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Customer Reviews of The Grey Zone

As Disturbing as Any Holocaust Film You'll Likely See
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.

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The movie I have been waiting to see.
This is the best movie I have seen this last year. Being interested in the genre of Holocaust films I found this to be the most realistic yet. It does not flinch in showing the horror that existed in Auschwitz-Birkenau and particularly in the crematoria and gas chambers. This is the movie to show to those who claim "the Holocaust never happened." It may be horrifying in its portrayal of history. Let us hope by watching this movie that more Holocausts and genocides don't occur again.

I have been interested in the Sonderkommando and read all the same source materials that Tim Blake Nelson consulted for this film. Miklos Nyiszli's "Auschwitz" and "Amidst the Nightmare of a Crime" compiled by members of the Sonderkommando (and buried near the crematoria in Birkenau) were the main sources Nelson used. His film kept true to events in both books. Some may say this film is a horror fest. Let us not forget that the Holocaust and the Nazis were a horror fest.

David Arquette, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi and Mia Sorvino all deliver Oscar worthy performances. They make the characters believable. Nelson did an exceptional job directing this. Keitel had an instrumental part in seeing that this picture was made. The whole cast worked for less to be sure this important picture was made. I commend the whole cast, crew and producers for making this film. I feel it will be a contendor for many Oscars. This film is based upon the play of the same name Tim Blake Nelson wrote. When it played in New York it won numerous awards and received rave reviews.

I hail this as the best most realistic Holocaust film ever made. Go see it if you desire to know the truth.

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Bleak
This movie does a good job of portraying the bleakness of this awful place/time. There are a few graphic and disturbing scenes but they are not done for shock value. In fact, there are several places where the filmmakers could have shown much more but used creative camera angles to give the viewer just enough visual information to know that the unseen is horrific.

This isn't the most riveting holocaust movie and it could have used actors who looked a little worse than just tired. Rarely did the camp inmates look hollow and emaciated. At times the movie comes across with a feeling of hopelessness and desperation but overall it falls short in its quest to grip the viewer emotionally.

My complaints about this film are from purely a technical standpoint... I believe that if this movie helps someone understand and appreciate what the victims of these horrible places went through, then it is good. I don't like the idea of people watching these holocaust shows for entertainment. To become numb to this event by relegating it to the same status as fictional/enjoyment movies is demeaning.