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Movie Review: Gritty
Summary: 5 Stars
The Grey Zone was originally a book that was adapted into a play by Tim Blake Nelson (O, Eye Of God, Kansas) and now, Tim Blake Nelson has adapted his play into a movie that is almost unknown to the public. This film is based on a book called Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli. The film deals with one of the darkest times in the human history, Auschwitz, 1944. The story is about Sonderkommandos, a group of Jews forced to work for the Nazi's against their own kind for an exchange of having their life extended for couple of more months. As you can imagine, Sonderkommandos are put in the worst situation possible, but they all refuse to admit that they are helping the Nazi's even though their actions could be considered just as bad as the Nazi's. However, in the time of a war, and especially in this case, a morality does not exist, you do what you can to survive. Sonderkommandos can be considered traitors but also heroes, it all depends on how you look at it. To me, this situation is something I would never be able to handle on a mental level of sanity. I guess this story can be argued, and the argument will for sure have two sides. The pros and non's, like always, in time of a war, there is never really a common ground... sadly.
This film is extremely hard to stomach at certain points. A lifeless corpses piled up on one another, thick black smoke of burning bodies that echoes pure pain and suffering. Gas chambers filled with innocent people being tortured to death, cold-hearted Nazi's shooting people on the spot, an extremely bloody and a painful reminder to the audiences of the evil that has happened in 1994 and an unknown story of twelfth Sonderkommandos who lead the only armed uprising at the death camp. While many have judged these Sonderkommandos as traitors, the writer/director of this film has chosen to defend them.
Out of all the actors in the world I would have never thought David Arquette would be involved in this movie. I will have to say that I have a new found respect for him mainly because I was not aware that he could do well in a dramatic movie such as this one. I guess I am guilty of judging him from his previous movies, but I am glad that he proved to me and anyone else who might have doubted him, that he is capable of much more. The rest of the cast is also memorable but no one comes close to David Arquette. Kudos to Mira Sorvino who almost looks unrecognizable in this film. The acting from the cast is quite recognizable here but due to the fact that the story is so gripping, one often focuses on just the story and not the acting.
If you are looking for an answer to some question in this movie, you will not find it. With a story such as this one, there is no real answer, only a painful reminder.
Movie Review: Harrowing tale of absolute horror
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a tale set within the confines of the Auchswitz-Birkenau death camps. It is a tale of the depths that people are capable of sinking to to save a few weeks of life. The men of Sonderkommando 12 work in the selection and clothes changing areas. They lead people to the gas chambers under the pretext of disinfection. When the victims are all dead, they disentangle the corpses and search them for hidden jewelry--they cut the hair and they pull out the teeth. Afterwards, they work in the living Hell of the crematoria, incinerating bodies that are at least partly their personal victims.
There is a plot to destroy the crematoria coupled with a major prison break. Arms are smuggled in from Polish partisans. The Germans, who have informants everywhere, quickly learn of the plot but don't know how, where or what. Three women from a work detail in a munitions factory are discovered with powder--illicit explosives. They are ruthlessly tortured with electric shock but don't break. They are afterall going to die anyway. They have second thoughts, however, when the Nazis line up the women in their section and shoot them down, all the while asking the million dollar question. Half are murdered but no one talks.
The plot is almost foiled, howeve, when a prisoner discovers a still living girl under a pile of gassed people. He convinces others, including the camp doctor, to assist in her resuscitation and hiding. Trying to hide the girl places the whole operation at risk. The Commandant discovers her and, in exchange for her life, tries to bribe his brilliant Jewish doctor for more information about the plot. The doctor denies everything except, to say, that there is a plot. The Commandant isn't pleased.
The plot goes forward. Arms are seized and the main crematorium goes up in a series of explosions. Efforts to hold off the trained soldiers, brought in to repel the rebellion are largely hopeless. Many are killed outright and those who survive are systematically shot in the head. The young girl, who has survived so much, is shot down by the Commandant.
This is a powerful, grim and gruesome story of one of the greatest wrongs in history--the systematic demolition of a people. It asks the very pertinent question: How far would you go to save your own life? Are you above collaboration and murder?
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of America