the-grey-zone 2

For this weeks movie review I’ve decided to highlight The Grey Zone.  This film is a rather raw cinematic depiction of the real life events surrounding the only armed revolt to take place at Auschwitz.  The film shows the interactions between the members of the a Sonderkommando unit, prisoners that had to help with the disposal of prisoners, as they prepared to lead a revolt.  They were hoping to cripple the system at Auschwitz as much as possible and slow down the execution rate.  In the days leading up to the revolt, however, a young girl is found in the gas chamber that wasn’t killed.  One of the workers decides that he was meant to try to save her, so along with planning the revolt the unit has to also worry about keeping her hidden.  This raises the risk of the revolt failing and them all being discovered and killed.  The reason I believe this is such a great movie to watch is because, not only is the acting great but, it really shows the anger that a lot of prisoners had not just the Sonderkommando, as well as the utter self-loathing that most of these particular men experienced.  It shows that many of them were good men with wives and families and careers, who were now being forced to help with the murder of thousands of there own people every day.  There were those, sadly, who were also doing it for greedy reasons, but most were forced, even having to lead them to the chambers.  Now, before watching keep in mind that this movie is rated R.  Its very violent and there is a great deal of bad language as well as some nudity, so be aware of that before letting your child watch it.  Honestly I, as a young adult who know most people don’t wait till they’re 18 to watch rated R movies, wouldn’t recommend it for anyone below the age of 15 just because of how dark the subject matter is.

Marlena Abbott