Szürke senkik (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews

Grey Nobodies

[lms-10 · 9/10 · 21 December 2016]

The movie is a cross section of the World War I, exposing its senselessness, in a different manner but still on the same level as Remarque's classic (All Quiet on the Western Front).

The movie shows only a short period of a small commando. The title (literally "Grey Nobodies") reflects the uniform of the soldiers in the foggy season as well as the soldiers' insignificance together with the mission's insignificance. Somehow, in contrast with all this grayness, viewers can touch the tension. Walk of the small group, hardly carrying their equipment, exhausted and starving, out of ammunition, guarding the ragged camp ... reminded me veteran classics in best US war movies.

Having survived perhaps years in the war, personality of the soldiers are not anymore hidden beneath the army discipline. Strong characters, their desires and fears, their past and fate, everything becomes framed in a kind of finale I would not spoil here.

***

Update: the one-hour film was financed by a World War memorial program and shown on a TV channel. It seems to be available (in full HD) on the most popular video sharing service under its original Hungarian title.

One of the best Hungarian movies ever made

[csigafattyu · 10/10 · 18 October 2017]

Hungary has no Hollywood. Hungarian filmmakers are on a tight budget. Some YouTube enthusiasts can spend more bucks on their WW2 reenactment bullshit than a serious and talented Hungarian film crew on their vision. But this is also what we love in Hungarian movies. They have to strike a perfect balance between budget constraints and artistic qualities. Give too much money to a Hungarian studio and it's almost as bad as not giving anything. The best ones are always the ones on a budget.

Grey Nobodies is one of the most powerful Hungarian movies recently. It's a peculiar one already because there aren't many WW1 movies around. Trench warfare isn't very spectacular, it can't be made into flicks like The Longest Day or Saving Private Ryan. And what else can a WW1 movie tell about than trench warfare? On the other hand, what can any war movie possibly deliver which hasn't been delivered yet? Yeah, war is hell, people die, we get it, thanks... But Grey Nobodies not only strikes the sweet spot between budget and value, but masterfully delivers a war story which is unlike any other.

The cliché characters are there. The scared young rookie boy. The grizzled veteran commander. The cynical other veteran who just wants to survive. The coward. The enemy with a human face. Yeah, so?

It's the setting that makes this movie. It's the First World War, and it's the Italian front. A story Westerners rarely even know. The characters are storm pioneers on a secret mission; today we'd call them special forces, but at the time they were a unique and novel approach to warfare - specially trained and equipped soldiers, a possible solution to the stalemate, while the Allies came up with the tank. This is interesting, but still dull until the spice is added. And it's the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy itself, its peculiar situation at the time of the events, and its history and ethnography. The only army in which such a small team may consist of four different ethnicities, of which one is even supposed to be the enemy, a Romanian. All against the Italians and a communications outpost somewhere deep behind enemy lines.

No, you can't tell what is going to happen in the next moment. This is not your average war story. The only thing you know is that people will die. Who will and why, that's a mystery. The climax will leave you on the edge of your seat, and the ending is perhaps the most terrifying plot twist in any war movie ever.

This story can only work in WW1, and only with Austro-Hungarian soldiers. You can't adapt it to any other war, and not any other army. From the very first minute to the last, it's just great. There is no downtime, no empty clichés and no loose threads. The few shots fired do more justice than a whole battle scene with tons of explosives and spectacularly flying limbs.

This movie is not an experiment. It's a masterpiece, polished and shining. Well done! I'll recommend it to everybody who asks me about good Hungarian movies.

It made me speechless

[erdei-holdviola · 9/10 · 11 August 2017]

Not the movie, the war.

I believe the movie successfully presented us the people, who have been fighting the war - gray nobodies, who have their name on a big war memorial statue, if they're fortunate.

SPOILERS AHEAD

At the end, when he realizes that all of it was pointless: the fear, the hunger, the deaths, the kills... it made me speechless.

NO MORE SPOILERS

The other movie stuff weren't perfect. I'm not a pro, but the music was too loud sometimes, and the editing was not perfect either. All in all, it was a very good movie with some technical flaws - I recommend it to people who can enjoy it despite this.

Overrated

[polandballgt · 3/10 · 26 April 2020]

This movie is overrated by patriotic hungarians, it doesn't deserve 7 out of 10.

Not only is this a low budget movie, but the script is also poorly written. It has clumsy dialogues, uninteresting characters, and some unlikely scenes. One such example is when at one point the protagonist sneaks behind an enemy soilder, stabs him in the back, but the guy doesn't even lets out a small "ouch", however as a last effort he tries to turn around and shoot our hero before dropping dead.

Nonetheless I must give some credit to the actors who tried to bring out the most of the screenplay and to the costume designers for the accurate representation of those times. The story and action still sucks tho. 3/10

Men got drunk in the pub hallucinating its the World War I

[Thomas_Thewrewk · 1/10 · 16 December 2016]

This movie is heavily character progression dependent. And what this movie can't do? Developing characters!

We have got a story in the World War I. An ethnically mixed group has a secret mission to find an Italian communication camp where they use pigeons.

The movie can't find it's tone. They are mixing it all over the place. With the ever changing music themes and camera shakes and stills.

The dialog is awful you can't feel any connection to any of the characters. Even the young protagonist is empty. Making the ending of the movie meaningless with some awfully edited scenes.

The movie can't follow the rule of "show, don't tell. They have to tell us every little moment every little action that is happening as we can't see it for ourselves this movie does not have faith in its viewer.

The movie feels like some old folk got drunk after a midnight party and got lost in the woods believing its the World War I too bad we can't believe it too...

TL. DR.: Awful Dialog, Bad Characterisation, Don't waste your time with this movie!

Below average

[jakub_dolezal-36472 · 2/10 · 19 April 2021]

It feels like amateur short film but in a bad way. Cliché boring characters.