Review of The Grey Zone (2001) by Marta S — 05 Apr 2011
A tense and moving portrait of life in Auschwitz as a Sonderkomando. Every moment feels as though violence could break out at any moment; this film does not take violence or weapons lightly, and each gunshot rips through the soundtrack and characters' thoughts, letting us know any one of them could be gone in an instant. Nelson has an impressive talent for directing actors, and his ensemble here is outstanding.
Most English-spoken films (they tend to be WWII films) featuring characters who speak other languages tend to falter when it comes to the spoken word. Some actors choose to use an accent, while others don't, some try but fail. Some films decide to give all their characters (including Nazis) English accents, which leads to confusion and just makes for a distracting soundtrack (both 2002's MAX and 2008's THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS are good examples of accents done wrong). Here though, only Keitel speaks with any discernible accent (German), which suits the film, since he is the only Nazi character with a speaking role of significance. The film is in English as well, and a very modern English, riddled with profanity that is very anachronistic for the time period, but brings a modern sense of fast-paced danger, fear, and anger to the performances and dialog.
This review of The Grey Zone (2001) was written by Marta S on 05 Apr 2011.
The Grey Zone has generally received positive reviews.
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