The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in Pre-war Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and army Commandant father. The family re-locate to the countryside where his father is assigned to commandeer a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno befriends another youth, strangely dressed in striped pyjamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electrified fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to befriend his new friend as he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination.
| Asa Butterfield | Bruno |
| Zac Mattoon O'Brien | Leon |
| Domonkos Németh | Martin |
| Henry Kingsmill | Karl |
| Vera Farmiga | Mother |
| Cara Horgan | Maria |
| Zsuzsa Holl | Berlin Cook |
| Amber Beattie | Gretel |
| László Áron | Lars |
| David Thewlis | Father |
| Richard Johnson | Grandpa |
| Sheila Hancock | Grandma |
| Iván Verebély | Meinberg |
| Béla Fesztbaum | Schultz |
| Attila Egyed | Heinz |
| Mark Herman |
7.60 out of 10 (791 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Trite
posted on 28 Aug 2009I'm not sure who this film is for. Young people watching it will get precisely the wrong idea. Adults watching it will see a very silly representation of what would have been an extremely harrowing story if it was true. This production is very poor. I'm inclined to think that the presentation had the same treatment window dressers would give to a winter festival themed department store's windows. There are numerous continuity errors - it's a bit like an edition of 'Crossroads' except the props are not cardboard. At least it's only 94 minutes long - it'll be over before you've realised and it won't stick in your mind for long.
A challenging, heart-breaking and brilliant movie
posted on 28 Aug 2009A powerful piece of film-making that stayed with me long after I walked out of the cinema. Nicely paced, disturbing and brilliant. An intriguing look at one of the darkest chapters of human history, and by telling the tale through the eyes of the innocent and charming eight year old Bruno, they have come up with a way to give a new voice to a genre that is known for its heart breaking brutality.There is violence here as well I suppose, but it is an implied violence – violence that occurs just around the corner and out of eyeshot for Bruno. You know that it is taking place on both a personal and systemic level, but you never really witness it directly. It shows the sort of understated subtlety we've come to expect from Director Mark Herman (Brassed Off, Little Voice) who has turned in another impressive film here.Asa Butterfield is cast perfectly as Bruno, showing the right sort of charm and wide eyed innocence that allows this movie to move along at a steady pace, without becoming mired in the details of the atrocities that are occurring around him. David Thewlis (The Harry Potter Series) also deserves a mention for his outstanding portrayal as Bruno's Dad. Some movies hurt like a kick to the groin but leave you all the better for it. This is one of those movies.Full review here for those with an interest.http://cinestuff.wordpress.com
Haunting ironies of a child with a Nazi father
posted on 24 Aug 2009What if a boy whose father was a high ranking Nazi officer started looking in on a concentration camp, and befriended a Jewish prisoner his own age across the fence? That's the premise of this English film shot in Hungary based on a bestselling young-adult novel by Irish writer John Boyne.The film shows events primarily from the point of view of the eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield). He and his mother and older sister are swept away by his ambitious Father (David Thewlis) from their posh Berlin mansion when he gets a promotion. A big farewell party evokes all the creepy grandeur of Nazi power. Not all Bruno's family love it. Just the way Father descends the stairs and slowly returns the Heil Hitler salute radiates squishy moral dishonesty and greed. Bruno leaves friends and school with the family to live in an austere Bauhaus fortress in view of a "farm." That's what Bruno thinks it is. The people on the farm are peculiar, though. They all wear pajamas.Bruno's forbidden to go out back. But he's an explorer at heart, and he's also bored and lonely. Before long he's sitting on one side of the electrified fence and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a sqinty boy with shaved head and pajamas, is sitting on the other.This relationship--spurred by the innocence and tact of both boys--and the audience's awareness of what situation Shmuel is really in and what kind of place Bruno's father is really in charge of, create a powerful tension that is at the core of this heart-breaking tale. But it's what happens in and around the house that shapes our feelings. Bruno's teenage sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) listens to the tutor brought in to indoctrinate the two siblings with "history" (Nazi propaganda). She puts up posters and photos in the bedroom and becomes a more and more enthusiastic Nazi, while Bruno ignores it all--he prefers adventure books--and focuses more and more on his meetings with Shmuel, his single, forbidden and hard to reach and therefore very special friend, to whom he brings food, questions, and a checker board.Bruno finds out a man named Pavel (David Hayman) working in the kitchen who bandages his cut leg used to be a doctor and thinks it an example of the oddity of adults that the man would give that up to peel potatoes.Gretel flirts with Lieutenant Kotler (Rupert Friend), a blond Arayan type in lieutenant's uniform who works at the villa and joins the family at dinner. But Father's questioning reveals that the Lieutenant's own father fled to Switzerland because he didn't like the way things were going, and Kotler gets in trouble for not reporting his father for that. A remark the young lieutenant makes reveals to Mother (Vera Farmiga) what the foul-smelling smoke from the "farm" means, and she breaks down, and eventually demands that she and the children be sent back to Berlin. Lieutenant Kotler seems to overcompensate by being particularly brutal to Pavel, but he is sent to the front. Father's own mother showed her lack of sympathy for the Nazis at the going away party before the family moved. She refuses to come to visit. Bruno begins to question whether Father is a good man, as Shmuel says his is. He has tried to ignore the tutor's propaganda but he realizes that Pavel and Shmuel are Jews and that they're supposed to be enemies. At one point he betrays Shmuel, but he regrets it deeply and pays a great price to compensate. News that against his wishes Bruno's going to be taken away from his secret friend leads him to take more drastic action, leading to a shocking climax.The film, immaculately shot and subtle in its unfolding, reminded me of 50's classics like Carol Reed's 'The Fallen Idol' and René Clément's 'Jeux interdits' ('Forbidden Games)', haunting depictions of a father figure whose perfection becomes suspect and the twisted secrets the horrors of wartime force upon the very young. The idea of children's concealments becoming far more serious than they admit also suggests Andrew Birkin's amazing film version of Ian McEwan's 'The Cement Garden.' Herman and his gifted cast and crew--the settings are rich and impressive--are treading on virtually sacred ground with hardly a misstep. In their essential roles Asa Butterfield is a subtle young actor and Jack Scanlon is touching and real as his counterpart across the Holocaust divide.Beautifully done as it is, 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' risks at times seeming merely a conceit. In its rethinking of the War from a child of Nazis' privileged (because innocent) perspective it is somewhat contrived, as a young-adult book on such a special subject risks being. The finale, though harrowing, would seem far-fetched if it were not so sudden and overwhelming. This film hasn't the intensity and veracity of 'Fateless,' Lajos Koltai's Hungarian film based on Nobel winner Imre Kertész's autobiographical novel and screenplay about a teenager surviving concentration camp life. But on the other hand, this film, being all in English, strangely takes on an even more universal quality, and provides a unique experience full of dark ironies only the perky English voices and the generally comfy settings can evoke. For some of us the horror of the Holocaust seems exotic and remote. Wishful-thinking complicity in evil-doing is much closer to home.
What is the author's message and who, or what, do the movie's characters represent to you?
posted on 18 Aug 2009In my opinion this is a good movie/book because it has basic moral appeal and an enduring message, and because this movie (and probably the book to an even greater degree) can have symbolic or abstract meaning in regard to the characters and what they represent in terms of history, national identity, and humanity.I think this quote accurately describes the moral message of the movie: A timeless story of innocence lost and humanity found. The message of the movie is that human beings are born innocent. We are born to love and we become friends with anyone regardless of race / religion / orientation, etc. However, as we grow old, we grow corrupted, and then we lose our innocence and become more prejudiced and filled with hate (well a lot of people, but not all). So in the end, the movie is saying that we are all the same, we are all human beings, and it is the silly, narrow, immoral things that divide and ruin us. None of us are immune to this behavior, so we must always remember that if we don't watch ourselves it can happen again.I would like to see other reviewer's interpretation and analysis of, the message of the movie and who or what the characters symbolically represent... There is no right or wrong answer, only your personal opinion(s).So, what is the author's message and who, or what, do the movie's characters represent to you?
I'll Second That
posted on 16 Aug 2009The Edge-4 pretty much said it all in his review here: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a well-crafted, unsentimental take on the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old German boy, who happens to be the son of a newly installed concentration camp commander. It is more, however. It is a morality play about the development in the boy of a moral sense and the loss of that sense in nearly all the other German male characters, military and civilian alike. So it tackles the plight of six million Jews from both points of view, that of the victims and of the society from which their oppressors sprang. Unlike one reviewer, I didn't see the fast-paced ending coming, and that ending made an already fine film excellent and memorable.To add a footnote to what others here have said, the period costumes and sets were enjoyable without being overdone, the casting (especially of the boy Shmuel) was first-rate, and the score was perfectly reminiscent of Brahms' German Requiem, an appropriate touch in this requiem for two peoples.Don't hesitate to see it.
I couldn't disagree more- a disturbing but BRILLIANT film if you consider who's behind it
posted on 16 Aug 2009As a media student and avid follower of film, I have always believed every so often some of the more disturbing ones need to be seen by everyone to remind them of their humanity and put things into perspective.I have just returned from watching 'The boy in the striped pyjamas' and I wont give away too much only to say that it was most likely the most upsetting and disturbing film I have ever seen and that is truly saying something. Some of the things I have seen would horrify my mother. Still, go and see it.I wont give away too much of the plot here but I was left sobbing and shaking and actually couldn't get up at the end.David Thewlis has always inspired me as an actor; he seems to choose roles that don't always appear to suit him at first. This one, a Nazi commander, must have been immensely difficult to produce but he manages it. The way he is so brutally cold- there is truly nothing behind his eyes. Even with his children it is hard to see the fatherly love. He is, just as his wife says, a monster. In the end I fought hard to see any good in him. This is the let down at the end- even in the face of such tragedy he acts more shocked than horrified, not quite the way a parent would react.His wife on the other hand (played wonderfully by Vera Farmiga) is constantly believable eventually going mad at the thought of her husbands barbarity and the way in which it is warping the minds of their two children.The camera work could have been put to better use- this was a wasted chance for some exploratory shots. There is use of shake and zoom to give us a feeling of connection with the characters (especially with young Schmuel) but why not low angle to show a loss of power? Same goes for the sets. Here was a chance to be very dark and daring with buildings (the most striking of which is the 'Nazi' house which reeks of evil in civil clothing) but the stairs to the chamber just weren't symbolic enough for me of the terror awaiting within.You want confusing characters? Kotler is your chap. Reduced from power crazed mad Nazi terrorist to weak and pathetic in less than a scene and then back again. I was utterly terrified by him; there were times when my hand raised to my mouth after his mouth opened to speak.All in all, considering the BBC had so much to do with it, I left wondering how on earth this only got a 12 certificate. If I was a parent I don't think I would be sleeping tonight. Scratch that- even knowing I'm not a parent I may not sleep anyway.
Stunningly effective and devastating
posted on 14 Aug 2009This film is about the unlikely friendship of two 8-year-olds on two sides of the fence in a Nazi concentration camp."The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is very well made. The view point is special, as we watch the catastrophic events through the eyes of a privileged 8 year old. The plot is amazing, simply overwhelmingly touching. The world through a child's eye is so different. Bruno's understanding of the "farm" is tragically naive, but who could blame him? Vera Farmiga is great as a mother who has not been turned into a cold blooded animal, she possesses the good values that contrasts with her husband. The ending is simple but stunningly effective and devastating; it makes anyone speechless for minutes."The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is incredibly moving. It is a must see not just for people interested in World War II history, but for everyone.
Should have been nominated for some Oscars
posted on 12 Aug 2009This was perhaps the most powerful 'fiction' movie I have seen in a long time. Seriously this movie moved me in ways I expected and not. I am not going to give any spoilers, but I will say that true friendship can develop between anyone regardless of the situation or age. Perhaps our hope in this world lies with the innocence of children, perhaps not. Its OK to dream. The circumstances that arose from this movie , was done meticulously from each person in 'said' situation. The 2 protagonists in this movie were children that were wise beyond their age .... yet they did not know any better. It is a paradox to be sure , but certainly a paradox worth paying to see. Treat yourself to this wonderful movie. I give it a 9 only because it did lose authenticity points for the Brit accents. I am guessing it was low budget. Getting by the unrealistic accents... I truly believe this to be the best movie of 2008. You will not be disappointed.
Out of the mouths of babes...
posted on 12 Aug 2009The numerous negative comments on the cast's "British accents" leave me disappointed in my fellow Americans who are still in denial that the world no longer revolves around them (if it ever did).A country a few thousand miles east, across the Atlantic ocean, happens to have made this film (notice "BBC" in the credits?) and they did not set out to speak in a "British accent." They talk in the film the way people talk in that country. And why not? What were the alternatives? Should they adopt an American accent just to please us, leaving their own countrymen to wonder, with a sense of the surreal, just what (beyond the infamous gulags that our society seemingly needs to maintain order) America has to do with the story? Should they contrive German accents? What would be authentic about that? Germans don't normally speak English in a German accent; they speak German. So maybe everyone in the movie should have used German and given the audience subtitles to read? One can imagine how happy that would have made these critics.No possible "accent" could be transparent for all Anglophones, but how the cast spoke was at least natural to themselves and to their primary audience. Why they were right to do so goes much deeper than convenience. Asked how he would portray the Nazis in his film Der Unhold (The Ogre), Volker Schlondorff replied, "as the most exciting people in the world, of course." Hence he showed them not as strange or alien in any way, but in living color. That Abel, his childlike hero, would be immediately converted to their cause was almost inevitable. How slowly did disillusionment ensue with innocence lost and uncomfortable facts accumulating.The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas calls for a similar approach to the allures of Nazi images, ideologies, and institutions, because (among other similarities) they share a theme: a naïf's loss of innocence amidst unpleasant truths gradually emerging. The question is not so much "how did this happen to the Germans?" but more universal: "how might it happen to us?" As the historian John Lukacs wrote, understanding history requires self-understanding.To be sure, Bruno, more than Abel, had early reasons for ambivalence. He never wanted to leave his home and friends in Berlin. He noticed that his grandma didn't approve of these new developments, either. The new house in the country didn't appeal to him, nor did his confinement to the walled front yard. The regimen of his tutor predisposed him to resist the propaganda he was fed. Mark Herman has apparently read his Dickens, whose _Hard Times_ had the poor Gradgrind children subjected to precisely the same grim pedagogical philosophy: out with fantasies and adventures, in with facts and almanacs. Our little explorer felt imprisoned mentally as well as physically. Is it any wonder that he could just as easily greet the camp's barbed-wire fence as another restraint upon himself, rather than upon anyone he saw on the other side? Set against all this privation was a child's natural trust in his parents, that what they were doing was right or at least necessary. We see that this trust was not always absolute and was sustained in part by lies. Bruno seemed surprised when Schmuel said that he never doubted that his own father was a good man.Most of the critics and commentators I have read tend to treat Bruno as an ignorant, confused little boy. This may be true at first, but let's not overlook the developments that show him becoming a resolute and courageous hero. I'm sure that when you see this film, you will not miss a brief moment at a dramatic halfway point in the story, which is almost as shattering as the much adumbrated ending. Among the evidence for the pivotal significance of this scene is when, after having sulked for weeks over living in this house, he amazes his family by voting to stay rather than leave. Does any earthly rationale explain this change of heart? The only rationale is heavenly: he is intent upon staying for Shmuel's sake.However coincidental, it is extraordinarily apt to have seen this film on the Feast of Christ the King, in whose Holy Gospel Jesus discloses the contents of our final exam. It is about feeding the hungry and visiting prisoners. Oh, and clothing the naked (which raises again the question of who the prisoners are in this tale). It's as simple as that, huh. Even a child can do it. Yet how seldom most of us bother, even though it would be easier for us than it was for Bruno.
Breathtakingly Honest
posted on 12 Aug 2009The minute this film started to reveal its plot climax, I was utterly compelled to call out NO! STOP! PLEASE! A film successfully based on it source material, The Boy in the Sripped Pyjamas grabs you by the shirt front and smacks you in the face and commands you to sit up and take notice. Harrowingly honest, yet thrilling to the last frame, this film examines the truth of childish innocence and should be seen primarily for the way it looks at such a delicate topic such as the holocaust and not its historical inaccuracies or accuracies. With amazingly stellar performances who treat the topic with respect and passion it was hard not to pay attention. I was riveted, even though it took a bit to get going. I loved the way the character of Maria was completely indifferent to begin with but given a mothers love and womans softness slowly turns to become the films conscience. Thru Maria, we hear the films heartbeat of pain and anguish against the ruthless murder of the Jewish people. I am saddened that there are haters that want to nitpick against this film or elements of it. Its not about the finer details but about the bigger picture and the bigger picture is that we need to remember one of the blackest stains on humanities history.
Here Be Dragons
posted on 10 Aug 2009This is as fine an illustration of the saying be careful what you wish for ... as any I can think of. Bruno, the eight-year old protagonist, wishes to be an explorer and explore he does albeit without being totally aware that that's what he's doing. I did have a problem with Bruno's Jewish counterpart, Smuel, being able to spend almost unlimited time at the perimeter fence of the Camp (unnamed but apparently Auschwitz) chatting to Bruno on the other side but I accept that for the story to work - essentially we are seeing a microcosm of the holocaust through the innocent eyes of an Aryan child - there had to be a way to bring the two boys together long enough to compare tattoos. Okay, it may be simplistic and a tad pat but its heart is in the right place and it is acted superbly not least by the American actress Vera Famigla as the mother. Try not to miss it.
Surprisingly good
posted on 10 Aug 2009I am not a fan of war type movies but was asked to attend to keep a friend company. I have never read the book or heard of the movie before I went to see the film. My first notion before I attended cinema was I expected it to be boring. However I quickly changed my mind. Even though the actors were unknown to me I thought they were great. Throughout the movie I was quite fixated and near the end it became very intense. It was a very emotional movie and very quiet with a few wet eyes at the end. It was kind of disbelieving. The movie was about the holocaust during World War 2. It gave viewers an insight to other side of the story by way of how it might have been for the German people who had been brain washed into a certain way of thinking about the concentration camps because of manipulation by SSO propaganda. It did this through the innocent eyes of a child and how confused he felt about his friend when his father and teacher, the people he trusted talked about the evils of Jews. It demonstrated the intolerance towards the Jewish community and anyone that showed empathy towards them. However my critique is in reality things would have been much harsher in the camp and I don't believe the little boy in the camp would have ever got that close to the perimeter fence as it would have been very much guarded. I highly recommend the film.
Shallow in a huge event
posted on 06 Aug 2009I was a bit suspicious of this movie, considering the cuddly, 'artistic' title, but you never know. Well, unfortunately i guess i did.The movie is about a German family of which the father is commander in a concentration camp. His son secretly gets to be friends with a Jewish boy.And thats all the depth you will find in this story. There is no personal change, no evolving, no philosophical findings, no lessons to be learnt and it doesn't drag you into the main event of the movie, the end, where you should be in tears, i guess. I honestly didn't feel bad for the boy, which indicates something is very wrong with this movie.So it's just a bad story, trying to score on a major recent historical event. Sorry, no cigar.It's not utterly boring and the acting is fair, but the story itself is apart from rather unbelievable, shallow as a turd on route 66.If you want to see an excellent movie about the same theme, go see 'The Reader'
Brilliant beyond words.
posted on 06 Aug 2009Having never read the novel of which the film was based on, I didn't know what exactly to expect from the film.Set during World War II, the film is a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.This film was perfect in every possible way. The end for me (not giving away any spoilers) was unexpected and so sad, It had me in tears. This is the only film I have ever seen, where as the finishing credits of the film appeared on the screen, the whole cinema just sat in silence looking at each other, not believing what they just saw.The actors performances were outstanding, especially from the little boy who played 'Bruno' (Asa Butterfield).The unlikely friendship between the two boys was so honest and believable, it was so sad.The only thing that some people complained about was the fact that the film was set in Germany however, all the cast had strong British accents, but that truly didn't matter to me.Overall, this movie was the best film I've ever seen, as It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through and kept me thinking about it for days afterwards and how the holocaust caused so many people to lose the lives for no reason.
One you cannot miss
posted on 04 Aug 2009Firstly, I'd like to say I usually don't give 10's out to dramas. I had read the book prior to the movie and was deeply moved by the story. I instantly fell in love with the two boy characters and cared about what went on with them. By the end of the story, I couldn't speak out loud what I was thinking, all I knew was...it was one of a kind.I saw the movie today with my sister and we both left with different emotions. I was deeply deeply moved by it. The adaptation was great! They changed a few thing around, but I actually liked the movie better than the book. By the end of the movie, I was sobbing and my sister was nauseous. It's such a moving story but with a real sad but true ending.Surprisingly, for me a lot of the amazement came out of the acting of Asa Butterfield (Bruno) and Jack Scanlon (Schmuel) as the two boys. It was great to see such wonderful acting alongside their great cuteness! I think without a doubt, this movie is a definite must-see.
Great film
posted on 31 Jul 2009This film was fantastic. Even though everyone knows the history of the Holocaust, this film is sure to make people think. The whole time, I was reminded that people actually felt that way about other human beings; that they would treat them like animals and even call them that. It is not a movie you can watch over and over, but it certainly is one everyone should see. The ending, while awful, was also perfect. There is no other way it could have ended. When I saw this film, I wasn't quite prepared for it. My friend and I were bored one night and decided to borrow a movie. I sat up late that night thinking about the human race and wondering if there is hope for us.
The Boy in Striped Pajama review
posted on 29 Jul 2009Boy this is a sad movie. As many of you know I am a huge fan of sad movies and when I saw the trailers for this movie, I just knew. I remember watching the trailers for this when I was seeing another movie and I turned to the person I was sitting by and said, That movie about the boy in striped pajamas is going to be terribly sad. Boy was I right on that one. But what makes it so good is that it reminds us to be human. I won't tell you what happens. I give it a good review because, as many of you know, I am fond of good acting. Boy does this have it. What I will say is that the boy who is Asa is a really good actor. Even though he's so young!!! It reminds me of that child actor who was in Empire of the Sun, a good war movie this time by Steven Spielberg. This movie is about the Nazis. If you are thinking of Indiana Jones Nazis then you will be mistaken. If you are thinking Band of Brothers Nazis then you will still be mistaken but getting closer to the point. Also these are definitely NOT Hogans Heroes Nazis. Well until next time America...
Evil versus Innocence
posted on 27 Jul 2009When the camera finally fades, one is left with a sense of loss that is impossible to overcome, there should be shock, anger, or some other intense emotion to counteract the final minutes of the film, but unlike films involving children and death or evil, "The Orphanage" comes to mind, this one lacks complexity because of the perspective taken by its director. It is a serious film that asks to weigh the beauty of innocence and unawareness of the horrors that become become so embedded in our nature when we're adults. It recalls the fact that many children will call any type of meat chicken because they're unable to understand what categories are. Bruno is beginning to develop his understanding of good and evil. He understands less than he feels, and he can pick that something is wrong; yet not enough to help him do enough for himself and his new found friend.There is fine work in "The Boy", particularly the mother whose existence is shattered when she realizes how horrible her connections to Nazi Germany truly are. Her is husband is too self involved in his crusade to realize the harm he is causing his family, and at the heart of the story, Bruno's life is still basically, a game.There some illogical developments in the movie, as we have very little tension in some of the scenes involving the children's meetings at the camp's fence. The chemistry between the two boys is perfect, as both of them are representatives of a world that does not have any room for them, and the metaphor might become a bitter reality if the adults fail to recognize the scope of their mistakes.Maybe the film would have been more successful had it been treated as a fantasy, a dream, or a comedy in order to infuse with the contrast that it lacks here. as it is now, it's very simplistic and a bit underdeveloped, yet there is no denying its intended impact.
it's directed fine and there's some good acting, but it's also dim and silly and contrived
posted on 23 Jul 2009The Boy in Striped Pajamas, aside from it looking mostly like a slightly upgraded TV movie (it's financed by BBC) and featuring British and non-British actors not changing any of their accents for their characters, is also too obvious for its own good. Holocaust = bad is the basic message of the picture, and a message that apparently never sinks into the head of Bruno, the 8 year old boy who befriends Shmool, the boy of the title who befriends him across the fence of the concentration camp. It also seems to be a movie pitched at children more than adults, which would be fine except that it's not even a very good children's movie, unless they don't know much at all about the holocaust- which, perhaps is likely. Maybe my standards are too high after so many countless films regarding Nazis and the holocaust, but among the many of them (Schindler's List by far the masterpiece and others like Jakob the Liar remake worse), this one is just... meh.Does it provide a look at how innocence had little place of the Nazi's plans against the Jewish people? Yes. Does it have a point regarding good versus evil? Maybe. It's scope is mainly centered on Bruno's experiences around the family house where his father (barely one-dimensional David Thewlis) is the Nazi soldier and his mother (Vera Farmiga, almost two-dimensional but not quite) who is horrified by what she finds out goes on at the camps. And, as well, about the kindness of some people who could not comprehend (or just weren't up on the facts or too young, like Bruno) the evil possible with the Nazis. All of these ideas and perspectives are fine. It's the execution of these on film, in drama, that counts, and the performances and the direction just don't add up.On top of this are some contrivances to the plot that keep things a little too thick for comfort. Maybe I just wasn't as emotionally invested in the ending as some other critics have been, but it starts as being pretty stupid - for Bruno to just casually dig his way into the camp and then slip on the camp clothes without anyone noticing is one thing - and then, the final straw, with the big lesson being delivered as a manipulative sucker punch to the parents as Bruno and Shmool are shuffled off to the gas chamber at just the exact moment they go into the one bunker. This is just a cruel twist, something done to drive tragedy into a story that doesn't provide much except for a feeling of "... what?" If it touches other people who don't see any of the obvious lines drawn in Herman's script or direction, good for them. For me, it's a total emotional sham.
One of the most heartbreaking films I've seen
posted on 30 Aug 2009Words cannot describe how I feel about this film; only that it truly was a masterpiece. I went to see it with my mum, expecting the "telltale ending" of the film - the film is about a young German boy who befriends a young Jewish boy imprisoned in a concentration camp. Having been to Terezin Concentration Camp near Prague and having learnt about the Final Solution in GCSE History, I had a background knowledge of the film's theme.When the film was finished, the whole of the audience sat in complete silence, save for a few people (including my mum and myself) in tears. The film was moving, and the message is one that I shall stick by; friendship and love can be found in the most darkest of times.The musical score was also fantastic - James Horner is a genius.I HIGHLY recommend the film, but I must insist (by not revealing much) that you should keep a box of tissues handy.