Fantastic film, but greatly misunderstood

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2014)

From what I've gathered, many of my fellow reviewers have not read the book, and therefore misinterpreted the meaning behind this extremely well put together film. I would like to stress that although it is set during WWII, the war is NOT the central idea of the plot. I have seen complaints that it is not an accurate representation of the Holocaust, that it does not take into account the true horrors of WWII, that it is too sentimental and unrealistic, etc etc. While I completely agree that it was a horrific event resulting in millions of futile deaths, THE HOLOCAUST IS NOT THE MAIN FOCUS HERE. I believe that the whole purpose of the novel (and consequently the film) was to portray the war in a different light, from the perspective of someone who is supposedly the 'enemy'. What the film shows is that ultimately, everyone is a victim in one way or another. Another major theme in the story is childhood. Although narrated by Death, Liesel is the main character and the film is centered around her life. I'm sure you can all agree that children very often only have a vague idea of the world around them, as they live in the moment and don't focus on the bigger picture. As a result, life seems to pass them by, and for this reason, I don't see how you could expect the film to focus exclusively on the Holocaust as it was not something children would have been aware of anyway at the time. Instead, the film focuses on how WWII affected people indirectly, whatever side they were on. Other themes in the film include sacrifice, courage, and, as the blurb of the book says, 'the power of books to feed the soul'. Books are a refuge for Liesel as she is seeking comfort in words in the midst of the very bleak and uncertain world around her. Many reviews have compared this film to Anne Frank's story, which again is invalid because although the film focuses on the struggles that Jews faced, it is not the main message that it tried to get across. I am in no way disregarding Anne Frank, but she is only one example and we use her diary as the universal example simply because it is one of the very few surviving documents which provide a realistic observation on the experiences of Jews during WWII. The film is largely about the impact on Liesel's family of hiding Max, which people disregard because 'they don't take the Jews themselves into account', yet where is the widespread recognition of Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler, the people who helped Anne Frank's family go into hiding? The whole point is that the film focuses on everyone, not just the Jews, which I feel is just as important to take into account because they sacrifice themselves and their safety for others. While I do think that the film could have adopted a slightly more morose atmosphere in order to achieve the intended effect, I understand how this may have been difficult to capture on the big screen. This more 'realistic' mood is much more prominent in the book as it has an omniscient, objective narrator. People have also bashed the film for being 'too sentimental'. I do agree that the movie industry likes to romanticise every little thing, but on the other hand, I think we are forgetting the effect that the deaths of many people had on their families and their friends still left alive. If you think back to the scenes with Max and his illness, it was not romanticised at all. Neither was the extensive patriotic scene at the book-burning. In short, although set in Nazi Germany, this film is not, and was never intended to be, ABOUT Nazi Germany. It is about the indirect impact of the war on individuals and how they choose to cope with it, and we learn that different characters deal with it in different ways. Although historical context is provided, the film is centered around the overall impact, rather than the technicalities, of the Second World War. I admire Zusak's alternative perspective of the war, and I admire the producer's attempts at reconstructing these ideas so that they are accessible to a wider audience. I think that in order to fully understand it, you would have to read the book and let the words sink in. Overall, a fantastic movie, but be careful not to judge it based on appearances.