The Grey Zone (2001)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Tim Blake Nelson

Writers:

Miklos Nyiszli (book)
Tim Blake Nelson (play)

Release Date:

30 November 2001 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Story You Haven't Seen

Plot:

A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkomando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews, find themselves in a moral grey zone.

Plot Keywords:

Auschwitz | Uprising | Doctor | Poland | Holocaust

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

David Arquette	...	Hoffman
Velizar Binev	...	Moll
David Chandler	...	Max Rosenthal
Michael Stuhlbarg	...	Cohen
George Zlatarev	...	Lowy (as Georgy Zlatarev)
Dimitar Ivanov	...	Old Man
Daniel Benzali	...	Simon Schlermer
Allan Corduner	...	Dr. Miklos Nyiszli
Steve Buscemi	...	'Hesch' Abramowics
Harvey Keitel	...	SS-Oberscharfuhrer Eric Muhsfeldt
Henry Stram	...	SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele
Kamelia Grigorova	...	Girl
Lisa Benavides	...	Anja
Shirly Brener	...	Inmate
Mira Sorvino	...	Dina

MPAA:

Rated R for strong holocaust violence, nudity and language.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA (cable rating) | Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | UK:15 | Netherlands:16 | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Brazil:16 | Japan:PG-12 | Spain:18 | USA:R (certificate #38234) | Norway:15 | Australia:R | Germany:16 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Company:

Goatsingers, The

Trivia:

Jeff Danna who is the credited composer did not score the movie. There is no score in the actual film but he did write music for the title and end credit sequences. He also arranged a classical piece used as source music.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The sonderkommandos mounted the uprising in a hurry. The krematorium IV Kommando rebelled after they knew they were about to be liquidated. They used only blunt weapons and self made grenades and set the krematorium 4 on fire (only one). The rebellion wasn't planned from the start.

Quotes:

SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele: This isn't our war.
Doctor Miklos Nyiszli: Not mine.
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele: Nor mine. I can assure you. But, to allow this all to go to waste.
Doctor Miklos Nyiszli: I understand your position.
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele: Clearly you do more than that.
Doctor Miklos Nyiszli: As you wish.
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele: Meaning?
Doctor Miklos Nyiszli: There is no meaning.
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Mengele: We're going to be increasing the volume of our research.
Doctor Miklos Nyiszli: I shall need more staff.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Nuit et brouillard (1955)

Soundtrack:

Roses from the South, Opus 388

THE GREY ZONE is so good it's literally painful to watch.

This might not sound like a recommendation, but when you consider the film's subject matter, "painful" is actually a good word to describe THE GREY ZONE's brilliance. Director Tim Blake Nelson has crafted a fascinating portrayal of the Sonderkomando, Jewish concentration-camp prisoners who help the Nazis in order to ensure for themselves a few extra months of life, as well as creature comforts denied to the other prisoners. The script and cast are equally effective. David Arquette proves himself to be not merely the idiot bastard son of the Arquette family with a powerful performance; Harvey Kietel and Steve Buscemi are brilliant as always. The film's real strength, making it the greatest Holocaust film I've ever seen, is its relevance; we may think ourselves to noble to sell out our brethren to save our own lives, but we would certainly reconsider if actually faced with this choice. In the end, Nelson brilliantly implies that perhaps the nightmare world of the Sonderkomando is really not so different from our own workaday reality.