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Almost
gut-wrenching, heartfelt...
Never again!
Grim and unrelenting realism
The Grey Zone

The Grey Zone
Starring: David Arquette , Velizar Binev , David Chandler (IV) , Michael Stuhlbarg , and George Zlatarev
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Out of the Ashes
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Triumph of the Spirit

ASIN: B000087EYX
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Amazon.com

The title of Tim Blake Nelson's harrowing drama of Jewish death camp prisoners who rise up against their captors to "destroy the machinery" refers as much to the compromise and cloudy morality of collaboration as to the gray world coated in the smoke and ash of the crematoriums. Inspired by real-life events at the Auschwitz death camp, The Grey Zone stars David Arquette as a soul-deadened laborer whose being fiercely jolts to life when he finds a young girl alive among the gassed corpses. He's the heart and soul of an outstanding cast that includes Steve Buscemi and Daniel Benzali as revolt leaders, Allan Corduner as the shunned camp doctor, and Harvey Keitel as the commandant. Nelson's rapid pacing, intimate shooting, and terse, jagged dialogue give the moral debate a discomforting immediacy as it races a deadline. When doom hangs in the air, sure death creates unique priorities. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Almost.......2007-06-29

This is an almost impossible topic to do well; Nelson and company came very close. There are a few historical errors, and the relationship between SS and prisoners - with the exception of the people like Nyszli - was rarely as "conversational" as the film suggests. The hierarachy within the sonderkommando itself is also missing, which was a key part of what they had to contend with. Typically, SS spoke directly (in the form of giving orders) to non-Jewish kapos; not to the class of prisoners who figure centrally in the film. Likewise, the frenetic pace of the work when there was a transport to be "disposed of" was not shown here. I assume this was in the interest of everything being "matter of fact," which _is_ generally true to the sonderkommando's everday adaptation to their task.

I found the mix of accents confusing - why did only the Germans get them? And some of the interaction around planning the rebellion needed a bit more context, I think.

That said, there is more here that is _essentially_ true than in most Holocaust films. The grayness of the film itself fit its subject. When the "ash speaks" at the end, in the form of the incinerated girl, I was initially put off. Why this flight of poetry in the midst of such an unpoetic film. But it was short and on point enough to add at least something.

gut-wrenching, heartfelt..........2007-06-12

The women in this astounding film are incredible; Mira Sorvino, in particular--who turns in another Oscar-caliber performance. What I can't get over is the fact I had no idea she was even in it. The entire time I was watching this tremendous re-enactment I kept thinking (whenever her character was on screen) who is this woman? Where did they find her? I simply could not connect her to the wonderful, scene-stealing job she did in Mighty Aphrodity; the actress is that good here.

I do my best to keep from writing lengthy reviews (very often skip over them as well when wanting to find out about a film am interested in, etc.) so I won't go into the plot and what happens. Will only say that, although I always look foreward to seeing Harvey Keitel on screen, I only wish that he had refrained from going with a German accent. Not many American actors can do a foreign accent and do it well, not even Meryl Streep--and I don't care what some people might say about that. Accents never sound right. They should have just hired a German actor to play the part, etc.

All in all, kudos to the folks for making the film. It just might leave you choking back a sob or two. Strong stuff. Am currently reading Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Muller (and I have read others on the subject.) This film struck me as pretty authentic--and am glad it was made.

Thank you to one and all for all the hard work that made this unforgetable motion picture possible..

Never again!.......2007-06-02

This movie takes you into the holocaust in a way that makes the characters more than ciphers. There is a story here, and images that will haunt you for years to come. Yes, the Jews had to do a lot of the Nazis' dirty work - it was part of the torture that the Nazis designed, as they thought they could never be held accountable. The Jews who cooperated maybe got to live a little longer, maybe got a little more food, an extra blanket. It's amazing what the will to survive will do to a human being. And, without those survivors telling their stories, holocaust deniers would not even need to exist. There would be nothing to deny.

Again, the images in this movie are haunting, moving, and should cause one to think and to dig deeper into what we think we know about the holocaust, and about man's inhumanity to man. We may think we know what horror man is capable of. We can only remain aware as long as our eyes remain open - and our hearts remain connected to our souls.

Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State

Grim and unrelenting realism.......2007-05-27

Prior to watching this dvd, I had read accounts of the true events it depicts, namely the heroic but futile uprising of the crematoria sondercommando at Auschwitz in 1944, during the Germans' frenetic gassing of the half million Jews of Hungary. These men, whom Auschwitz survivor and acclaimed author, Primo Levi, called "the ravens of the crematoria" were all Jews and were kept alive for the grisly work of herding their fellow-Jews into the gas chambers and then burning the bodies in the crematoria ovens. They received privileges denied other Jewish prisoners for carrying out this hellish work but were themselves murdered and replaced after about 3 months because the Nazis considered they knew too much about their heinous crimes. With Dantesque and nightmarish realism the movie depicts the horror of the men's existence, their brutalisation and their simultaneous efforts to cling to a shred of humanity, for example saving the girl who survives the gas,and to make a stand against the monsters who have forced their moral corruption. Also noteworthy is the courage of the Jewish women who smuggled explosives to the men of the sondercommando and who were themselves subjected to hideous torture and subsequent execution.
This is not an easy film to watch, but it helps to lay to rest the oft parroted claim that the Jews of the Holocaust did not fight back at the same time as it reminds us of the barbarism and appalling inhumanity of Nazified Germans in WW2.

The Grey Zone.......2007-03-11

Based on the real-life events in WWII, a special squad of Jewish prisoners, who staged the only armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz. Historical film showing the troubles that prisoners had to deal with in Auschwitz. A bone chilling story.

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ABC News UpClose Tim Blake Nelson

Manufacturer: ABC News
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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amazon.com

Think of the most excruciating moral dilemma of all - kill or be killed - and try translating that to the big screen and you begin to appreciate what Tim Blake Nelson faced in making "The Grey Zone." Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp confronted this choice: whether to collaborate with the Nazis as they exterminated the Jews and save yourself for a few months or be killed instantly. Some choice. Film buffs may know Nelson more as an actor than a director. He played the comic rube in the Coen Brothers' "O Brother. Where Art Thou?" and the creepy warden in Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller, "Minority Report." But it's Nelson's family history that has driven him to share the story of the special squad of Jewish prisoner/collaborators, the Sonderkommando, with audiences. Nelson grew up in a Jewish home in Oklahoma, the grandson of refugees who fled Germany on the eve of the Holocaust. He borrowed the phrase, "The Grey Zone" from Primo Levi, the Auschwitz survivor who described in his memoirs the grey zone of moral reasoning the Nazis forced upon the Jews. Correspondent: Dave Marash.

Holocaust / War Three Movie Set (The Grey Zone; Varian's War; Out Of the Ashes) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]

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Holocaust / War Three Movie Set (The Grey Zone; Varian's War; Out Of the Ashes) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]
Director: Tim Blake Nelson , and Lionel Chetwynd
Manufacturer: Bridge Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GWLI2Q

Product Description

Netherlands released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Do;by Digital 2.0), SYNOPSIS: The true story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew chosen by Josef Mengele to be the head pathologist at Auschwitz. Nyiszli was one of Auschwitz's Sonderkommandos - Special Squads of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excruciating moral dilemma of helping to exterminate fellow Jews in exchange for a few more months of life. Together, the Sonderkommandos struggled to organize the only armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz. As the rebellion is about to commence, a group from the unit discovers a 14-year-old girl who has miraculously survived a gassing. A catalyst for their desperate attempt at personal redemption, the men become obsessed with saving this one child, even if doing so endangers the uprising which could save thousands. To what terrible lengths are we willing to go to save our own lives, and what in turn would we sacrifice to save the lives of others? SPECIAL FEATURES: 3-DVD Set, Interactive Menu,

Charlie Rose with Chris Hedges; Tim Blake Nelson, Harvey Keitel, David Arquette and Mira Sorvino (November 6, 2002)

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Charlie Rose with Chris Hedges; Tim Blake Nelson, Harvey Keitel, David Arquette and Mira Sorvino (November 6, 2002)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

First, Charlie shares his thoughts on the controversy over the presidential election. Then, an interview with Chris Hedges of The New York Times about the life of a war correspondent, detailed in his new book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Finally, director Tim Blake Nelson and actors Harvey Keitel, David Arquette and Mira Sorvino discuss their new movie about the Holocaust, The Grey Zone.

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