With all the Holocaust and Nazi films that have been made, like “Schindler’s List,” “The Pianist” and “Triumph of the Will,” for a new one to be released and successful, it must bring something both impressive and new to the table. “Amen” has a pretty big pair of shoes to fill, and (using that analogy), it only fills one.

“Amen” opens with a bang – literally! A Jewish man enters a German council meeting in protest of the beginning of Jewish persecution and kills himself to open up some eyes and ears. This brutally captures what the protagonist, Kurt Gerstein, tries to do throughout the entire film.

Gerstein (played by Ulrich Tukur) is a real-life chemist who has helped the Germans fight Typhus and develop euthanasia chemicals for the extermination camps. Throughout the film, he tries to open the eyes of the Catholic Church to protest the killing of Jews. He lies between two extremes: allowing this atrocity on the German side and trying to end the slaughter by documenting it firsthand for the side of humanity. The only ear Gerstein can earn is that of a Jesuit priest named Riccardo Fontana (played by Mathieu Kassovitz) who helps join his fight.

What have we come to expect from the endless Holocaust films? Gruesome imagery, endless empathy and a relatively unhappy ending. Well, as Meatloaf once said, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” Of course, it’s not that good, either.

The gruesome imagery isn’t there in “Amen.” The film does a fantastic job of describing it vividly, but we never are pushed over the proverbial cliff. On the other hand, what the director – Oscar-winning Costa Govras – could be implying is that that isn’t the point. The emphasis instead is put on the Church and its lack of involvement. Plus, we’ve had images of the Holocaust embedded in our heads hundreds of times before, and what we don’t see sometimes is more scary than what is seen.

Despite Gerstein and Fontana’s endless efforts, the Vatican and Pope remain blind to the extermination of Jews. They felt that if the Church protested, the killing of the innocent easily could be stopped. This film is just another example of how the Vatican has screwed up in the past. The Vatican argues that the Jews are sent to work at camps for the good of the German efforts and that “Germans are incapable of such atrocities.” Of course not – they only continuously refer to the Jews as “units” and talk of how they will be “treated.” No, they could never be inhumane!

Sadly, two hours of watching fighting toward stopping the extermination with our hindsight knowledge of knowing it doesn’t work is not satisfying. What really saves this film is the wonderfully-executed direction of Govras. His shots beautifully accentuate color and European architecture. Also, the mise-en-scene is breathtaking at moments, as he uses light and dark contrasts to his advantage.

Sometimes what attracts us to the Nazis and the Holocaust is how far mankind went wrong and how stupid or ignorant millions of people were. Just like in “Triumph of the Will,” “Amen” shows Nazis marching down the streets of Germany with fans and onlookers saluting with pride. It’s not an outstanding sequence, by any means, but strikingly scary nonetheless.

What drives the film is Gerstein’s documented report of the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. Surprisingly, that very report is one of the biggest parts of capturing and authenticating Hitler’s actions.

The film deals with great material and is well directed; however, it drags on because viewers know the ending beforehand. The film takes a new and different stance on the Holocaust by following Gerstein and his fight and labeling the Church as a culprit. However, the film just isn’t all that impressive when put up against the classics.