The Grey Zone
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Movie Reviews of The Grey Zone
Movie Review: No grey here!
Summary: 4 Stars
While not perfect, The Grey Zone does have many wonderful qualities. To attack the flaws first, yest, it does feel rather stagy, with its heritage in theater all too clearly showing. And the dialog is indeed frequently extracted from some grade B 40s movie. And I did find the male leads a little unbelievable. But, in a film of this magnitude, these are minor quibbles. Prevent that fifth star, but still, an excellent film. Some have objected to Harvey Keitel's accent. Yeah, well, sure it might have been better without it, but I actually would have liked more phony German accents to distinguish the German speakers from the Jews. Other critics have objected to its violence, its nudity, and its grossness. Well, this was a violent, naked time. I am no fan of gratuitous nudity or violence, but I found them effectively, even tastefully, used here, with sounds, looks, and results showing us what happened.What's good about it? Well to start, the title is great. Contemporary morality loves to tell us that all dilemmas are shades of grey, where negotiation is the answer. If we could just discuss our differences, we could reach an amicable solution. But faced with the monstrous evil of gassing and burning Jews by the trainload, there is no grey. What discussion would be appropriate here? What negotiation? How about we stun them first before gassing them? Or cut back the number of the damned? Or maybe provide a musical accompaniment not just on their entrance to the camp, but on their exit as well? No, this is evil, pure and simple, no compromise, no place for negotiation or concession, no grey zone, but all black and white.
Another spectacular image was the lawns being watered while this evil was going on. Life was normal, even suburban, with green grass a priority in this camp, while humans were being slaughtered. The idea of grass being nurtured and cared for while people were not is beautiful. We see the lawns throughout the film, always green, always cared for, always getting what they need. What is important to this culture is evident. And despicable.
The cold-heartedness of the murders is wonderfully demonstrated in two scenes. A major character is shot when we do not expect it at all. Just bam, and he's dead. No build up, no drama, no contortions or speeches. Every one watching must act unaffected by this. And in one of the most brilliant scenes, as the newly arrived are being encouraged to remember the number of the hook where they hung their clothes, a confrontation occurs. A screaming woman is casually shot in the head to silence her. And it works. Anyone inconvenient, annoying, or unable to account for themselves properly, was shot. They were cargo, not people, and difficult cargo was removed.
I found the photography quite effective. The smokestacks flaming and spewing their ash never let us forget just what the business of this place was. The grim, muted colors, the cramped, confined feel, the oppressive editing and the well chosen music all made the feel as real as it could be for those of us in our living rooms.
Better than Schindler's List. Much better than Life is Beautiful. A film that pulls no punches, and makes a powerful case for standing up to evil even when your tools are ineffectual and your hope nonexistent.
Movie Review: Painful to Watch True Story
Summary: 4 Stars
One of the hardest things to understand about the Shoah was how so many people "just walked" into the gas chambers. Harder still is to understand why people chose to help out the Germans. When you watch how the people coming off the trains were treated, you ask yourself why didn't they rebel. Well part of the reason was that they were told by their own that they were going in for showers. Why would you fight against that?
What if there were no SonderKommandos? Would the Germans not have hired other people (Poles and Balts) who would have been happy to do the work just like they did in the Eastern Camps? Would these 'others' have treated those going to the 'chambers' any better or worse? If you were there, what would you do to stay alive, even if for only four more months?
What doesn't show is the years of humiliation, like a woman who have suffered years of abuse by her husband. That is what these people were like when they came into the Jagers. They had first been stripped of all their rights and then spent years in forced ghettos living like convicts.
One thing that was missing from the movie is the condition of the people when they go out of the 'cars'. Most had been in them at least for forty -eight hours, with no food or water and one bucket for urine and feces. There may have been up to 120 people in a car that could fit maybe sixty. Many were forced to stand for the whole trip. Some would have died enroute and there was no way to get rid of the bodies. When the cars were opened the people inside were so traumatized that they were like robots. Some had even gone insane while locked up and the rest would have had to endure their screaming and ranting during the trip.
It's hard to imaging what these people endured before they were gassed. In many cases, as they left the cars, anyone who complained were shot on the spot. These were normal, law abiding people, how would you reach if someone shot the person next to you in the head, and their brains and blood were splattered all over you, having endured 48 hours or more stuffed in a cattle car?
This may seem raw, but was mild compared to the actual camps. The one part that was close was when they were shooting the woman, to get the other two woman to confess. The German in charge, took no notice of the screaming of the woman about to be shot or that they were not involved. To them all Jews were 'untermenschen' (underpeople) who would all be killed eventually. So did it matter if we did it now or later?
Zeb Kantrowitz
Movie Review: A powerful, but very disturbing movie
Summary: 4 Stars
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
Movie Review: Definitely not a Hollywood take on the Holocaust.
Summary: 4 Stars
One cannot come away from a movie like this without feeling such sorrow at the atrocities carried out against the Jews and the depths to which mankind can sink. The Jews, like a number of people-groups throughout history, have had a very sad past, the latest being the Holocaust of WWII, and when watching this I was reminded of the biblical accounts of the numerous instances of Jewish 'slavery'.
This movie is set entirely in the concentration camp (i.e. there are no scenes of the war) and deals with the true story of Auschwitz's twelfth Sonderkommando and its attempts to fight their Nazi captors. _The Grey Zone_ might not be a Schindler's List, but I think it was more realistic in its portrayal of camp life. It is definitely a bleak film, and if you are expecting a movie about redemption or hope, then watch something 'Hollywood' instead. The Grey Zone lets you feel the sense of desperation and hopelessness that must have faced those people who knew that their days were numbered but struggled to hold onto their lives, even if it wasn't much of one.
The only fault I can find with this movie is the dialogue. The scriptwriter(s) really let this movie down by giving such unrealistic dialogues to these great actors. At times I was wondering whether this was an American drama or a movie about European Jews during World War II. I didn't see the rationale in giving the Germans a German accent while both Polish and Hungarian Jews had an American one. I would have preferred to have the actors with an accent even if it wasn't the best, rather than hear what was a very Americanized movie.
But, as I said, that was the only fault I found, so I hope it has not put you off this movie for good. I would highly recommend it, because it is a more realistic look at life within the concentration camps than some of the more rosy 'Holocaust films'.
Movie Review: Alien 3 meets The Holocaust
Summary: 4 Stars
What a nightmare. The producers wanted to create a claustraphobic feel to this movie, and they certainly have done that. Unlike other Holocaust films that I have seen, the gas chambers and ovens are shown working in full force instead of merely being hinted at. We get the experience that we are there instead of only reading about it. And the film gives added insight into the life of those who "helped" the Germans, but one wonders that even with a short life expectency it might have still been better to deny the luxury as a symbol of protest.The biggest turnoff to this movie was the conatant use of the "F" word. Whether it may or may not have been used to the degree that it was, it gave me the impression that the concentration camp victims were nothing but a bunch of godless men, more suited to the penal colony of Aliens 3. The constant use of the "F" word was a distraction, and I think there were Holocaust victims who did hang on to their dignity as best they could. Perhaps the Holocaust made athiests out of some Jews, but it also made believers out of some athiests, and this fact was grossly missing from this movie. Where was faith in Auschwitz? It was there, too, but so often Hollywood wants to present soldiers and others as being nothing more than animals whose only pleasure in life comes from raping the women and killing the men--just watch "Dances With Wolves," and "The Outlaw Josy Wales." And according to this movie there were no decent Jews and no decent Germans. Still, the Holocaust was a nightmare, and this film captures it very well, and also shows how in spite of the demeaning circumstances, there was resistance.