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MOVIES / ON DVD / THE GREY ZONE
The Grey Zone

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The Grey Zone (2002)

68%
25%
76%
N/A
N/A
N/A
68 %
Reviews Counted: 78 Fresh: 53  Rotten:25 Average Rating: 6.9/10
 
Consensus: A grim and devastating tale of the Holocaust. A grim and devastating tale of the Holocaust. more
 
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Synopsis:
Writer-director-actor Tim Blake Nelson presents THE GREY ZONE, a relentlessly bleak drama that uses one of history's most incomprehensible calamities to address the ultimate question of human survival. Based in large part on Miklos Nyiszli's book, AUSCHWITZ: A DOCTOR'S EYEWITNESS... [More]
Writer-director-actor Tim Blake Nelson presents THE GREY ZONE, a relentlessly bleak drama that uses one of history's most incomprehensible calamities to address the ultimate question of human survival. Based in large part on Miklos Nyiszli's book, AUSCHWITZ: A DOCTOR'S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT, THE GREY ZONE is set in the nightmarish world of Auschwitz in the 1940s. The film tells the brutal tale of the twelfth Sonderkommando unit, Jewish prisoners who were granted a few extra months of life in return for their services in helping with the genocide of their people. While organizing a revolt against the Nazis, a group of Sonderkommandos (played with ferocious intensity by David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, David Chandler, and Steve Buscemi) discover a young girl who has somehow managed to survive the gas chamber. Risking their lives, they team up with a fellow Jew, Doctor Nyiszli (Allan Corduner), to revive the fragile youngster and redeem themselves in the process. Nelson's excruciating drama is all the more unsettling for its unflinching honesty. By placing his characters in a world suffused with death, he creates an unbearable scenario where every decision determines the fate of dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent lives. THE GREY ZONE also features deeply impassioned performances by Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, and Natasha Lyonne. [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, Steve Buscemi, Allan Corduner, Harvey Keitel

Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Screenwriter: Tim Blake Nelson
Producer: Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, Tim Blake Nelson
Composer: Jeff Danna

DVD Info

Release:

Jun 3, 2004

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. Tim Blake Nelson - Director
  • Trailer

Interactive Features:

  • Interactive Menus
  • Scene Selection

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

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Full Review | Comment
06/24/06 03:48 AM
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review | Comment
05/19/04 08:16 AM
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
N/R

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Full Review | Comment
02/01/04 08:17 AM
FilmStew.com
Ratings Image

Filme trágico, complexo, difícil – e que pode ser assistido em sessão dupla com O Pianista.

| Comment
07/25/03 11:02 PM
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image

Roman Polanski's The Pianist may have been showered with Oscar glory ... but the best Holocaust film of 2002 was actually The Grey Zone.

Full Review | Comment
05/13/03 08:44 AM
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
Ratings Image

Unlike Schindler’s List, ... this uses history to remind us of the tenuousness of our own morality, to remind us that ... most of us will never have to know what we might be capable of in certain circumstances.

Full Review | Comment
04/26/03 08:04 AM
M. Faust
ArtVoice
Ratings Image

The effort is sincere and the results are honest, but the film is so bleak that it's hardly watchable.

Full Review | Comment
04/21/03 01:03 PM
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image

Hauntingly unforgettable.

Full Review | Comment
12/30/02 03:39 PM
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher
Ratings Image

An intelligent and deeply felt work about impossible, irrevocable choices and the price of making them.

Full Review | Comment
12/27/02 08:46 AM
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer
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It's hard to imagine anybody ever being "in the mood" to view a movie as harrowing and painful as The Grey Zone, but it's equally hard to imagine anybody being able to tear their eyes away from the screen once it's started.

Full Review | Comment
11/29/02 01:06 PM
Paul Matwychuk
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
N/R

every time Steve Buscemi and Natasha Lyonne open their mouths, you think they're auditioning for a dinner theater version of Fiddler on the Roof.

Full Review | Comment
11/27/02 10:07 AM
Brandon Judell
Bay Area Reporter
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Brings light to a little-known facet of the Holocaust in a way that does justice to its moral ambiguities.

Full Review | Comment
11/19/02 08:35 AM
Kim Linekin
eye WEEKLY
N/R

Russell Lee Fine's handheld camera presses you repeatedly too close to the characters' perpetual fatigue and resilience, their pains to survive when they cannot.

Full Review | Comment
11/19/02 06:00 AM
Cynthia Fuchs
Philadelphia City Paper
Ratings Image

If this story must be told and retold -- and indeed it must -- then The Grey Zone is to be lauded for finding a new and ingenious angle.

Full Review | Comment
11/18/02 09:25 AM
Eugene Novikov
Film Blather
Ratings Image

Effectively feeds our senses with the chilling sights and sounds from within the camp to create a completely numbing experience.

Full Review | Comment
11/18/02 08:40 AM
David Levine
Filmcritic.com
Ratings Image

If stars could be awarded on the basis of good intentions, The Grey Zone should be king of the galaxy. Unfortunately, it lands on earth with something of a thud.

Full Review | Comment
11/18/02 08:40 AM
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
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Even in its darkest moments, a heartening defiance underlies gut-wrenching calamity.

Full Review | Comment
11/15/02 05:15 PM
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
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As bold and unyielding as The Grey Zone stands with its historical subtext, there are a few factors detracting from the powerful message.

Full Review | Comment
11/15/02 03:40 AM
David Keyes
Cinemaphile.org
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
11/13/02 08:34 AM
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit
Ratings Image

The Grey Zone is powerful, mesmerizing and disturbing.

Full Review | Comment
11/09/02 07:07 PM
Gerry Shamray
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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