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David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, Steve Buscemi, David Chandler, Alan Corduner ... see more see more... , Harvey Keitel , Natasha Lyonne , Mira Sorvino , Michael Stuhlbarg , Lisa Benavides , Brian F. O'Byrne , Henry Stram , Lee Wilkof , Jessica Hecht , Kamelia Grigorova , Allan Corduner , Oncho Alexanyan , Velizar Binev , Victor Kaley

Actor, writer, and director Tim Blake Nelson adapts this grim look at the Holocaust from his own play, based on Miklós Nyiszli's book, Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account. The film centers on the... read more read more... Sonderkommando: Jewish concentration camp prisoners whose job was to herd their fellow Jews into the gas chamber, and to dispose of the bodies following the execution. In return, these prisoners received food and a little more time before their own executions. As the members of the sonderkommando struggle to orchestrate what would be the only armed insurrection in Auschwitz, a group of them discover a 14-year-old girl who somehow survived the gas chamber. The girl becomes a symbol for their own spiritual salvation and they become obsessed with keeping the girl alive, even if it endangers the uprising that could save thousands. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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71% liked it

6,276 ratings

Critics

69% liked it

80 critics

R, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Tim Blake Nelson

Release Date: October 18, 2002

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DVD Release Date: March 18, 2003

Stats: 307 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (307)

  • cosmo313
    March 1, 2012
    cosmo313
    Based on a play based on a book, this is Tim Blake Nelson's harrowing look at the innerworkings of moral issues within a concentration camp. The story is focused on a group of Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz who are tasked with cleaning out the ashes of their dead comrades from the c... read morerematoriums. When they realize they are next on the list to die, they decided to have an uprising.

    This is some very hard stuff to watch, but it is also phenomenally amazing. It finds the right note between exploitative and overly emotional sentimentality, and despite being something hard to watch, it's also very hard to look away.

    The films boasts a talented cast who all give some really good performances. Well, okay, Keitel's accent is a bit iffy, but he's great at being a really cruel antagonist. David Arquette is surprisingly really good in a dramatic lead role, and it's nice seeing him step away from comedy once in a while. Other supporting roles are filled by the likes of Natasha Lyonne, Mira Sorvino, and Steve Buscemi among others.

    It's up there with Schindler's List and The Pianist as some of the best films about the Holocaust, and the direction is hauntingly effective. This isn't an uplifting film as you might have guessed, but it does really give you a lot to think about, mostly because of the issues it raises.

    Give this one a watch. It's something quite special.
  • garyX
    March 7, 2011
    garyX
    A group of Hungarian jews who work in a death camp plan an uprising to destroy the crematorium when it becomes clear that they are next on the death list. Based upon an eye witness account, The Grey Zone is a harrowing story of life in a concentration camp where all human moralit... read morey is abandoned in the attempt to stay alive. The characters are all regular people who are forced to choose between collaboration and death and in turn have to live with the consequences of their actions and it makes you wonder what you would do if you were in the same position. Great performances all round (Harvey Keitel's Hogan's Heroes accent notwithstanding) make for an intelligent and affecting story that maybe is not on a level with Schindler's List or Downfall, but it's still a powerful and thought provoking film about what happens when human life loses all value. Grim but in good way.
  • LoughnerWasLucid
    November 3, 2009
    LoughnerWasLucid
    depressing.
  • paulsandberg
    June 2, 2008
    paulsandberg
    Compare this film to Shindler's list and it doesn't quite stack up, although there are some nice moments and camera pans that bring you in to the harrowing and oppressive world of that god forsaken place.

    I think the film could have done a better job of showing how the differen... read moret cells communicated, and some of the diaglog seemed a bit chewy and overacted (the scene with the watch seemed to come from out of nowhere, and the wife's constant screaming, while valid, seemed overdone and unnessesary.

    There was one particularly bizarre moment when all the charactors are speaking English (although Keitel wit ze German accent) and then Keitel yells "stop speaking Hungarian and speak German". Umm, ok, I'm sure no-one seeing this film had any idea that the Kommandos were speaking in Hungarian just before that (since it was the same conversational English that they had just answered Keitel in.

    The film did a wonderful job of showing the hopelessness and loss of humanity and how the camps effected everyone - but the scipt and direction could have been tighter.
  • briandeguelle
    April 24, 2008
    briandeguelle
    A look at the lifes of the prisoners in a concentration camp and the lead up to a up raising against the german. Well made and very grim but a well worth watch and a brush up history lesson.
  • bbcfloridabound
    April 21, 2008
    bbcfloridabound
    When I started watching this movie, I knew I had seen it before, but looking at all my list, I can't find it. But Have seen it before guess it was in the theather. A great movie, showing what things were like inside the prision camps during WWII, Horroable, I can only hope that A... read moremericans today would still feel the same as they did in WWII, but somehow I doubt we would. Things are just so different. Worth th watch,
  • fb20312798
    December 17, 2009
    fb20312798
    While it lacks the budget of films like The Pianist or Schindler's List, The Grey Zone goes to places that those films barely even got close to. It questions the very nature of morality and when put to the test is it even applicable and in this kind of horrific situation, is ther... read moree ever a right or a wrong? I saw this film years ago and viewing it again I'm reminded of why it haunts me more than any other holocaust film. Tim Blake Nelson literally takes us into hell for the duration of the film and he never leaves it. Schindler's List was was about a man who saved thousands of Jews, The Pianist is about one man who against all odds survived, Life is Beautiful is about finding hope in a hopeless situation. But The Grey Zone is a film apart, its about the utter lack of hope and the need for a person to survive no matter what the cost for just one more day even if that means doing unspeakable acts.
  • mvieaddict
    November 17, 2009
    mvieaddict
    The Grey Zone was one more of a powerful, disturbing,brutally and honest movies ever made about the holocaust.It was the true story of a group Hungarian Jews who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria, the so called SonderCommandos. The mass murders has never been... read more shown so openly in a movie as in here. The cast,consisting of David Arquette in the leading role gave a super performance, while the supporting roles such as Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino were amazing. Allan Corduner performed the role of the Jewish pathologist perfectly, he assisted the Germans in their horrible experiments.Anyone who watches The Grey Zone will be moved to see these Hungarians Jews, who were forced into doing what they did.Horrible..
  • PinkMinkPrincess
    June 19, 2011
    PinkMinkPrincess
    These Auschwitz Prisoners job is to dispose of the bodies by Incinerating them, that alone makes this underviewed & underrated film hard to watch, then they find a Teenage Girl still alive & have to come to grips with their Humanity again.Like Schindlers List, this is a Film tha... read moret grabs hold of your heart & never lets go.I think this is an Important Film for everyone to watch after the age of 16.
  • NickCoalNoir
    September 6, 2009
    NickCoalNoir
    Eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and very real.
    Some of the scenes were difficult to watch. It was unflinching and didn't allow you to rest. You're on the edge of your seat not knowing what will happen next just like the people that were in the camps. And the ending is definitely no... read moret a hopeful one, so don't expect to feel good after the movie's done. That's how it should be anyways because the Holocaust was not a joke.

View All The Grey Zone Reviews

Critic Reviews

Bruce Westbrook
November 15, 2002
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle

Even in its darkest moments, a heartening defiance underlies gut-wrenching calamity. Full Review

Joe Baltake
November 8, 2002
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee

[Blake] creates moments ... that are impossible to forget. Full Review

Robert Denerstein
November 8, 2002
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News

The Grey Zone isn't for everyone, but its riveting power constitutes a stunning (as in it leaves you shattered and shaken) achievement.

Carrie Rickey
November 7, 2002
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

[Nelson's] movie about morally compromised figures leaves viewers feeling compromised, unable to find their way out of the fog and the ashes.

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
November 7, 2002
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Like the Ancient Mariner, Nelson grabs us by the collar and says, You must know about this. You must bear witness. And so you do.

Ann Hornaday
October 25, 2002
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

Jagged, unrelenting, claustrophobically intimate.

Geoff Pevere
October 25, 2002
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

Although the movie takes us further into the actual process of industrial death at Auschwitz than any American movie has yet dared, The Grey Zone never stoops to sensation or melodrama. Full Review

Edward Guthmann
October 25, 2002
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

Nelson's work is relentless, grueling and courageous. Full Review

James Berardinelli
October 25, 2002
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

The Grey Zone gives life and meaning to an event that is little more than a footnote in history books. Full Review

Liam Lacey
October 25, 2002
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

The film ... presents classic moral-condundrum drama: What would you have done to survive? The problem with the film is whether these ambitions, laudable in themselves, justify a theatrical simulation... Full Review

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