THE GREY ZONE
US, 2001, 104 minutes, Colour.
David Arquette, David Chandler, Harvey Keitel, Alan Cordunner, Steve Buscemi, Mira Sorvino, Natasha Lyonne.
Directed by Tim Blake - Nelson.
The Grey Zone is based on a play by Tim Blake - Nelson. In writing the screenplay, he has opened up his play, although many of the sequences seem full of dialogue acted in an existential British drama style. However, in using Bulgarian locations, he has created an atmosphere of Auschwitz- Birkenau, the huts where the prisoners lived, the factories where the women worked, the crematoriums, the showers and the furnaces? The film is made in a naturalistic style which means that it immerses its audience in the day-to-day life and running of Auschwitz towards the end of 1944.
Tim Blake- Nelson gets good performances from his cast, even from Harvey Keitel with a forced Germanic - English accent? David Arquette, usually in comedies, gives a more serious performance. Mira Sorvino and Natasha Lyonne are almost unrecognisable. Alan Cordunner (Arthur Sullivan in Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy) portrays the Hungarian doctor who, in order to save his wife and child, works as an expert assistant to Dr Mengele on his medical experiments.
The film is based on a true story, focusing on the groups of Jewish men who actually received the Jewish prisoners from the trains, stripped them, telling them to put their clothes on a recognisable hanger so that the could get them, herding them into the gas showers and then sorting their property as well as putting them in the furnaces. They themselves were offered temporary benefits, especially food and a certain amount of freedom in the camp, and then, after four months, were executed themselves. There were 13 such Kommando groups in Birkenau. This is the story of the twelfth which actually tried an uprising.
One wonders why such a film was made over fifty years from the end of World War II and the end of the camps. It is too grim for many Jewish audiences. Perhaps it is necessary to retell the unbelievable stories of the concentration camp atrocities in each generation.
1. The telling of an Auschwitz - Birkenau story in 2001? For an audience at the beginning of the 21st century? For Jewish audiences, older Jews with memories? For younger and contemporary audiences who do not know the story or have no personal feel? The importance of examining the past to interpret the present?
2. The film based on a play, the strong dialogue from the play, the writer-director opening it out, showing us the details of life in Auschwitz-Birkenau?
3. The locations in Bulgaria, the reconstruction of the camp, the countryside, the factories? The atmospheric score?
4. The title and its perspective, especially for the Kommandos as they worked for the Nazis and shut the doors on their Jewish brothers and sisters? The introduction and information about the Kommandos? The privileges that they gained, food and freedom, survival, yet their eventual deaths? The question of human nature wanting to survive and therefore take on seemingly impossible tasks? Conscience? The film based on the eyewitness testimony of the doctor who assisted Mengele?
5. Hoffmann as the central member of the Kommandos for understanding what they did? His relationship with Max? His seeing the old man whose family were destroyed before him, wheeling the wagons? His attempted suicide? Max smothering him? Calling the doctor? The effect on Hoffmann? His work with the arrivals from the trains, the protesting man, bashing him to death? Taking his watch, his wife screaming? Yet the contrast with wanting to save the girl who had survived the gas chambers? The complexity of his attitudes, the grey zone in his own consciousness?
6. The portrayal of the camp and the details of its daily life and drudgery, the naturalistic settings and camera style? The buildings, going outside, the changing rooms, the furnaces and the showers, the factory where the women worked? The contrast with the officers and laboratories of the doctor?
7. The naturalistic detail of life in Birkenau: the trains, the passengers crowded, arriving, getting ready for the gas chambers, the stripping, the clothes, the men locking the doors, the screams? Sorting the clothes, burning the bodies? Their compensation in freedom and eating well?
8. The portrait of the soldiers, the Nazis, the guards, the interrogation of the women, torture, the executions of the men by shooting, the women being shot as hostages, the woman running to the electrified fence? The exasperation of the officer who didn't get the information about the uprising and the use of the powder?
9. Hoffmann and Max, the big bald man and his role of leadership, Abramowicz and his freedom, clothes and hat, moving around? The different roles of leadership in the group, influences? Abramowicz and his information about the uprising? The hurried starting of the uprising, the riots, the shooting, the attempts at escape, the explosives?
10. The women in their huts, the bonds, taking the powder from the factory, being tortured but not revealing the truth? The horror of their torture and deaths?
11. The girl who survived, bringing her out, concealing her, Hoffmann and Max trying to do a good thing? Bringing in the doctor?
12. The Commandant and Harvey Keitel's presence and style, command, his incessant drinking, attitudes towards the men, to the doctor? His supervising and prowling? His shooting Abramowicz? Keeping the doctor alive?
13. The doctor, his choices, family, working for Mengele, his skills, his comforts? Going to the smothered man? The men not talking to him? Helping to revive the girl? Giving the commandant the information about the uprising, surviving, watching the executions of the men and the girl running down the road?
14. The uprising and its futility, the deaths? The surviving men lying of the ground, Hoffmann and Max talking, bonded together in death? The girl watching, running out to the gate in freedom, her being shot?
15. The impact of the Holocaust on film, its reality and effect? Perceived by later generations? That it never happen again? Themes of guilt? Understanding?
