Told almost entirely from a young, naive German boy’s point of view, Mark Herman’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a hard-hitting Holocaust tale that will render audiences speechless. After arriving home, Bruno (Asa Butterfield) learns that his family will have to move because his father (David Thewlis) achieved a promotion in the Nazi army. Bruno noticed what he believed to be farmers living just past a stretch of woods near their new home. One day, not long after being told not to go near the “farmers,” Bruno leaves his home and heads towards the camp. There he meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a young Jewish boy. While trying to understand what is happening in the world around them, the boys become friends. While …show more content…
It is hard for someone to fully immerse themselves into a movie when they have to suspend so much belief in the story. Although Bruno and Shmuel are both only eight, it is hard to believe that they would be as clueless as to what is happening. Shmuel lived in the concentration camp and seemed to have no idea what was going on inside it. It is also hard to believe that Bruno, being as curious as he is, would not have tried eavesdropping on his father’s meetings. It is also convenient that none of the guards ever caught them sitting by the fence or that, Bruno’s mother did not notice that he has been disappearing every day. Another unbelievable aspect is how Bruno was able to easily enter into the camp. The camps were meant to be well guarded, and if it were that easy for a boy to enter, it would have been easy for anyone to leave.
Overall The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was a well-made movie. It provided entertainment at times and emotional turmoil at others. The haunting soundtrack and great pacing is able to overshadow the questionable believability in the execution of the movie. I would give The Boy in the Striped Pajamas roughly eight stars out of a total of ten. With that said, I would recommend it to anyone interested in watching this heart-wrenching and haunting drama about the