The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

(2008)

Directed by

Mark Herman

Review by Todd Plucknett

The Holocaust has probably spawned as many films as any event in history. Making a film on this event is highly difficult, and if it is not handled with the utmost precision, it can easily result in a failure. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is the new film by British director Mark Herman, which is based on the novel by John Boyne. It is an original and emotional look at the tragedy from a different angle. Despite its flaws, the film’s brilliant characters and authenticity make it an experience worth having.

The film centers on the family of Nazi concentration camp commander Ralf (David Thewlis). His wife Elsa (Vera Farmiga) hates what he does, but she tries to distract herself and make herself feel like she does not know exactly what goes on in there. Their son Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the film’s main character, is a curious and oblivious eight year old boy who is always looking for something to do, due to the fact that they had to leave all their friends behind when they moved into the mansion right across the field from the camp. Their daughter Gretel (Amber Beattie) and their housekeeper (Cara Morgan) also move with the family. Their new house if surrounded by soldiers, since Ralf is held to the highest regard by the German military. Also, some of the prisoners work in the house basically as servants. One of them is Pavel (David Hayman), a former doctor who Bruno takes an instant liking to.

None of this is the strength of the film. The real appeal comes in how the film treats the Holocaust and the relationship that Bruno eventually creates with a prisoner of equal age, Shmuel (Jack Scanlon). Almost the entire movie is treated as if it were the perspective of a child. There are references to an unbearable smell (which is of course the crematorium), which Elsa does not let herself believe is actually a crematorium. She just feels that something is burning, most likely some sort of garbage. To Bruno, his father is a great man who helps people. He is his role model and hero. He has no idea that he is in charge one of the most horrible places ever constructed. His perspective on his father should be challenged, but his immaturity and misunderstanding of the situation prevents him from truly seeing what is going on.

Bruno looks out his window, and he sees a fenced-in gathering of people, which he decides is a farm. The strange people wear striped pajamas, and the number on their clothes is part of a game. He questions his family about these people, and they lead him to believe that they are nothing more than that, trying to shield him from some awful truths. One day, Bruno is curious, so he escapes the outer walls of his home and travels through the woods, eventually leading him to the camp, which is where he finds Shmuel hiding on the other side of the barbed-wire fence. The two develop a completely authentic bond, meeting several times on the outskirts of the camp. This is where the heart of the film lies. All these events lead to a fantastic and devastating conclusion.

The acting in this film is top notch. Butterfield is fantastic in his breakthrough role. He has a great career ahead of him. Scanlon steals the scenes that they share, however. The looks and feelings of hopelessness and heartbreak that he emits take the film to a new level. Farmiga is terrific as the mother. Thewlis is very strong as the father. The rest of the supporting cast is fine, but these performers are what make the film work.

The metaphor of the film is what makes it significant. Bruno represents the German population, and Shmuel represents the Jews. Bruno did not understand or did not want to understand the Shmuel’s situation. Likewise, the Germans were ignorant to the point that their unawareness led to the execution of the Jewish population. These truths are completely and somewhat obviously represented in the film. It provides the perspective that the misunderstanding and irresponsibility of the Germans is what really drove the Holocaust. The ignorance was to the point where the families of the soldiers did not even know the full extent and severity of the situation. This is where the though-provoking nature of the film lies.

There are a fair amount of flaws in the film, though. The premise is preposterous. Bruno would have been spotted right away where he was sitting. He was not shielded by anything, and someone would have noticed Shmuel taking off every day at around the same time doing nothing over in the corner of the camp. Some of the metaphors and interpretations are far-fetched. Some of the final events are fairly ridiculous as well. The tire swing that Bruno tells his mother that he is going to swing on is right outside the window, which she walks by frequently. She would have noticed before an hour or so that he is not there anymore, given how protective she had been toward him in their new dwelling. That is really what bothered me the most; there is no way that Bruno could get away like that daily for a significant amount of time with people guarding every exit and his family keeping an eye on him all the time.

None of these problems could take away from the extreme emotional wallop at the end of the film, though. Everything that the audience knows and thinks they know about what is going to happen completely contradicts those predictions and thumps the audience with a shocking and devastating final scene that features a haunting score. Leaving the theater, the audience will feel satisfied, not manipulated. Those final scenes easily could have been forced, but they weren’t. They were handled with a sincerity and carefulness that makes it feel completely authentic. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is an original and overall quite good take on the Holocaust tragedy, and while it does not rank with some of the best films on the subject, it is still a journey worth taking.

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