Source: Medium
“What exactly was the difference? He wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?”
The Holocaust, being one of the greatest horrors in recent human history, has often been the topic of a significant amount of movies and literature during the last 60 years. The Boy in Striped Pajamas shows us the brutality of it all, through the innocent eyes of two 8-year old boys.
It's a textbook case of “shoe on the other foot”- how, in life, we may feel comfortable handing it out, but when the same thing happens to us, we become enlightened to what type of twisted wicked individuals one can be.
Introduction
Movie’s Name - The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
Directed by - Mark Herman
Genre - Tragedy, Drama, History, War
Initial Release - 12th September 2008 (UK)
Run Time - 1 hr 34 mins
From One Side Of The Barbed Wire Fence To The Other
The movie is set in Germany during World War II. 8-year old Bruno and his family leave Berlin to live near the Nazi extermination camp where his father has recently been promoted to the commandant. Moving away from his friends to a place where there are no children in sight to play with, Bruno starts feeling bored and lonely.
From the window of his new room, he sees a farm-like place which is actually a concentration camp for Jews. There he sees many children, so he thinks that he might finally get some friends to play with. Bruno is a boy who loves adventures and so, ignoring his parents’ warnings, he sneaks out behind his house and heads to that camp.
There he meets Shmuel, a Jewish youngster his age. Despite the camp's barbed-wire fence separating them, the kids form an illicit connection, naive to the true nature of their surroundings.
Movie Review
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas'' is based on a novel of the same name by John Boyne published in 2008. The movie’s atypical depiction of the Holocaust, as perceived by an innocent 8-year old child, diminishes the severity of the heavy subject and we are left with a sort of a fairytale, a watered-down version of the evil. However, the horror is mitigated to make it more digestible - not “comfortable,” mind you, but “less uncomfortable”.
I was originally skeptical of the film’s premise since, based on my knowledge of Holocaust history, 8-year-old boys would have been sent immediately to the gas chambers rather than being assigned to work in a camp upon arrival. It also wouldn’t have been possible for Shmuel to sit near the fence long enough to meet and talk to Bruno without being noticed.
Many critics and viewers dismiss Mark Herman’s work as juvenile and untrue to the barbarous reality from history's perspective. But what they fail to understand is that the film is from the perspective of a child who is yet to see the tragedy he is surrounded by.
For him, his father’s an honorable soldier, the death camp is just a farm, the Jews are just farmers who wear striped pajamas, the smoke and foul smell coming from the chimneys is the result of burning refuse. Bruno has been meticulously indoctrinated to the point where he is completely unaware of anything hideous or horrific.
Even after getting to know Shmuel, he can’t comprehend the tragedy of what’s going on in Auschwitz. Bruno is blinded to the truth by a propaganda film made by his father to depict the camp’s favorable working conditions. He believes that the camp has canteens, organized sports events and that everyone there is happy.
The two actors, Asa Butterfield (Bruno) and Jack Scanlon (Shmuel), are excellent in their characters, allowing us to believe an unlikely bond based on feelings of loneliness and isolation on both sides. From a particular viewpoint, Bruno is just as much a victim as Shmuel.
The parallel between these two is unavoidable: how the majority population’s ignorance (willful or not) resulted in the mass slaughter of the Jewish minority. Bruno symbolizes the former, whereas Shmuel represents the latter. While there is a genuine relationship between these characters, it is limited by the circumstances. They are not on an equal footing. Even if the curtain of ignorance were to be parted, Bruno has no more power than Shmuel to change the circumstances.
While Bruno and Shmuel are forming bonds, other things are going on as well. When an offhand remark discloses what is truly going on in Auschwitz’s crematoria, Bruno’s mother, who is less uninformed about the Jews than her son, is shocked to realize the truth of the Final Solution.
Vera Farmiga’s (Bruno’s mother) portrayal is the film’s most blatantly emotional, as she watches everything she loves and believes crumble around her. The film would’ve been a huge tragedy had it been from her viewpoint.
You can’t move past the grim realities of German prison camps paired with the soothing and innocent relationship of two kids from two different worlds. You know what’s going to happen, and you know it’s not going to end well, but you keep watching, waiting for something different to happen and it does. You do receive an ending you could never have imagined.
Highlights Of The Movie
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
The Bottom Line
The criticism received by the movie regarding its mellowed depiction of barbaric history doesn’t really matter. Even though all of them might be faultless, the movie still works. This film will stay with you for a long time, it will distress you, encourage you, and make you question. This is a must-see. Before viewing this, I recommend watching Schindler's List and Pianist as they will assist you in better appreciating this film.
IMDb ratings - 7.8
Written By - Sanjana Chaudhary
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