Review of The Grey Zone (2001) by Paul S — 01 Jun 2008

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 different 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.