The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2009)
Directed by Mark Herman
Written by Mark Herman
Starring Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis
Release Date November 7th, 2009
Published November 24th, 2009
Is there a more heartbreaking idea for a movie than little children in concentration camps? No doubt, you are tearing up just thinking of it. The movie is called, get this, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Try and keep it together till you actually see the movie you blubbery mess.
John Boyne wrote the book which quickly became a bestseller. Writer-director Mark Herman brings the story to the screen with the efficiency of any good mimic. His Boy in the Striped Pajamas benefits from the use of music and set design to leave the dreary dread that words can only hope to rise above when telling such a story.
Indeed, the early portions of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas are anything but dreary. 8 year old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is a playful little guy with a great big imagination. He dreams of being an explorer as he flies about pretending to be a German spitfire plane, the war defining much of the play of children when your side is winning.
Bruno is hurt badly when his father (David Thewlis) announces that the family is moving to the country. Bruno will have to leave his friends behind. In the country there is little to do but hope that those people over in that strange, fenced-in farm, have kids to play with.
Though forbidden by his mother (Vera Farmiga) to go to that farm just through the forest behind their country home, the explorer in little Bruno won't let him miss out on the adventure. And, indeed there is one child there, Leon (Zac Mattoon O'Brien), who strangely wears striped pajamas all day and is dirty all the time.
Bruno begins escaping everyday to that 'farm' with its electrified fence and razor wire tops. Leon quickly becomes a good friend, though the fact that he is hungry all the time means Bruno has to sneak food out of the house everyday, not an easy task. It seems almost everyday that Leon cannot find another family member.
These scenes are treated with the innocent curiosity of an 8 year old and only your adult sense of impending doom keeps your soul from soaring with little Bruno as he makes a new friend and enjoys the pleasures that only someone so young and of such great imagination can enjoy.
That sense of impending doom however, begins as a pull in your throat. Soon it drops to your stomach like a rock and as the film sails inexorably to its devastating finish, it becomes full of nausea pushing that bilous rock back up your throat. All of the childlike innocence in little Bruno soon becomes a brickbat to the audience's collective gut.
Mark Herman's direction is not outstanding really. More, cruelly efficient, in a good way. He uses light hearted music cues and set design that set us at young Bruno's forced perspective. As he looks up at his Nazi uniformed father so do we. As he scuffles at the hem of his mother's dresses, so do we.
When we occasionally get away from Bruno's perspective on things it is only for important information such as Bruno's grandmother's reticent acceptance of her son's politics. To help us understand Bruno's confusion about the camps we are witness to a propaganda film that paints the camp as a pleasant little temporary getaway.
These scenes are like the clever asides of a sadist setting the stage for the beating to come. Indeed, the ending is a gut punch like you would not believe. It's not so much moving as revolting in the most necessary fashion. You should be revolted from time to time.
On the subject of the holocaust, what other reaction can there be but revulsion. Some will argue that Herman's use of children in his holocaust drama stinks of manipulation. They're right. But in this case, the manipulation is poignant, purposeful and effective.
You are manipulated into remembering how, well... words fail to describe the horrors of the holocaust. And yes, you must be reminded. We all must be reminded. This is one case where history cannot be allowed to repeat itself. If getting emotionally punched in the gut is the most effective reminder, then put on a big boot and get to it.
The Boy In the Striped Pajamas is devastatingly effective filmmaking and a must see among an oncoming avalanche of high profile world war 2 movies this holiday season.
