Boy in Striped Pyjamas opens door to talk to kids about Holocaust

JOHN GARDNER
This Week on DVD

THE BOY IN STRIPED PYJAMAS
Three and a half stars out of five

The Boy in Striped Pajamas is the story of a forbidden friendship between two little boys, Bruno, (Asa Butterfield) and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon).
Shmuel lives on a farm. Barbed wire surrounds the farm to keep the animals in and they often smell the stench of burning garbage coming from chimneys on the farm.
Bruno lives in the house next door, and his father, Rolf (David Thewlis) runs the farm. The house is behind a fence, and he only has a small gravel yard to play in. The backyard is off limits to him, and there are no other children to play with. You very much get the sense that Bruno is living in a prison.
Soon the adventurous eight year old finds a way through the backyard and out into the forest beyond. A short hike takes him to the farm where he has spotted strange people who spend all day in striped pajamas.
In reality the “farm” is a Nazi concentration camp, the electric barb wire keeps the “animals” like Shmuel in, and the garbage that the family smells burning are the Jews being slaughtered.
Scanlon with his head shaved and missing a few teeth, steals the scenes with few lines and fearful facial expressions. Originally Scanlon and Butterfield had more lines but the awkward silences that developed on the set seemed more natural than anything that could have been written.
Butterfield is clearly the star of the show, appearing in 120 of 140 scenes. A childlike innocence surrounds Bruno, as he asks Shmuel, “Do you have a lot of friends over there?”
But Bruno is not the only innocent character. The question is often asked how such a thing could have happened, and in this film the viewer gets to see the events through fresh eyes. Mother Elsa (Vera Farmiga) is equally in the dark as to the true nature of events going in the camp. When a young lieutenant (played by Rupert Friend) let's slip the true nature of what is going up the chimneys, Elsa is furious with her husband. He tells her he was sworn to secrecy to death about what was happening there. In researching, the producers discovered through journals kept at the time, that the wife of the real life commandant at Auschwitz did not know was going on.
Thewlis, perhaps best known as Professor Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter films, uses his full 6'4” to create an imposing, sombre figure as if the weight of countless deaths weighed him down.
The film is a new take on the Nazi war movie. Although the film is clearly set in the midst of the Holocaust, the shock value is lacking in this version. While other films made use of period newsreels type shots, and Steven Spielberg made use of black and white in Schindler's List, this film was shot in crisp colour. The atrocities are hinted at, but are not in your face.
The film is rated PG, and is definitely not something to watch when you are looking for mindless entertainment. Because the brutality of Nazi Germany is presented subtly, I would recommend this movie as a good one to watch with your children when you have the time for a follow-up discussion. As the plot progresses, the characters are educated but there is still much to talk about.
I am giving this movie three and a half stars because while it was interesting once I got into it, it did not grip me. As a war movie, it lacked the action. As a holocaust movie, it lacked shock value. The British accents caused me some problems, merely because I am used to war movies where the people with British accents are fighting the Nazis. Even the boy in the striped pajamas (Scanlon) does not show up until the halfway point of the movie. The movie is based on the novel of the same name written by John Boyne.

Movies for This Week on DVD are provided by Movie Gallery, St. Stephen.