The Boy In The Striped pajamas offers the unsettling truth behind the Holocaust. The concentration camp in the film that is implied to be Auschwitz, is where the adventures of a curious eight year old boy take place. From beginning to end, this movie shows an incredible story, and gives some insights of what Jewish people really did go through. This movie is heartbreaking, but will make you smile at the same time. The director, Mark Newman does a fantastic job showing each characters feelings and thoughts.A party is thrown in celebration of the father, Ralph (David Thewlis) taking control of a concentration camp by becoming the commanding officer.
Newman offers enough information of Ralph’s parents that allows the audience in, showing not only do they disapprove of this job, but by the end of the movie the mother is so disgusted she refuses to come to the family dinner. The for shadowing of this is given when a minor phone argument takes place between Ralph and his parents, when his mother refuses to speak to him.This gives a great insight of what may be coming later on in the film, and it shows greatly that even though Ralph became the commanding officer, even though the job offer was considered a prestigious one, it was still extremely frowned upon by his family. Ralph’s new job as a commanding officer forces the family to move closer to this camp.
This is where Bruno’s (Asa Butterfield) adventures begin. Bruno can see what he believes if a “farm” from his bedroom window, un aware of the reality of what is going on around him.Seeing Bruno taking notice in the pajamas the people are wearing on the farm, as well as the pajamas that Pavel, (David Hayman) is wearing, a Jewish man who tends to the family’s farm and other needs. Sadness comes about when Bruno falls off of a tree and Pavel helps him, because he was a doctor before he was forced into this camp. Bruno and him share a special moment when Pavel asks Bruno what he wants to be when he grows up, and he answers an explorer before Bruno gets the chance.
Bruno being taught that these people are “evil” and that he needs to stay away from them, thinks a second time, wondering why they are so bad, because all he has seen is good. Bruno also takes note of the stacks that are over the farm, when questioning his father, he is told an excuse rather then the truth, showing that he himself, has to know deep down inside what he is doing is wrong if he cannot even explain his job to his children. The audience can see Bruno’s curiosity exceed greatly from the moment the family moved into their new home.He is strictly confined to stay in the premises of the home, and by all means, stay away from the farm.
When Bruno’s curiosity gets the best of him and after discovering a window open in a shed that leads to the farm, he stumbles upon a new friend named Schmuel (Jack Scanlon), a young Jewish boy who is Bruno’s age, stuck inside the camp. When Bruno questions Schmuel and the “game” they are playing on the farm. Schmuel questions him, and when Bruno states he assumed that is what the number are for on their pajamas, Newman’s way forcing the audience to feel the sudden sadness for these two boys is extraordinary.The audience being aware that the numbers are simply the way that the people wearing them are identified by. Schmuel is unaware of the reasonings for these numbers, along with Bruno.
Bruno’s father Ralph, assigns a tutor for him and his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) after the move to the new home. From the beginning of the tutoring sessions, the audience can easily see the horrible ideas of Jewish people that the tutor is trying to ‘inform’ these children about.Bruno’s dislike towards his tutor is seen greatly from the beginning. Gretel’s feelings towards the tutor seem completely opposite.
She is seen trying to impress him by informing him of how she reads the paper daily and other articles. It is seen that Gretel tends to start believing everything she is told, and a crush she has developed for one of the soldiers seems to have a large impact on her. There is a scene where her mother comes to give her a gift, when Gretel is hanging up propaganda of the Nazi’s.The set back by Elsa (Vera Farmiga) is completely noticed, when her big blue eyes stare in disbelief at the newly decorated room. It is from this point out in the movie the change of the mother is seen, and her un sureness of their decision to bring their children around the camp in the first place. A scene in the film that really showed Elsa’s true colors about the camp is when she is returning home from a shopping trip in town, when stepping out of the vehicle she notices an awful smell coming from the chimneys in the camp.
She makes a comment about the terrible scent, and is replied to by a soldier saying “They smell even worse when they burn, don’t they? ” Immediately the disbelief comes over her face, and the soldier realizes that he has told her something she didn’t, and shouldn’t have known. Her husband Ralph had been telling her nothing but lies throughout the course of their move, and what exactly his job pertained of him doing.When the unsetting truth comes out about the bodies being burned, Ralph decides it is in best interest for his children, along with his wife, to leave and return home without him until he has finished his work. Bruno becomes alarmed, he still has not held up his part of the agreement he made with Schmuel earlier on, to help him find his father. Realizing his is running out of time, he does this in a desperate attempt. Bruno’s generous and brave attempt to help his friend, ended up costing him more then just a punishment for crossing the line over into the camp, it cost him his life.
The panicked search for Bruno turns into a never ending one, when his mother discovers his clothes on the other side of the fence, where he had put on his own pair of pajamas. This is a movie where I sat in a classroom full of seniors in high school, where there was not one person who did not have tears in their eyes. The story that comes from this movie is incredible, the loss of an innocent eight year old boys life, along with all the others who were forced into a camp, shows just how terrible the Holocaust was.
