Tim Blake Nelson takes his stage play--an adaptation of a book by Miklos Nyiszki--to the big screen,and what a story it is!

An unthinkable,unconscionable deal has been worked out between a certain group of Nazi death camp inmates and their captors: in order to avoid the ovens(in all likelihood,only temporarily),these inmates would use their talents(among them,musical) to placate and ease along the funneling of other Jews and "undesirables" into the death chambers. A strong cast and an even stronger screenplay/script is augmented by very intelligent cinematography. Particularly good turns by David Arquette,Steve Buscemi,Daniel Benzali and Mira Sorvino as the inmates,all desperate,all convinced of what they have to do to survive and in Arquette's character's case,not even certain if it is even worth it.

It would be tempting to slam "Schindler's List" after seeing this,but I won't. SL is meant as an epic,a tribute,a story of the upside of surviving through the most dense of human tragedy,whereas GZ is a decidedly darker exploration of what happens to people in the same situation but are pushed into much less noble,much more selfish and desperate devices. Both are strong examples of the genre,but where GZ triumphs is that that it explores the most damning actions through the consciences of people faced with decisions that nobody should have to make. It is an unflinching portrait of a dark chapter in human history,rife with detail and completely lacking of lecturing. THis film is for anyone who wants to see an unvarnished and stark portrayal of the human condition brought to its lowest denominator. A must-see for college classrooms and Holocaust museums anywhere!

An eerie and downbeat film with a group of unfortunate characters, most of them members of a Sonderkommando : David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, Steven Buscemi, among others . Along with a Jew doctor : Allan Corduner and doctor Mengele himself . And a brutal Nazi sergeant : Harvey Keitel. Things go wrong when they discover and hide a 14-year-old girl and become involved themselves into the grey zone. The story you haven't seen!.

A terrific and extraordinary movie dealing with the inferno of the camps of death located in Auschwitz . Here we watch the astonishing work of the Sonderkommandos by executing the deadly and forced assignments. It contains a fabulous cast giving vigorous performances, outstanding Allan Cordunier as the Jew doctor who must decide a complex situation , Harvey Keitel as a ruthless Nazi and David Arquette whose fury outbursts at the gas chamber against a distressed condemned by means of a sudden explosion of grisly violence . And two female prisoners Natasha Lyonne and Mira Sorvino. The motion picture was competently directed by Tim Blake Nelson. He is a notorious secondary who has written, produced and directed a few films.

If his is indeed an accurate portrayal of a group of Jews who survived a few extra weeks by doing the bidding of the Nazi pigs who run the extermination camps, God help us! This is one of the bleakest things I have ever seen. We, of course, have to ask the simple question, "What is life worth?" If the answer is everything, then we can understand why these poor souls did what they did. In every portrayal of these camps, we see how powerless the inmates are. They are face daily with pistols and machine guns. They are arbitrarily shot in the head for crying, or just standing in the wrong place. They are the victims. What about the Germans? How can a human being do this to another and take pleasure in it? I know how naive that question is, but it is certainly at the central core of everything. The closing scene is so hopeless and so gripping. There are almost surrealistic moments, almost like those in silent films where a face is made to stand for a thousand words. I doubt I could watch this again. I also don't know that there is another holocaust film that can affect one any more than this.