darmitage1990 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.

gejfay This is truly one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen. If the goal of a great movie is to make its viewer changed forever, "The Grey Zone" certainly has succeeded. Yes it is not "Schindlers List". It has no uplifting theme, other than that in the face of no hope, doomed individuals tried desperately, if for nothing else, to save one life among millions of doomed. In the end even that effort is futile.It's images are haunting.Do to its depressing topic and even more disturbing ending others have criticized this movie as not being "entertaining". In fact it is entertaining. It is a horror movie of the real kind. The horror of human evil based on prejudice and hatred.Everyone needs to see this movie, with the exception of those who lived through it, as they already know!

Chrysanthepop Tim Blake Nelson's brave 'The Grey Zone' tells the story of a group of Sonderkommandos, the Jewish workers who were selected to gather the Jewish 'prisoners'to the gas chambers and then dispose of their bodies by burning them. The film is brutal in its portrayal and hardly leaves anything to the imagination. It also raises the question of survival. 'The Grey Zone' shows what happened to those who have fought, those who have submitted and surrendered, those who have refused to give up and those who have accepted their fate. All of them ultimately experienced the same fate. This is no movie with an uplifting ending or a message of hope. It is unsympathetic to the viewer. As director and writer, Tim Blake Nelson does a fine job by telling the story and fleshing out the characters. The editing is well done. The execution is slightly on the poorer side. It gives the feel of a TV movie. In the acting department it is Harvey Keitel and Mira Sorvino who stand out. Keitel is well acquainted with negative roles and thus it is no surprise that he pulls off the part of the Nazi officer. Sorvino has a smaller part but she displays Dina's anguish, courage and despair with skill. David Arquette is better than his usual. 'The Grey Zone' is a worth seeing because it depicts another side of the Holocaust with a brutally honest treatment and it is thought provoking because while it is easier for some to judge as an outsider, it raises the question of what one, what you, would have done had you been in the same shoes, knowing that you were going to die no matter what.

alicecbr Having long since ashcanned organized religion for the ethical content of movies, I strongly recommend this one and "Out of the Ashes" for something other than the ordinary Holocaust movies.You see these Jewish prisoners pushing the carts holding the bodies of their fellow Jewish prisoners into the furnaces. In one instance, a man is pushing the cart holding the bodies of his wife and three children. When I later, a staunch capital punishment foe, saw them pushing a live Nazi soldier into the furnace, I was happy........shows you the effect of the movie. I went instantly from 'Forgive 70 times 7" to "An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth." So thin is the patina of civilization.The most heroic act I saw here, which reminded me of Jean Moulin's attempt at suicide so that he wouldn't divulge secrets of the French Resistance, was the female prisoner impaling herself on the electric wires of Auschwitz. She had stood and watched as the Nazi officer executes one after the other of her fellow female prisoners. One note that stands out is physical...the arching shiny steel fence-posts look much like some of the statuary I've seen elsewhere, perhaps meant to evoke memories of those inhuman extermination camps. Last night I saw the map of the 'work camps' and the 'extermination camps'...I didn't realize how many of them there were.Another reason this film is good for a discussion group is that it somewhat contradicts the idea that 'The Jews went submissively to the ovens." To watch the efforts made to make bombs within those prisons and the continual arguing among the prisoners as they try to come up with a way to liberation is wonderfully enlightening. Nothing is allowed to be 'easy', not even the uniting of these prisoners for a common cause....to save their lives.As I watched the Nazis, and thought about the dehumanizing of the enemy du jour, that has to happen for our good children to kill others, I wondered, "Have there been any memoirs written by Nazi soldiers in those camps, any that would give us some insight into how they turned into murderous barbarians?" Although this movie was not given high marks because of it's stylized format, I found that this artifice help me to take in what ..if done realistically...would have been too much to bear.