Customer Reviews

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Classroom Edition [Interactive DVD]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm teaching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas to my lower level students this year. I absolutely loved the fable and thought it would be a great way to teach the students the literary term theme. I purchased this film to cover my state's media standards. I'm so glad that a classroom edition was available. It has bonus material that will be great to show the kids to discuss propaganda (also a state standard). I'm usually a die-hard believer in "the book is better," however, this film adaptation is incredible. I know it will spark a great discussion on the differences between print versus non-print. I'm excited to begin this unit with my students. I highly recommend using the film in your classroom. Plus, there are great teaching sources on the film available on the Internet (like a discussion guide).

What did the Holocaust look like through the eyes of Jewish children consigned to the concentration camps? Or through the eyes of an entirely normal Nazi family whose father was "promoted" from Berlin to Commandant of a death camp in the countryside? Bruno is only eight years old, so he's naturally curious about the "farm" only a few hundred yards from his family mansion, where people wear striped pajamas with numbers on them. Where black smoke billows from chimneys, and where horrid smells fill the air. And if Pavel was a doctor, why is he now wearing those pajamas and peeling potatoes for his family? Bruno forms an unlikely friendship through the electric barbed wire with another eight-year-old, Shmuel. The innocence that they share puts into bold relief the horrendous consequences of the Holocaust -- for the Jews, of course, but in unlikely and catastrophic ways for every member of this prim, proper, and patriotic family whose father was responsible for "making the world better." The film explores a horrible paradox of the Holocaust -- that an evil of unimaginable magnitude was carried out by everyday people just like us.

I was expecting more than a simple DVD branded for public use. The learning aids are actually on the DVD. You'll have to print them out. Good stuff.

Let me start by saying that I will probably never again be trusted with choosing the family after-Christmas movie again. I knew there would be sad tones and sad themes given that it was a Holocaust movie. But I thought that since it was from a child's point of view it would be more palatable. And for the most part it was, and probably because it was from a child's point of view. But the ending was anything but palatable. It was dark and terrible even by Holocaust movie standards.

The story of a young son of a concentration camp commandant who befriends a Jewish boy his age on the other side of the wire may sound a bit implausible to die-hard history buffs, but it definitely makes for a fascinating premise. And so the viewer (or reader, as it was based on a novel) is very interested in seeing how it all plays out.

What surprised me most about THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS was the light-hearted and sometimes even downright humorous moments. The great paradox is to find oneself chuckling during a light scene only to be suddenly jolted out of one's humor a mere second or two later and brought back to the reality of what the film is about.

The acting by all cast members is superb, but especially by the two principal boy actors portraying Bruno, the 8-year-old son of the Nazi commandant and Shmuel (pronounced SHMOLL), the Jewish boy who is prisoner in Bruno's father's concentration camp. Their on-screen chemistry far surpasses that of most adult movie stars in the industry today.

The primary problem I have with STRIPED PAJAMAS is I have no idea who this film's target audience is meant to be. Perhaps adults, but most adults would be able to handle a more realistic (by "realistic" I simply mean in terms of graphic content) portrayal of the Holocaust. This film is certainly violent, but virtually all of the violence occurs off-screen and is implied. (The filmmakers did an excellent job of shocking the audience more by what is not seen than what is seen. Especially at the end.) The target audience may also be children, but I would not let a child of mine watch this unless they were at least 11 or 12 years of age and were able to handle this kind of subject matter.

Overall, STRIPED PAJAMAS is one of the best films I saw in 2008. I don't recall hearing any profanity, and surprisingly there was no gratuitous violence. If a Holocaust movie could possibly be a family movie as well, then this was one. But take care, for this was also the most thought-provoking movie I saw in 2008.

Certainly, there are some professional critics who will show-off clever epithets when they review this film. Their smart-aleck comments might be something like "See what happens to naughty little boys who disobey their parents?" or, "Curiosity killed the cat." There are some critics who opine that this film disserves the Holocaust. Look, just avoid them, and see the film.

Such comments like those are unfair to the film, which hits the right note in its simplicity. There are many directors who would've blown it way out of proportion. Some commentators have criticized the actors' British dialects. The use of dialects is part of the actor's craft. However, I find the director's decision not to use German dialect appropriate.

I saw the movie in limited release without foreknowledge of the plot or the storyline. I found it a haunting story that lingers in the mind. The audience, with whom I saw it, did not cheer, did not applaud, and did not cry; we were just numbed into silence by the power of the story. We exited in silence. That doesn't happen in movies too often. I can see the faith the studio has in it. But having seen it once, do I want to see it again?

If viewed as a fable, and the book has won many awards, the story may be too simplistic. The book was written for children, as if a child was to read the story, but it's marketed to young adults in high school, I think because of the story's power. Using a fable to tell the story allows the author to take a step from reality. Some have correctly commented upon the implausibility of the plot and events in the film. Whether it was correct for the director to follow the book so closely, that is, telling an allegory or fairy tale (which cinema does poorly, as in the case of Spielberg's wonderful film, "AI: Artificial Intelligence" (2001)), is uncertain. If the director had chosen to infect the film with some hard doses of reality, the film would have a different feel.

Consider, Bruno, the major character. In the book and film, he's an eight-year old boy who is innocent of all the storm and stress of Nazi Era Germany. In reality, Bruno would've been in the Hitler Youth since he was six. He would've been educated in the Nazi catechism of the time and not been such an innocent in search of a playmate. If, for the sake of the movie, Bruno was in the Hitler Youth and been shown in uniform for a moment, let's say at the party in Berlin, it might have meant a stronger character arc for him, reminiscent of the film, "Tomorrow the World" (1944) that starred Skippy Homeier, who won an award for his portrayal of a Hitler Youth. The storyline would not need to change; the plot would proceed like Teutonic clockwork toward the powerful coda. But, perhaps that might've changed it too much, for the film relies on its simplicity.

Consider, Shmeul, Bruno's acquaintance. Shmeul's survival in the camp was very uncertain, but we know that children did survive. We have recollections of those who were there. At the end of the war, Allies had a terrific problem relocating the surviving children, as told in the film, "The Search" (1948).

But, that's the difference between telling a fable intended for children (who've been shooed away by the rating) and a fable for adults who see the childishly simple metaphors at play.

So, would I want to see this movie again? Yes, I want to see it again, if I can afford it, and if I can get myself in the frame of mind again. Do I recommend owning a copy of the video? Yes. I will, but not on Blu-ray.

I think this is a story that tells the affect of the Holocaust and its lingering Hell on everyone connected with it then and ever since, and I think it will affect you, too.

This is a great movie, very touching and heartwarming (up to a certain point), about a tough and ugly subject - concentration camps during World War II. A young boy whose father is a commander in the Army comes upon another little boy wearing striped pajamas inside a fenced compound. The boy thinks the people wearing pajamas are all farmers with glorious lives (as portrayed by the soldiers), not understanding what is really happening to these people. It's a sad and profound story through the eyes of a child about the consequences of war and what we choose when we alienate any group of people based upon race, religion, or creed.

Rated PG-13 (I believe) for harsh theme, some violence.

Outstanding film. 10/10.

What a heartbreaking, brutal example of an important point that unfortunately needs to be reiterated often.

The Holocaust is a testament to what happens when a person dehumanizes someone who they perceive as worthless, a lesser being and/or some kind of threat.

Propaganda is a powerful tool that can fuel the smallest battle - between a few individuals or even the majority of a nation - by convincing them that they need to conquer someone else.

To strip someone of their most basic human rights by enslaving them under the threat of death is the epitome of evil. It's terrifying to know that it has been a reality so many times throughout history. It can happen to anyone.

Racism and narcissism are alive and well. Who are we to decide that someone is less valuable and important than we are based on their appearance, life circumstances, religion or ancestry?

I just returned from taking 3 young boys(ages 9-11) to see this film. They are all pretty mature and know a lot about the Holocaust already, but I think that this film made them realize the actual horror of the Holocaust in a way that books can't. That the story is told through the eyes of a very precocious 8-year-old kept their interest, even though virtually all the film's violence is implied or happens off-screen. I had no idea the film ended as it did, and we all walked out in silence. Yet, the more we discussed it on the way home, the more we saw the irony--well, perhaps poetic justice, in a sense-- of the film's message of evil and the way it takes root, and how you can't participate in it and still keep yourself and your family separate from it. The message is transferable to so many modern situations that this alone makes the film worthwhile. Yes, the boys' conversations would have been spotted very quickly--yes, the ending requires you to take a leap of logic...but the performances and the moral of the movie render it worthy of a viewing. By the way, Vera Farmiga as Bruno's mother is superb.

You'd think it would be easy to determine how to feel about "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," but no, it isn't. Despite the heavy subject matter, it tells such a simple, direct story, and there are virtually no gray areas in terms of character development. Everyone is defined so thoroughly at the start of the film that they never really have the chance to become something else, which is to say that there's no sense of maturation. I believe this also applies to the main character, an eight-year-old German boy named Bruno (Asa Butterfield), who at the height of Hitler's regime moves with his family from Berlin into the countryside. Their new home is directly next to a concentration camp, where an eight-year-old Jewish boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) spends his time sitting at the electrified border. When Bruno goes exploring one day, he meets Shmuel, and even though they're separated, the two become friends. Despite the fact that Bruno learns a great deal over the course of the film, I'm hard pressed to say that he transitions from ignorance to knowledge. Quite simply, there's just so much he doesn't understand.

In all fairness, that's probably a much more realistic approach to the material. We've seen so many films that adhere to the "Amazing Grace" principle, in which characters are lost then found, blind then able to see. We get nothing like that from "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." Bruno is incredibly ignorant, mostly because he grew up in a world that wanted to keep him that way. He hears and sees anti-Semitic propaganda all around him, and yet we're never really sure if he believes any of it. I say this because he's the kind of child that asks a lot of questions, most of which aren't answered satisfactorily; those that are answered inevitably lead to even more questions, which is a good thing because it proves he's actually thinking. His only problem is that he's never able to come to a conclusion. All he can do is keep wondering why certain things are the way they are. That may explain why he would much rather read an adventure story than a history textbook--daring explorers in fantasy worlds are much easier to understand.

Bruno is essentially the film's strongest element. Not so strong are most of the other characters, which are all so rigidly constructed. Bruno's father, Ralf (David Thewlis), is a strict Nazi soldier who oversees the neighboring concentration camp. Bruno's mother, Elsa (Vera Farmiga), spends much of the film is a blissful state of ignorance, aware that Jews are the enemy but blind to the fact that many are tortured and killed; even when she discovers why the smoke emanating from the camp's chimneys is so foul-smelling, she can do nothing but cry uncontrollably. Bruno's twelve-year-old sister, Gretel (Amber Beattie), is strong-headed and hopelessly brainwashed.

The rest of the supporting characters were never given the chance to fully develop, which is a shame considering the potential they all had. One is Bruno's grandmother (Sheila Hancock), who doesn't get along with her son because, apparently, she doesn't quite buy into Hitler's vision for a glorious future. Another is Lieutenant Kotler (Rupert Friend), a young Nazi soldier that Gretel has a crush on. The dramatic possibilities for this character were mostly overlooked, reducing him to little more than a passing reference. There are, in fact, only two supporting characters that work well. One is Shmuel, who, because of his age, is just as ignorant as Bruno; he knows that life is hard for him in the camp, but he has no real idea how things work under a Nazi regime. Another is Pavel (David Hayman), an imprisoned Jew who's often sent to work in Bruno's family's kitchen. When Bruno cuts his leg after falling off a handmade tire swing, Pavel tends to his wounds; when he tells Bruno that he used to practice as a doctor, Bruno fails to understand why a doctor would give that up to be a potato peeler.

His ignorance plays a vital role in the film's emotionally draining ending, which will no doubt divide audiences. There's no resolution--there's only a slow, agonizing fade to black. There's also the sickening feeling that, as far as the characters are concerned, absolutely nothing has been learned. There was an audible reaction amongst the people I saw this film with. As we all walked out of the theater, one woman behind me said, "What a disappointing ending." I was compelled to turn around and calmly ask her, "What more needed to be said?" The way I see it, the final scene of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is perfectly acceptable; given the course of events, which I obviously can't describe, there would be no way to prolong the ending without it seeming forced.

As I said at the beginning, it isn't easy determining how to feel about this film. It's an above average story of friendship, and I was certainly moved a great deal by it. But it's not without its flaws, especially when it comes to character development. On the whole, I think it's fair to say that it's an unforgettable film, highly emotional and deeply thought provoking. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" will not give everyone what they want, but that doesn't mean it doesn't say everything it needs to say. In other words, it tells a complete story. It doesn't, however, give us complete characters, which is clearly a disappointment given the powerful nature of the subject matter. And while only a minor thing, some may also be bothered by the fact that an entirely British cast portrays German characters. If seeing this movie depends on a single reason, let it be Asa Butterfield, who does a wonderful job as Bruno, a curious, naïve young boy. Of all the characters, his was the most compelling.

The film will capture your hearts and souls, putting you on the edge of you seat throughout. You will, no doubt, feel all the emotion that will seem to flow from your screen into your heart. Amazing film.