Hey, there you are. I was looking for you.
   Thanks for keeping up with me. My trip down the sloping road that meanders through Dante’s many levels of Hell just wouldn’t be the same with out you by my side. I am truly glad you could join me in this the third of my trio of reviews in which we examine films so dark and dispiriting that the mere act of watching them scoops out the very essence from your skin and leaves an empty husk to wander the bleak landscape of life.
 I hope, despite the subject matter, I am able to entertain your husk along the way.
  …and on with our travels…

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas:
  The Holocaust...
   Few moments in our entire existence have been able to serve up such belly laughs. If I remember correctly Schindler’s List had them rolling in the aisles. Oh, don’t get me wrong, The Crusades had their amusing moments (especially the Children’s Crusade), as did feeding Christians of all ages to lions for the amusement of the fat and wealthy… and the Spanish Inquisition was good for a chuckle or two (some of those torture devices were a riot)… but nothing else quite measures up to the Holocaust for me.
Add children in to the mix and you have the perfect recipe for whacky, light-hearted  high-jinx.
Ahhhhh, the worst single example of atrocity in man’s history… I snicker just thinking about it.

   Author's Note: For any and all who are completely thick and aghast at my sentiments and think me an inhuman monster, the above paragraph is meant to be taken sarcastically. It actually bothers me that I even have to say this.

  This movie I’m about to review will rip your heart out and feed it back to you. If you do not shake (and I mean literally shake) with either disgust/ sadness/ shock at the end of this film, then you are devoid of any feelings.

   The Boy In The Striped Pajamas takes place in WW2 Germany. As it opens we find out that an upper middle class career Soldier in the Third Reich, known only to us by his first name Ralf (David Thewless) has been promoted and needs to move his family (perfect hostess wife Elsa, 12 year old daughter Gretel and sheltered 8 year old son Bruno (Asa Butterfield) out to “the country”.
   Bruno is understandably upset at leaving his friends behind but Ralf, a doting, loving father puts him at ease. Soon after, a Congratulations/Farewell party is given and we become aware that Ralf is actually much higher up on the Nazi food chain than we first suspected.
   The move to the country is a long one… car trip… train trip… another car trip and our first glimpse of the new house is dismal. It looks more like a fortress than a home.
   The children are given the task to pick out their rooms and Bruno takes one with a high window facing out back. When he looks through the window, he is confused to see a farm with a fence around it where all the farmers wear vertically striped pajamas. Heavy grey smoke billows from a nearby smoke stack. We later hear that the smoke itself has a noxious odor.
   While we are very aware of what is happening, the story is told through the innocent eyes of Bruno who is oblivious to what is happening in the country around him. One farmer wearing striped pajamas enters the kitchen soon after the family arrive, delivering some food. We later find out (when Bruno falls and cuts his knee) that the “farmer” is actually a Doctor named Pavel. When Pavel explains who he is, while bandaging Bruno’s leg and assuring him he’s OK, Bruno’s response is “Well, you mustn’t have been a very good doctor if you always had to practice”. He finds grown ups frustrating. Here is a doctor who is now a potato peeler.
   Despite his mother’s adamant refusal to allow Bruno out back, and his father’s warning that the “farmers” aren’t really people and are strange, Bruno explores the forest behind the house one boring day.
   When he emerges on the other side, he is standing mere feet from the fence, behind which is an eight year old Jewish boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon). Shmuel is hiding in a corner of the camp, behind piles of construction debris, because he likes the privacy.
    Shmuel and Bruno begin to talk and quickly become friends laughing at each others names.

   That is the major plot of the story, the growing friendship between Shmuel and Bruno and how very little else mattered to them. Over the course of the film we see Bruno sneak food to Shmuel, continuously run through the woods behind the house with an array of different toys, betray Shmuel rather than admit to any wrong doing (after which Shmuel takes a beating) and beg his forgiveness which is quickly given. At the end the boys hatch a plan, one which will prove how sorry Bruno is to Shmuel which goes horribly wrong.
   While the friendship is playing out we are witness to the interaction and evolution of all the side characters. Ralf becomes hardened due to the fact that he constantly has to justify his job to his wife Elsa. Elsa begins to fall apart believing her husband to be a monster. Gretel casts off her childish toys and begins to embrace the Nazi ideal, putting up Hitler Youth posters in her bedroom and becoming enamored with a young Lieutenant who works for her father named Kurt Kotler (fast rising star and pretty boy Rupert Friend).
   Pavel is abused and mistreated at every turn.
   …and, due largely to propaganda films and the ever decreasing hope that his father is a good man, Bruno never truly realizes how horrible the farm is until the end of the film.

Damn this subject matter is hard to Grade:
   Full marks for the acting. David Thewlis (Remus Lupin for all the Harry Potter fans) has been good in every film I have seen him in. He was one of the few things I liked about the remake of The Omen. He plays a man who starts out with the audience behind him, loses them and then slowly starts to get them back toward the end. It would have been easy (and cheap I feel) to demonize Ralf and play him as intrinsically evil, but Thewlis plays him as a very human monster who, if you watch closely near the end, begins to unravel and question his life. His wife (Vera Farmiga) is basically a doting piece of fluff until she realizes what is happening. The truth appears to be quite literally killing her and her disgust, horror and confusion for her husband are genuine and heartfelt. Rupert Friend is just scary in every typical, bullying way imaginable and yet there is a soft core to him when we discover some truth in his background. Above all else, Jack Scanlon and Asa Butterfield have a natural acting talent that radiates purity and ease. Their friendship is honest, unquestioning, and truthful. Grownups tend to forget what it was like to be a young child, but the scene where Shmuel forgives Bruno with barely a pause, despite a bashed up face, proves that there is at least one out here who remembers. I also liked the fact that the Director (or screenwriter) decided not to name the camp. I’m not sure why I liked that but stating “This is Auschwitz” would have been… too easy in my opinion.

   So why did I remove a star? There were a couple small things I had problems with. While I can believe that an eight year old German child might be shielded from the world by his parents enough to not fully understand what is going on, I have major doubts that any German child who attended a public school system (and we know he went to school) would have no idea who The Jews were. I also have a really hard time believing in the innocence of Shmuel. I feel that anyone in the camps would end up figuring out that people were being killed, if not for the fact that hundreds disappeared daily then surely the whispering, the rumors, or the parents who simply decided to tell their children the truth.
   However, those are very small things indeed and I’m being picky. It is easy enough to suspend a little disbelief especially as the film reached its conclusion.
   I sat there for the last 10 to 15 minutes on the edge of my seat and prayed that the events that were happening would stop. They never did.
   One other reviewer referred to this as a Hollywood ending. It wasn’t. A Hollywood ending would have been happy. This was simply the most effective ending possible so that it would ring true to the book… with out going an extra hour.

   I didn’t even bother telling my wife about this one. She wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

… and now, just when It’s supposed to be all over… “I can’t wait to get on the road again.”

For All The Films Found Deep In The Pit Of Despair, Please See:
1
2
3
4

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12