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War / Holocaust Films - 3-DVD Set ( The Grey Zone / Varian's War / Out Of the Ashes ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]

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4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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."

As one who regularly teaches Holocaust literature and film, I was finally disturbed at the anachronisms of the language and attitudes of these men of the Sonderkommandos (who did not, by the way, as one reviewer claimed, 'elect' to join; many did not even know what they were selected for -- and those who refused were immediately killed)
but more to the point, Michael Perry is right on target with his comment:
Those who made this film seem captive their own culture and place in history, unaware that any other exists. Most of those involved in these historical events were born in Eastern Europe in the first three decades of the twentieth century. That was a culture far different from our own. In the film, they are portrayed as acting and sounding like they were born our West coast in the last decades of the twentieth century. They're vain, self-obsessed and foul-mouthed with small and petty egos. [they could be East Coast too, by the way]

I'm not talking about a lack of the slight Hungarian accents that more talented filmmakers might have added to lend a bit of realism. The problem is not that most of the characters have modern American accents. The problem is that their attitudes and the content of what they're saying is that of today's Los Angeles rather than the Budapest of long ago. Their debates about what to do have all the sallowness of those waiting in line to get tickets for a rock concert. The result rings untrue. "

This is why I would never teach this film or recommend it to my students.
more's the pity, since the film takes risks in other ways.

Finally, for those interested in personal testimony, besides Filip Müller, who appears in Lanzmann's Shoah, author of Eyewitness Auschwitz - Three Years in the Gas Chambers, there is the most recent: nside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz by Shlomo Venezia (Wiley & Sons, 2009), The Holocaust odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando Rebecca Camhi Fromer, and the excellent work of Gideon Greif, We Wept Without Tears: Testimonies of the Jewish Sonderkommando from Auschwitz, and the rare book, Scrolls of Auschwitz, containing translations of the testimony buried in bottles and other receptacles in the crematoria in Auschwitz.

Tim Blake Nelson directs an outstanding ensemble cast in what to my mind is the definitively realistic portrayal of WWII atrocities. Unlike 'Schindler's List' or 'The Pianist', there is but a shred of happy ending here. And it is simply that a small group of hopeless people did what they could to atone for their shameful choices, and to strike a blow for humanity, however brief and ultimately ineffectual. This is a stunning movie based on a true story. There's not a single wrong note, bad performance, forced sympathy, or easy out. It's bleak and powerful.

I have seen many movies based around the Holocaust mostly through a number of university courses I have done over the years (both as an under and post-graduate). Of all the movies I ever have seen, none have affected me as much as The Grey Zone. This movie is a "must see" for anyone interested in the period of history - actually on second thoughts, it should be required viewing for anyone mature enough to deal with the subject matter - but be warned that it may haunt you for days afterwards. I would also advise that you do not allow any children to view it or have access to it.
I rank this film well above such films as Schindler's List and The Pianist - not that they are bad films, they're not - they are great works of art. But these films (and others) still insist on following the Hollywood formula of requiring survival stories, victories, and heroes. The Grey Zone is brave enough to attempt to show that for millions of people, such things were absent.
The sets, landscape, and the scale of the operation depicted are all very accurate to the historic record. If you have ever seen the famous 1950's French documentary "Night and Fog", you recognise how accurately the camps and buildings have been recreated in The Grey Zone. The sparing use of music (in part due to economic constraints) is also extremely effective. Its place is taken by the constant throb of machinery and industrial noises.
I would take issue with those reviewers who criticise the film for the heavy use of swear words. The Sonderkomando depicted were Hungarian Jews. The Hungarian Jewish community were highly integrated into normal Hungarian society and spoke the vernacular language, not Yiddish. As a Hungarian speaker myself, I can assure you that even at the best of times, Hungarians can swear like troopers and I have no doubt that under the circumstances, the language would probably have been even more "colourful" that that used in the film.
The term "Enter the Zone" has been used for years to market everything from fad diets to video games. For once, had it been applied to this film, it would have been appropriate - for if you watch The Grey Zone, it is likely to change you.
Highly recommended.

This film, written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, is based on a true story written by a Hungarian doctor (a Holocaust survivor who worked under Mengele). You are instantly, from the first eerie shot, drawn into the inner-world of the Nazi death camps, into the realm of the Jewish workers in charge of removing and burning the bodies from the gas chambers. By doing this work, the Nazis grant them an extra four months to live and allow them extra rations. They are doomed, and they know they are doomed. Life is worth a gold watch, or maybe not even that much. The performers -- Harvey Keitel, David Arquette, Mira Sorvino -- are nearly unrecognizable in their uniforms or prison garb, their heads shaved closely. Death is commonplace, hardly worth raising one's head to observe. It's unlike any Holocaust drama, and perhaps, just perhaps, a vision of the unimaginable experience itself. At the end, the director draws something unexpected and close to miraculous out of the flames and ashes. Moving, thought-provoking, disturbing.

I just want to add a comment to some of the reviews posted here. I'm worried that descriptions of this film as `graphic,' `gory,' or `a horror fest' will leave readers with the impression that this is a blood-soaked `Ilsa' movie. This is not the case at all. This film leaves one dumbstruck with horror, but only because of the knowledge that human beings actually lived through the sooty, grey, dreadful existence dramatized here. The characters in this film live with death of friends and with the looming inevitability of their own ends, and this mood - not anything visual - is what will stain a viewer's soul.

Yes, there are occasional scenes of dead bodies, usually being stacked and moved by the sonderkommando, but it is not a bloody, gratuitous use of this imagery. In fact, it is handled about as tastefully as it can possibly be, given the subject matter.

What is hypnotic about this film is witnessing the awful things that men will do to live another day, and yet in the middle of all of this, how they redeem their souls by refusing to commit one more horrible act. Why is this one task any more awful than all the others? Why do `this' and not `that'? I doubt even these poor people could have answered, but a time comes when men must say, `Enough. Not this. No more. It has to stop here.'

If only their captors had had the strength to come to this conclusion.

I was really looking forward to seeing this film. But after viewing it, I was disappointed. It is a great story, but the dialog is weak and sometimes borders on bad banter. I noticed several changes in Harvey Keitel's German accent. The adaptation from stage to film should have been smoother, as many of the lines seem forced. I did appreciate the tone and the horrible images portrayed in the movie. The cinematography is wonderful and David Arquette is quite good. This film just didn't stand up to Schindler's List. Just my opinion!!

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

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.