Film Review: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Director: Mark Herman

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Irish writer John Boyne, it was turned into a film by Mark Herman who wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. It has a very British feel due to the actors involved and I had reasonably high hopes after Herman directed Brassed Off in the mid-nineties which is a superb film.

Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) inside the fence and Bruno (Asa Butterfield) outside

Bruno (Asa Butterfield who is annoying) is moved out of Berlin during the war to the countryside so his Dad, Ralf (David Thewlis) can run a concentration camp although Bruno himself is not told this and doesn't understand what the camp is. After he sneaks out of the house, Bruno meets a boy called Shmuel (Jack Scanlon who is underused) who is on the other side of an electric fence in shabby striped pyjamas. The boy's begin a friendship through the fence that grows as the movie progresses as Bruno tries to help Shmuel once he realises what is happening.

*spoilers ahead*

My instant gripe with the movie is to why a German family are all speaking English; I can understand why from a commercial aspect in terms of the film making money but it makes little sense to me. The second issue I had was how Shmuel was able to sit at a part of the camp hundreds of metres from everybody else to have a chat with Bruno on a regular basis; this wouldn't have realistically happened or be allowed by the guards. This is also without addressing the issue of how easy it was for Bruno to dig a hole and sneak in meaning it must have been a piece of cake for some of the Jews to just escape which again didn't happen. You certainly have to detach yourself from reality somewhat to take this film seriously which really isn't good when the subject matter is very real indeed.

Ralf (David Thewlis) the SS officer

Unfortunately it's difficult to feel sympathy in this case for a Nazi family, whose father is in charge of murdering thousands of Jew's at a concentration camp, when they lose their son in the same manner. The real tragedy is in Shmuel not knowing his father has been killed and being unaware of where he really is. It comes across in parts as a very kitsch film which you could argue trivalizes the holocaust for the most part of the film.

The film is slightly redeemed by the ending which I am going to ruin now for anyone who hasn't seen it, Bruno ending up inside the camp to look for Shmuel's father who has obviously been killed in the gas chamber. It is haunting to see them end up in a gas chamber themselves and then not be saved by their father who rushes to the camp once he realises what has happened, I genuinely thought he would be saved in time. This reedems the film in some respects but was too little too late.

1.5/4 thin plot line till the dramatic ending which stops it being a total flop