David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Rupert Friend
Mark Herman (based upon book by John Boyne)
Rated PG-13
94 Mins.
Miramax
It is several hours after I have attended a press screening for "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the opening night film for the 2008 Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I cannot shake the images from my mind.
Based upon a novel by John Boyne that was primarily directed at children, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is the story of a most extraordinary friendship between two 8-year-old boys, Bruno (Asa Butterfield, "Son of Rambow") and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon).
Bruno, you see, is the son of a fierce, dutiful concentration camp commandant (David Thewlis, of the "Harry Potter" films) during the holocaust...Shmuel is a young boy that Bruno meets one day while exploring the forbidden areas behind the new family home that curiously overlooks a mysterious "farm" and people who appear to dress in pajamas.
I have long professed my love for British family films. British family films are far more intelligent, far less "busy" and they simply don't condescend to children or families.
Is it possible to make a family film about the holocaust? If "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" was an American film, it would undoubtedly become a sentimental, weepy film or would simply dissolve into a sea of manipulation. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" avoids these manipulations of the story and, rather courageously, presents the story of this friendship with great realism and stark truth.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is a mesmerizing film that has left me pondering its images, its words and its actions long after I have left the theatre.
Seldom have I seen such truth and such innocence embraced by such harrowing imagery.
Given that Disney owns Miramax, some have expressed concern about the "Disneyification" of this story...rest assured, the studio's release of this film "as is" is a bold, courageous and I dare say not so market friendly gesture.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," as directed by Mark Herman ("Little Voice"), avoids Hollywood stylings and glossings over. While the film does simplify the holocaust, much to the dismay of some historians, it does so solely by seeing the holocaust through the eyes of 8-year-olds who seem almost impossibly naive.
We are introduced to young Bruno as he and his young friends are mock "flying" around the sidewalks of Berlin. It becomes obviously right away that something is amiss...while the young boys innocently play, Jews in the background are being carted away. Bruno is oblivious to the world around him, protected as he is by being the son of a rising German soldier. Even when the family relocates to the countryside estate that overlooks the concentration camp, Bruno remains ignorant to the true devastation that surrounds him. His innocent inquiries about the farmers, the pajamas, the heavily smoking chimneys, the horrid smells and the unusual stories of those who surround him are typically met with minimal, if any, explanation.
When he meets Shmuel, who is sitting alone on the other side of a barbed wire fence, he believes the young boy to be playing some kind of game in his pajamas with a number on them.
I am heartbroken, even now, simply remembering the words exchanged between the two boys.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is undoubtedly not a film that every child should view, and I would strongly recommend that children view it in the company of a parent or adult who can help process the often intense words and imagery contained within this PG-13 rated film. Some might say this film is far TOO heavy for children...I disagree. Children who have been able to view the cartoon violence of "The Dark Knight" or "Iron Man" would do well to see the real impact of hatred, violence and prejudice contained within this film.
Is it devastating? Absolutely. It is also the truth.
As the two young boys, Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon are stellar in their ability to evoke complete and utter innocence despite the world that surrounds them. As the film winds down, this blend of innocence with stark reality is astounding to watch unfold. Blind to a full understanding of what surrounds them, the two children enter their friendship seemingly unaware of what it all means and where it's all headed.
Nearly as harrowing as watching the friendship of these two young boys unfold is observing Bruno and his family as it becomes more and more obvious the full spectrum of what is going on around them.
While Herman wisely avoids the "Disneyification" of this film, so too he avoids painting anyone with broad strokes of evil or good. As Bruno's father, David Thewlis is astounding as a man who does, it seems, truly love his family and yet is completely blinded by duty and nationalism. Initially, his wife (Vera Farmiga, "The Departed") is fiercely loyal and speaks disparaging of the Jews...yet, over time, the entire plot unfolds and she begans to see an evil within her husband she never new existed. Farmiga's transformation from dutiful wife to destroyed mother and spouse, especially towards the end, is devastating. Finally, Amber Beattie is spot-on perfect as Bruno's older sister, a young girl who is both easily influenced towards supporting Hitler while remaining tenderly protective of her brother.
The supporting cast shines, as well, including Rupert Friend as an up-and-coming lieutenant with a secret of his own, Cara Horgan as a house maid/caregiver, and David Hayman's portrayal of an older, ill-fated Jew.
James Horner's original score is exemplary, and the production design of Martin Childs perfectly blends elements of innocence within the stark surroundings.
After receiving its North American premiere as the opening night film of Indianapolis's Heartland Film Festival, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is scheduled for a limited nationwide release on November 7, 2008.
By no means an easy film to view, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" may very well be 2008's most important family film. Simply, yet with integrity, Mark Herman has created what is easily one of 2008's best family films and a film that will evoke a wide array of thoughts, emotions and conversations from audience members of all ages.
by Richard Propes The Independent Critic Copyright 2008
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The film’s PG-13 rating is a good indicator of the appropriate age for younger audiences, although older viewers should brace themselves, too. Even though it unfolds almost entirely through a child’s eyes and contains no on-screen violence, “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” packs as devastating a punch as an adult-oriented drama about the subject. Its concluding five minutes are almost impossible to watch.
But that, of course, is the point of the story, which begins in Berlin in the early stages of World War II, when wide-eyed, 8-year-old German boy Bruno (the remarkable Asa Butterfield) learns his military father (David Thewlis) has received a promotion that requires the family to move to “the countryside.”
The family’s new home is remote and drab, almost fortress-like. Bruno complains about not having anyone to play with except his sister (Amber Beattie), and she’s no fun. And when he asks his mother (Vera Farmiga) about the nearby “farm” he can glimpse from a corner of his bedroom window — a farm where everyone wears striped pajamas — she immediately tells him to forget about all that and forbids him from ever going near there.
But a child’s curiosity cannot be stopped, and soon Bruno is spending his afternoons talking through an electrified wire fence with a little boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), who lives on the farm with his father, wears the same odd pajamas and is constantly asking him to bring back some food.
Director Herman rarely pulls us out of Bruno’s naive view of the world, which adds a layer of unsettling ominousness to scenes such as the one in which Bruno asks his father what that horrible smell coming from the farm’s chimneys is. (“They burn rubbish there sometimes,” his dad replies.)
Despite its focus on children, “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” shrewdly keeps us apprised of how the adults in the story are responding to their new environment. The better he does at his job, the more short-tempered and emotionally distant Bruno’s dad seems to become, illustrating how many Nazi soldiers lost their perspective — and their souls — as the German army’s power grew.
Bruno notices his mom’s increasingly nervous, restless moods, and he’s struck, too, by how his sister has started covering the walls of her room with Nazi paraphernalia and Hitler posters. But mostly Bruno just concentrates on finding new ways to play with his friend. By maintaining its focus on its child protagonist, “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” lulls you into the false security of an innocent’s worldview, helping its finale achieve its pulverizing power.
The movie might result in some difficult questions from children about the Holocaust, but they are conversations well worth having.
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”
Rating: PG-13 (for some adult themes) Cast: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, David Hayman and Asa Butterfield Director-writer: Mark Herman Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes
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(BB, C, L, V, S, N, A, D, M) Strong moral worldview in a pronounced morality story, with the message that evil destroys itself, where Nazi concentration camp commandant loses his son to the evil system he helped establish with some Christian prayers and a funeral but they are made by or focus on the NAZI villains; one light profanity and comments saying “dirty Jew” and other anti-Semitic slurs; off-screen violence with intense sounds of beating a Jewish servant and showing the impact of a beaten Jewish boy, skinned knee, and a gas chamber scene with cyanide pellets being dropped on naked men and boys, then sounds of people trying to get out of the gas chamber; no sexual behavior, although a few light references; upper male nudity from the back; alcohol use; smoking; and, lying, deception, propaganda movie about concentration camps, and betrayal.
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS opens with 8-year-old Bruno playing with his friends on the streets of Berlin while National Socialist Swastika flags wave in the breeze. When he gets home, his father, a Nazi officer, says he has just been promoted. He tells Bruno and his sister, Gretel, that they will be leaving their beautiful home in Berlin.
Bruno does not want to leave his friends. His mother throws a big going away party. The next day, they travel to a lonely mansion in the middle of nowhere. Through his window, Bruno can see a farm nearby where all the residents are wearing striped pajamas. His father is the commandant of the concentration camp, but all the commandants are sworn to secrecy not to tell anybody what they do.
Bruno is very bored. Being an explorer at heart, he eventually sneaks over to the concentration camp, where he talks through the electrified barbed wire to a Jewish boy named Shmuel. Bruno and Shmuel become fast friends. Bruno steals food from his own kitchen to give to Shmuel.
Bruno’s sister, by the way, takes an interest in a handsome young lieutenant, who is a hyper anti-Semitic National Socialist. An old Jewish man who works in the kitchen takes care of Bruno when he falls and skins his knee. He turns out to be a doctor. The lieutenant beats the man to a pulp when he makes a mistake serving the family at dinner.
Bruno’s mother becomes increasingly depressed, and the lieutenant lets slip that the burning smoke stacks smell bad because they smell worse when they are burned than when they are alive. Their father and the tutor try to teach Bruno and Gretel how vile and evil Jews are, but Bruno cannot believe it because of his best friend Shmuel.
Eventually, the mother becomes so depressed and the family becomes so strained by their proximity to the extermination camp, that the father decides to send them away. Feeling guilty that he’s already betrayed his friend Shmuel once when he let Shmuel take a beating for a cupcake Bruno gave him, Bruno decides to dig his way into the extermination camp to help Shmuel find his father. In the camp, the mechanical clockwork of the business of extermination sweeps Bruno along toward the inevitability of the gas chamber.
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is based on a best-selling children’s book. In the press notes, David Heyman, the producer behind the Harry Potter franchise and Mark Herman, the screenwriter, both discuss how difficult it was to make the book into a movie. The book is intended to help children remember the Holocaust. It is a morality story proving the biblical principle that the wages of sin are death.
However the story works as a book, its transformation into a movie produces a disappointing, depressing, hopeless, one-note film. Although the acting and production quality are good, the story seems slow at points because, as they say, it is on the nose or too obvious, too preachy and too clear about the points it is trying to make. It leaves no room for imagination. From the beginning, the story is weighed down by an impending sense of doom.
Books are hard to turn into movies. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMSAS has a good message and a good heart and may get an A for effort. But, it’s hard to imagine people will want to go to a movie to be slowly depressed.
Common Sense Media
Movie & TV reviews for parents
The boy in the striped pajamas.
Based on 222 kid reviews
If you’re planning on watching this movie with children I would recommend watching by yourself first. mostly it’s not bad, there is some offensive language used against Jewish people. There is a beating off screen, but other than that, there really isn’t much violence. It also has a couple of people in the background groaning and being tortured. The end may be too upsetting for young teens which shows to children and a bunch of men go in a gas chamber and die. An old man’s buttocks is shown for a brief second. other than this this movie isn’t too bad.
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Should've been way too good..
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John Boyne's novel, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," is a poignant narrative that explores the unlikely friendship between two eight-year-old boys, Bruno and Shmuel, amid the harrowing backdrop of World War II. While Bruno is [...]
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Boyne, J. (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Oxford: David Fickling Books.Herman, M. (Director). (2008). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas . Miramax.Boyne, J. (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable. TeachingBooks.net. [...]
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94 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2008. Two boys become friends through a barbed wire fence in "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." Mark Herman's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" depends for its powerful impact on why, and when, it transfers the film's point of view. For almost all of the way, we see events through the eyes of a bright, plucky 8 ...
Rated: 3/4 Mar 7, 2024 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" asks several powerful questions about war, family, and morality. It also gives us a ...
Our review: Parents say (62 ): Kids say (222 ): THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, based on John Boyne's novel, is a quietly effective, tastefully crafted, and ultimately devastating portrait of the Holocaust as seen through one boy's eyes. Directed by Mark Herman (Hope Springs, Little Voice), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas pulls off a hard-to ...
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2022. Richard Crouse Richard Crouse. A valiant attempt to tell a small scale story about an unimaginably huge period in our history, and while it may ...
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Directed by Mark Herman. With Asa Butterfield, Zac Mattoon O'Brien, Domonkos Németh, Henry Kingsmill. Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a powerful fictional story that offers a unique perspective on how prejudice, hatred and violence affect innocent people, particularly children, during wartime. Through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy largely shielded from the reality of World War II, we witness a forbidden friendship that forms between Bruno, the son of Nazi commandant, and Shmuel, a Jewish ...
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (released as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in North America) is a 2008 Holocaust historical drama film written and directed by Mark Herman.It is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by John Boyne.Set in Nazi-occupied Poland, the film follows the son of a Schutzstaffel officer who befriends a Jewish prisoner of his age.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for some mild violence. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
The home life of the Nazi commandant of a World War II concentration camp appears bizarrely serene in Mark Herman's grave and powerful drama "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," but the ...
Viewers should know that the film's resolution, though admirably restrained and unsentimental, is devastatingly sad. Parents should take this into account. This beautifully rendered family film is told in a classic and old-fashioned style, in the best sense, providing poignant and powerful teachable moments. Read More.
What it's about. When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks ...
Movie Review. Ah, little boys. They're impish, curious, messy and daring. Most mothers of boys have at least a few gray hairs because of their sons' escapades. ... The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which is based on a book by John Boyne, also illustrates how powerful words and images are. Bruno, who likely represents thousands of his ...
12A. Original Title: Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The. Tackling the Holocaust takes a brave soul. To turn such tragedy into fiction, however noble your intention, is to lurk over the trapdoor ...
6. Obviously there have been several powerful films that have dealt directly with the Holocaust. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is a unique look at this murderous and genocidal scar on world history. It's based on John Boyne's 2006 novel of the same name and looks at the subject through the eyes of an 8-year-old boy.
All Reviews Editor's Choice Game Reviews Movie Reviews TV Show Reviews Tech Reviews. Discover. ... The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a fictional story that offers a unique perspective on how ...
By Peter Rainer. Nov. 08, 2008, 12:00 a.m. ET. In " The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust are glimpsed through the eyes of a 9-year-old boy, and somehow this ...
These 3 reviews come from 3 of my grade 8 and 9 students, B, N and D. 1. I rate the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" a 4 out of 5. It was a completely unexpected ending since most main characters live in other movies. I was even kind of surprised by it. They were conned into the gas chamber thinking they were going to take a shower.
After receiving its North American premiere as the opening night film of Indianapolis's Heartland Film Festival, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is scheduled for a limited nationwide release on November 7, 2008. By no means an easy film to view, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" may very well be 2008's most important family film.
The movie might result in some difficult questions from children about the Holocaust, but they are conversations well worth having. "The Boy in the Striped. Pajamas". H*H 1/2. Rating: PG-13 ...
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is based on a best-selling children's book. In the press notes, David Heyman, the producer behind the Harry Potter franchise and Mark Herman, the screenwriter, both discuss how difficult it was to make the book into a movie. The book is intended to help children remember the Holocaust.
April 12, 2024. age 13+. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a holocaust drama that is set during Hitler's reign in WWll. Overall, I loved both the movie and the book, however, some parts might be quite sad and scary, one example is when Lieutenant Kotler did something that certainly was very violent to Pavel when he knocked Kotler's wine.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 historical fiction novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. [1] The plot concerns a German boy named Bruno whose father is the commandant of Auschwitz and Bruno's friendship with a Jewish detainee named Shmuel.. Boyne wrote the entire first draft in two and a half days, without sleeping much; but also said that he was quite a serious student of Holocaust ...
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: summary and analysis A young, fun-loving 8-year-old boy lives his days to the fullest in the city of Berlin, Germany where... read full [Essay Sample] for free ... The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: movie review (essay) The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated the audience demographic for this movie as ...