The Grey Zone (2001)

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:

Female Nudity | Color In Title | Dead Children | Auschwitz | Holocaust

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

David Arquette	...	Hoffman
Velizar Binev	...	Moll
David Chandler	...	Rosenthal
Michael Stuhlbarg	...	Cohen
George Zlatarev	...	Lowy (as Georgy Zlatarev)
Dimitar Ivanov	...	Old Man
Daniel Benzali	...	Schlermer
Allan Corduner	...	Doctor 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 | South Korea:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | 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:

A 90%/scale reproduction of the Auschwitz/Birkenau death camp was constructed near Sofia, Bulgaria, for the shooting of this film. The actual plans for the original Auschwitz camp were used to build the set.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the Jews are ushered from the changing rooms to the "Shower" a women with a bikini top is visible for a moment in the background.

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

Very very sad. Good for educational value, so so for entertainment.

I love WWII movies and am a fan of many that were made about the Holocaust. I saw this one a few nights ago it is playing right now only very limited release.

Good cast with Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Steve Buscemi and an impressive performance for a change by David Arquette. Arquette chose a very serious role-a Jewish prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp and played it off well.

This is based on a true story about a group of Jewish concentration camp inmates at Auschwitz that plan on smuggling in dynamite to blow up one of the crematoriums. Their plan gets discovered by the SS and killings and torture run rampant to try and get them to confess and give details of their plans.

A teenage girl happens to survive one of the gassings and the camp inmates become obsessed with saving her, even though it could be at the expense of many lives.

There were some people that saw this movie because they couldn't get in to see "Frida". Some people had no idea what this movie was about before they saw it. Some people asked me before it started and I told them and they still chose to stay. If you are a history buff and like Holocaust movies and want to see a true story told through the eyes of the writers, you might like this movie but be prepared to see endless killings working around a decent script that could have been better written. However if you can appreciate the fact that the makers are trying to educate people on the Holocaust and bring to light just how cruel and horrible Hitler's Third Reich was, the movie is sad, depressing, but does have some educational value. Not every single Jew willingly accepted what was going to happen to them, a few tried to rebel and that's why this story was told.

Not very easy on the eyes, bring the Kleenex and watch with shock as one of history's most horrible atrocities is brought to the screen.

7/10.