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All Movie Info
Directed By
Tim Blake Nelson
Written By:
Tim Blake Nelson, Miklos Nyiszli
Cast:
David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, Allan Corduner, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Velizar Binev, David Chandler, Michael Stuhlbarg, George Zlatarev, Henry Stram, Dimitar Ivanov, Henry Stram
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The Grey Zone (2001)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
January 17th, 2008
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'The Grey Zone' is the bleakest and most depressing of all Holocaust movies; it is completely devoid of hope or joy, and walks us through the process of gassing the inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, after stripping them of their clothes and belongings, and persuading them that they are simply going to be deloused. Their bodies are pulled out and taken to large ovens, where they are incinerated, their ashes and other remains promptly disposed of. This continues almost without interruption, especially in 1944, when the Soviets are getting closer and closer to Poland, and the Nazis realize they must soon abandon the compound, and wish to leave as few survivors as possible, and as little physical evidence as possible. These events are seen from the perspective of members of the Sonderkommando, a group of Jews chosen by the Nazis to carry out those grisly aforementioned tasks. These men find themselves in a moral 'grey zone', as they willfully lie to other Jews, sift through their valuables, and do all the Nazis' dirty work for them, simply so they can live a little longer, even though each Sonderkommando unit lasts only four months before it is liquidated.
The SK Jews get better rations and housing accommodations, but their deaths are inevitable, since they know what goes on in the crematoria, and the Germans would prefer this to be kept a secret. One cannot imagine the dilemma they are faced with on a daily basis; what would you do under the same extraordinary circumstances? The answer is not easy to determine. Of the main characters we meet, only one will live, a Jewish doctor, named Miklos Nyiszli (Allan Corduner), who is Mengele's assistant, and is thus afforded all kinds of special privileges. His memoir served as a basis for this film. Nyiszli is not trusted or well-liked by the other prisoners, who are planning an uprising, which involves smuggling gunpowder and weapons into the camp, and ultimately blowing up at least one of the crematorium facilities.
SS captain Muhsfeldt (Harvey Keitel) wants Nyiszli to gather information about the prisoners' plans, in exchange for the safety of his wife and daughter. Hoffman (David Arquette), one of the SK Jews, finds a girl barely alive on the floor of the gas chamber, and tries to get the others to hide and protect her, even though doing so would compromise them and their scheme. The imagery is horrifying and also quite sparse; I lost count of how many people are shot by the sadistic camp guards, shot in many different formations, standing up, lying facedown on the ground, lined up against a wall, it is troubling and upsetting. Mira Sorvino is Dina, in the women's section of the camp. Dina and the other women are tortured (and this torture is depicted with unflinching realism, apparently it involves an electrical shock device) during an interrogation that seeks to uncover how they got powder out of the factory they work in, and where the powder has gone since then.
The uprising occurs, and it proves to be a futile act of desperation, but is carried out with much courage, in the face of impossible odds. I mean, none of those who participate expect to live through it. Steve Buscemi seems a bit out of place, I never thought of him as anyone other than Steve Buscemi, but Arquette is surprisingly effective, in one of his best performances. Keitel slaps on a German accent (which is not that great, but he does strive for consistency), and makes Muhsfeldt utterly loathsome, a drunkard with a short temper and penchant for brutality. The story is very much driven by dialogue, obviously illustrative of its origins as a stage play, by director Tim Blake Nelson. It is a remarkably painful and powerful film.
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