The Zone of Interest (Movie Review)

 

⭐1/2

Everybody understands that World War II is the singular most multi-faceted, deeply complicated and immeasurably costly conflict in all of human history. In fact, one can reasonably divide history into two halves: pre-WWII and post-WWII, as nearly everything we deal with today on a socioeconomic and diplomatic level are connected to that conflict. And as such, it is no surprise that there would be a plethora of films about this, covering a wide range of perspectives.

Countless movies and series have been made about the American perspective of the war, but it should not be overlooked the other extremely well crafted movies about this that don't get talked about enough. For example, Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall (2004) provided an unprecedentedly intimate fly-on-the-wall perspective of Hiter's bunker during his final days. Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwojima (2006) showed the horrors through the eyes of the Japanese, an especially untold story. Elem Klimov made the unrelentingly harrowing Come and See, which told the story of a Russian child. My favorite of them all might just be the criminally underappreciated Land of Mine (2015), which is a side of WWII that very few people are aware of: that being how the Danish government forced German POWs (many of which were children) to excavate and disarm millions of landmines along the western coast of Denmark with their bare hands. 

These movies are traumatizing, but necessary, and they force us to analyze how WWII deeply affected people of all cultures and countries, both tangible and intangible. The danger of this, however is the redundancy of communicating something we all already know. The only thing The Zone of Interest is interested in is the banality of evil. It's a film about the day-to-day life of even the most heinous people in history, as our protagonist is the main commanding officer of Auschwitz. I'm all for exploring World War II from relatively untold sides like this, but what does this bring to the table that hasn't been extensively covered in other World War II movies and even the most watered down history classes in your average public school? Nothing.

I also understand and acknowledge that a movie like this shouldn't necessarily be "entertaining" per se, but did writer-director Jonathan Glazer really have to go out of his way to make this so searingly unexciting? There was never a moment in this that really gripped me in the way that other reviewers seem to be saying it did for them. This never justifies its own existence or explains why it is telling us this story. Why should we even care about the daily life of someone like Rudolf Höss? Glazer never answers this question, and while his talents as a filmmaker are undeniable, as this does have some arresting visuals here and there as well as a score that I could see myself listening to on its own, there's just absolutely NOTHING here, and I didn't learn anything I didn't already know as well.

The only reason I see this movie existing is to be Oscar bait, and unfortunately, it has worked. As of writing this, The Zone of Interest has been nominated for Best Picture. This is some seriously trite stuff, and as I said it is excruciatingly boring. Can we please stop making movies about WWII if you are going to offer nothing beyond the reductive "war is hell" or "the banality of evil"; motifs that are so unoriginal and bland at this point? If you have nothing to say, then shut up.