The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
By M. Elizabeth Jones
When I decided to watch The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I knew that it wouldn’t be a movie that was light hearted and happy. How can you really expect a happy ending based on the subject matter: Jewish persecution by the Nazi’s? There have been a myriad of movies made based on this subject, and though grim, I find myself drawn to watch them. I don’t know if it is because as a film lover, movies like Schindler’s List and Life is Beautiful (one of my favorite movies) evoked such powerful emotions, that I am drawn again and again to movies dealing with this subject matter, or if it is just the lure of that period of time. Because I enjoy movies of this particular genre so much, I find I have a higher expectation for them. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was no exception and I truly enjoyed the movie.
The film centers around a young boy named Bruno, whose father (played by David Thewlis) is a Commandant at an internment camp for Jews awaiting extermination. Bruno, while exploring the area around his home--an area he has been forbidden to explore by his mother—meets a boy his own age named Shmuel, who lives behind an electrified fence and wears “striped pajamas”. Bruno, too young to understand what he is seeing, befriends Shmuel. The two sit together with the fence between them, day after day, talking and playing chess. Every day that the two “meet” Bruno’s questions arise as to why Shmuel wears pajamas, why he is always so hungry and other probing questions about the fenced world that he lives in. Conversely, Shmuel asks very little about Bruno’s world; perhaps because he is too young to realize any differently. Eventually, Bruno’s friendship is discovered and leads to a climactic ending, which I will not spoil for those of you who haven’t seen the movie.
The friendship between Bruno and Shmuel is the main storyline in the movie; however, there are other’s that I feel are worth mentioning because of what they bring to the movie. Throughout the film, Bruno’s mother struggles with the idea that her husband is overseeing the death of Jewish prisoners, and also with the effect it is having on her two children. Bruno’s older sister is old enough to realize what is going on in the world around her. She develops a crush on one of her father’s soldiers, which causes her to become completely infatuated with the Nazi belief system. There is a scene that shows her bedroom. There, above her bed, is a poster of a young blond haired girl with braids, saluting Hitler: a typical propaganda poster. The daughter sits below the poster with her hair braided the same way, wearing the same type of outfit as the poster girl. It is a very poignant scene that will stick in your mind throughout the movie and beyond.
I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone and everyone who enjoys a wide variety of film genres. There are many things about this movie that make it different and endearing, and I hope that after reading this review you will want to watch as well.