The Age of Commercialism

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I'm really pleased this angle has been addressed in film, rather than solely in literature. The Sonderkommando and Kapo perspective is too often overlooked and based on stereotype and it was interesting to have them as the focus. The role of the Germans and Nazis have been re-addressed more and more in films like 'Good' and 'The Reader' and have been thoroughly explored through literature. While the role of the Sonderkommando is rarely a focus of literature, due to the traditional 'black and white' 'good and evil' popular portrayal, perhaps the changing consideration of 'ordinary Germans' have given rise to the focus on this, which is interesting. After reading Borowski's work, I had hoped a film of this nature would have been more popular, as it definitely aids understanding of the event.The execution was good, I though it raised interesting messages behind the mindset of a sonderkommando, as well as could be done through the media of film. The acting was average, although Arquette was surprisingly convincing.What does annoy me about this film, and perhaps all recreations of this nature is the need for redemption and logical progression. The film groups together various historically accounts to generate a fictitious chronology of events, which complete alter the history. This is particularly dangerous given the claims given at the start that this is based on a true story. I can understand why they've done it, for character progression and dramatisation and it is frustrating. The redemption in this films comes with the prevailing of morality, rather than survival. As with all blockbusters, such as 'Schindler's List,' 'Life is Beautiful' 'Pianist' etc.... I feel this is giving a message, almost reason to the holocaust, which I think is dangerous. Perhaps my qualms lie more with the representation in film than the execution of this specific film...The link to Levi's work is clear, and it brings to light an important issue overlooked. It's executed well, and camera work is shocking and realistic. I would recommend watching this film, it is both enlightening and educational, if not a tad commercialised.

A staggeringly provocative story based on true events. During World War II, Hitler placed hundreds of thousands of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps to be gassed, excinerated and buried; all kept secret from the German citizens and the world. The Nazis chose Special Squads from these prisoners to be Sonderkommandos; given a few more months of life in exchange for their help in exterminating fellow Jews. Personal and moral dilemma aside cause soft hearts to become dark and hard. One such group of Sonderkommandos painstakingly hoard enough weaponry for an organized revolt. As this uprising looms closer a young girl is found alive...surviving a gas chamber. Now can personal redemption be attained by helping this girl live a little longer and a chance to escape? Needless to say many endured torture just to allow other prisoners a few more hours of life. A top-notch ensemble features: Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Allan Corduner, David Arquette, Henry Stram, David Chandler, Velizar Biney and Kamelia Grigorova.

The Grey Zone explores well-covered territory from a unique angle: that of the Jewish prisoners who prolonged their lives by four months by becoming members of a unit used to herd their fellow prisoners into the gas chambers. Inevitably, such a subject matter raises the question of to what lengths the viewer would go in order to stay alive, and the cost to the people who found themselves capable of colluding with their captors. When one new arrival to Auschwitz, ferried straight from the train to the shower's changing room, loudly challenges Hoffman (David Arquette) over his and his friend's breezy instructions to remember the number of the hook on which they hang their clothes so that they can find them after the shower, Hoffman beats him to a bloody pulp – as if for forcing him to confront what he is doing to his people. Despite this, the performances are subdued for the most part, the prisoner's attitudes to their situation almost matter-of-fact. Given fine food and alcohol in payment for their work, they live in ivory towers that have been stained by human ashes.The survival of a young girl after showering in the Nazi's deadly gas just as the men are preparing to stage their revolt triggers an emotional crisis amongst the members of the unit, with some insisting she be killed for their protection and others demanding she be allowed to live. They face a dilemma that is mirrored by those of the German soldiers who mill around the girl uncertainly after the protesters have all been killed. There is a line beyond which even those who have grown almost inhumanly inured to killing will hesitate to step. The girl, alone and defenceless, unlike the masses herded into the showers, forces them to put a face to their victims and ejects them from their oddly cocooned existence.The film is an adaptation of a stage play, apparently, and this fact is evident in the dialogue, which sometimes seems unreal, as if the speakers are somehow detached from the emotions they are supposed to be feeling. This may be deliberate, another example of the tamping down of their true emotions, but its sometimes distracting. Despite this, the performances are good, especially that of Harvey Keitel who seems to grow into the part of the German officer who knows he has lost touch with everything that made him human.

During the last days of World War II, as the soviets' bombs explode closer and closer as the days go by, the routine of concentration camp Awschwitz follows its course and represents the focus of this picture: the atmosphere of dread and death inhabiting the heavy air, the work inside the crematorium, the random executions of men, women and children,and the drama of the Jewish sonderkommando, a group formed by prisoners who, in exchange of better food and clothes, helped their tormentors in the systematic of death inside the camps, guiding the new arrived prisoners through the corridors that lead to the gas chambers, and the disposal of the bodies after wards, just to be killed some time latter. Let me just say this right from the get go: The Grey Zone is the finest, ultimate, grittiest portrayal of the Holocaust, in all its ugliness and horror. On the fact that The Grey Zone is highly underrated and little known is a complete mystery for me. Where Schindler's List bravely portrayed the dark events that went around in Germany, circa 1940's, it was built towards the light, towards an uplifting ending where hope prevails and courageous acts save the day. The Grey Zone, instead, offers no hope or alternative, nor uplifting ways, nor any of the characters show any noble redeeming actions towards their fellow inmates. Ultimately, it's about survival, and how we get our morals lost so easily when the instinct to stay alive kicks in. The Grey Zone's ugliness packs one hard punch - never in any other movie death was shown in such a realistic, brutal light. You actually fell you're inside the corridors of the crematorium, it's like you're trapped inside these tiny, claustrophobic gas chambers, it's like the putrid smell of the dead, yellow corpses piled up on the floor and the dread gets under your skin and stays there for days.Tim Blake Nelson was at the helm of The Grey Zone, and what a masterful filmmaker Mr. Nelson is...The sense of dread and dark tonalities of The Grey Zone put David Cronenberg to the shame. It should be regarded not as a movie, but as an experience.The script is tight and sober, reminded me of David Mamet in his most inspiring moments, regarding the dialogs and the exchanges between the characters. The photography and art department deserve praise: Awschwitz was worse than hell and people who visit these old concentration camps tend to say that after wards they fell this aura of pain and sadness. With Tim Blake Nelson's picture, although you're not physically there, The Grey Zone works as a tour through this place worse than hell. It is as creepy as the creepiest film can get, trust me.Performances here are all top notch and career defining. What really hurts is that The Grey Zone didn't get its deserved attention, because it poignantly proved what some movie stars are capable of, given the right material: David Arquette, an actor known for light comedies, is strikingly magnetic as the most fragile, mentally weakened sonderkommando, and his scenes are nothing short than harrowing and visceral. The moment when he is confronted by a newcomer prisoner about to be guided to the gas chamber is the stuff of cinematic history in terms of acting: as Arquette tells his lies ("you'll be guided to the bath and soon will be reunited with your family", and so on), this scared newcomer, realizing his fate, confronts him and says "It's a lie, I can't believe it's Jews doing this job!I'm going to die, but I'm going to live longer than you ever will, you're dead already!!", the desperate prisoner shouts at Arquette, and then Arquette loses his head and attacks this man to death, breaking his skull with punches and kicks, not really moved by angriness, but by sorrow and pain to recognize the awfulness of the truth spit on his face - yes, even him, Arquette, can't believe he is doing this, and the outlet of such sorrow comes into the forms of him losing his head and degrading and smashing a fellow Jew's skull to the death. Such a scary, harrowing movie moment... Mira Sorvino was a joy, and be prepared, you won't recognize her at first. The depths this wonderful actress went to create her character in a realistic light should be applauded. Mrs. Sorvino was highly commended for her work in Woody Allen's 1995 movie, but her performance in The Grey Zone rises above her other work, that's the picture Mrs. Sorvino should be recognized and awarded for.The other members of the cast have my respect, but I wanted to specifically point the performances of Sorvino and Arquette as the picture's true highlight in terms of acting. It was a crime that Lions Gate didn't work hard to promote this powerful material. The Grey Zone is a must see and a must have, a tour de force with performances for the ages and top notch cinematic achievements in every single department. A true ten, as exciting as films can get!!