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Overrated

A Major Disappointment

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

...in communicating the monstrosity of Nazi racism and mass murder, "Kz" (the German abbreviation for concentration camp) is a somewhat meandering little documentary that manages to hook itself into the viewer's conscience with deceptive ease. For those interested in the subject (and I realize that few really are), "Kz" is more than worth a watch.In brief, director Rex "Kids Behind Bars" Bloomstein gives us a quietly disturbing look at the picturesque Austrian village of Mauthausen (site of the last Nazi concentration camp to be liberated in the final days of the European Theater of WWII), along with a discomfiting peek into the minds of several tour guides at the location and a number of elderly Austrians who were complicit witnesses to the camp's horrors. What is most interesting (at least to this viewer/writer) is that Bloomstein accomplishes the job so effectively without using any archival footage or any manipulative soundtrack. Everything he records utilizes simple, natural sound, and his journalistic efforts are strictly rooted in the here-and-now. Strangely, it works, and works well.Moments I remember, after watching the film several days ago: the inexpressible pain in one tour guide's voice as he recounts the cruelties that took place in a now-empty pasture. A schoolgirl's sudden distress as she is awakened to the sheer brutality of what happened before she was even born. The look on an old woman's face as she is confronted with the realities of the gas chamber in which she stands. A young man, caught unaware as he fights back tears."Kz" is and is not a "Holocaust film." It is in the sense that Mauthausen was part and parcel of Hitler's "Final Solution;" Jews were being shuttled into the camp (and liquidated) right up to the last days before the German surrender. It isn't in the sense that it was only in those last horrendous weeks that Mauthausen saw many Jewish inmates at all; it was primarily a hard labor camp for captured Poles, Russians, and other non-Jewish prisoners. Still, the effect was the same regardless of who the prisoners were: they suffered, they died, and a very, very few survived. The people who lived in the town and the surrounding countryside did their very best to ignore (or discount) the hell that had been created in their midst. And, finally, the people who remain, and those who came later, unknowingly or otherwise, have been undeniably affected by the legacy of grief that Nazi savagery has left to them. To all of us, for that matter.Do not expect "entertainment" while watching "Kz." Do not expect expiation, nor forgiveness, nor even much in the way of "understanding." Expect only a cold, unsympathetic look at how the worst impulses of humanity affect us all, generation after generation after generation, and be glad that you are as far removed from such horrors as you are. Then you may go re-watch "Schindler's List" and be "entertained," if you must.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.For those of you who have thoroughly educated yourselves about history, there is not really much new here. You already know about atrocities, including the concentration camps like the one depicted here in Mauthausen, Austria, which were nothing more than slaughterhouses for humans. But this really is not a documentary about a horrible period, place and people of the past that we can neatly define and conveniently cubby-hole as a historical event long ago while we pat ourselves on the back because we're so relieved we've advanced beyond such barbaric monstrosities. This is a documentary about a human condition that is still with us and being practiced this very moment as you read this, perhaps much closer to you than you'd care to admit.The people that were murdered in Mauthausen are long gone and for the most part long forgotten, other than a reference to some categories we file them under "Russians" "Poles" "Jews" "children". As we think of a vague, generic picture of them (not too much in detail or else it becomes too painfully real and horrifying) we are mostly amazed how man's inhumanity to man could be so systematically orchestrated in such a cold blooded massive effort. This documentary is about the tourists and tour guides of Mauthausen and therefore, if you have the courage, ourselves. Starting with the chattering lively young kids who are shocked solemn the moment their young tour guide starts off immediately by explaining in careful detail life, torture and murder in the camp. The guide does not soften the blow of what happened or use sterile euphemisms, instead he leaves all the life, death, suffering and reality in as he explicitly details the murder and torture that took place. No one was disposed of in Mauthausen nor did unspeakable acts take place, instead they were murdered and the acts are openly detailed. The guides speaks vividly, frankly about their agony and deaths, as he walks the tourists through the same places these acts took place, discussing clearly what happened as they are crammed together in the gas chamber or facing the wailing wall or elbow to elbow in the barracks just like the prisoners who once lived their last moments as they were tortured and murdered there. This film shows a diverse selection of tourists from young international students to shocked elderly Germans and Austrians who never saw or fully admitted what was committed by their relatives, husbands, perhaps even themselves. Surprisingly the filmed responses by the tourists are extremely on target, particularly the young students many of whom say mankind is failing to learn from history because these same atrocities, perhaps in slightly different moderations and form, are going on today, right now. But then again, their responses are not so surprising. These people did not come here to go on a fun ride or eat a double cheeseburger, they came, for the most part, to look at an ugly piece of history and perhaps learn something about the human condition, maybe even themselves. Mostly they're the better part of the general public. The lesser part of the public that commit such acts, or allow them to happen or vicariously enjoy it when they do, usually will never go to such a place. But as one of the guides pointed out at one of the memorial plaques, a picture had been removed and someone has etched in a swastika in the marble. Either a prank in extremely bad taste or, probably more accurately, proof that genocide, war and mass murder are not likely to vanish any time soon.Perhaps if we showed this film in every school everywhere it would be a start to reducing the frequency and degree of man's barbarism. With such a monumental effort being put into such horrific acts just think of what could be accomplished if that energy and force could be channeled into positive, life affirming deeds. This is a real must see movie. Shelve the blond bimbo parade or boyish shoot em up or whatever "must see" crap and watch this for a change. Change is completely possible here and now all you need is to make some positive moves toward change. Education is the necessary start, we must know who, where and what we are in order to do something about it.This film was riveting from the beginning. There are very few films I watch in a single sitting as most are either not exceptional or real enough to be truly interesting. I do however wish the film had been edited better, it did lack a seamless flow that such an exceptional effort on such an important subject deserves. Nevertheless there are images I know will stick with me for quite some time. Particularly the young tour guide who so effectively, chillingly led his tour group through the camp and later admitted his grandfather had been an SS officer. As well, the head tour guide, who by his own admission was burned out and alcoholic, being eaten away by the pressure of working at such a place with so many ghosts and terrible karma. He reminded me of a policeman I knew who was all but destroyed by his job yet was inexplicably drawn to it, much like a moth to flame. An exceptionally chilling moment is when he points out that despite the vast size of the camp there are no animals or birds living there, even today. It is as though they can sense it is a place of death, even now. Perhaps these silly little creatures we like to pretend we're so vastly superior to really have a little more sense, and humanity, than we do at times.

Most of the message in Kz comes between the lines; in the expressions on people's faces, in their postures while they are touring the concentration camp. That's as it should be.This documentary on the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria is excellent for it's view not only of what it was, but how people feel about it now. Everyone from those who would forget the past to those who feel a national or personal guilt is interviewed. Much of the footage is from tours of the complex, with a focus on the guides and the tourists rather than the buildings. That is a unique and interesting viewpoint which provides more information than a simple history lesson.Two of the guides, in particular, are excellent in their commitment. You can see they take the job seriously and really want to get the horror of the whole thing across to the tourists; they do that, and well.This is a documentary that does something new with the whole Holocaust subject; not just a horrified look into the past, but a look at how it's being seen now, and how it might be seen in the future. Watch it.

I was very grateful to have watched this film at my college, through the traveling humanities caravan. By reading the synopsis I knew that this was going to be a different type of documentary. Mostly due to the fact that there would be no survivor stories. So I went in very skeptical on how this film would be able to effect me.After all the film did indeed effect me. I loved how you got to see how the citizens of Mauthousen felt about where they lived and better yet, being able to hear about the way people perceived them. I believe it would have been much more emotional and effective to have added in real life stories of what happened to those who were forced into the concentration camps. But I do understand that that would be the typical holocaust documentary, and probably would not set "KZ" apart from all the others. The quiet of the town and the longstanding frames of the landscape brought the needed emotion to this film.I would recommend this film for those that are interested about the holocaust, yet I would not recommend this for those who are just beginning to learn about it. I would definitely watch a documentary that tells real life accounts of what happened and then proceed on to watch this film. Watching this mixture will make you have a better understanding towards this tragic event.