The Wisdom of Children

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2009)

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is a 'compleat' motion picture: even the title states the vision of the film in a subtly powerful way. Based on the excellent novel by John Boyne and adapted for the screen by director Mark Herman, this film has the courage to re-visit the Holocaust from the child's perspective. Not that it covers up the atrocities of that horrid event and time - quite the opposite: in electing to examine that period in history the stance is that of two children, one German son of an officer in Hitler's armed forces and one son of a Jewish captive living with his father in a concentration camp. The juxtaposition of these two eight year old boys separated not only by a fence but by an ideology neither of them can fathom the other's side makes for not only a brilliant film but also an unforgettable emotional experience.
Bruno (Asa Butterfield in an extraordinary performance) is eight, his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) is twelve and the two live with their parents in 1940 Berlin - father (David Thewlis) is a Komandant in Hitler's army and mother (Vera Farminga) is a popular socialite and loving mother. Father is 'promoted' and will be in charge of a new 'position' that means moving from their beautiful Berlin home to a 'home in the country'. Though Bruno doesn't want to leave his friends the family does indeed move - to a cold house next to what Bruno perceives is a farm. The father is forbidden to share his role and the meaning of it with his family, but it soon becomes obvious by the smoke stacks spewing hideously smelling odors into the atmosphere that the 'farm' is a concentration camp. The house servant Pavel (David Hayman), though abused by the father, becomes Bruno's friend when Bruno sustains an injury: Pavel quietly admits to Bruno that despite his 'pajama' uniform from the 'farm' that he practiced medicine in the past. Bored, Bruno explores the forbidden area outside his home confines and finds a barbed wire electrified fence behind which sits Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) who becomes Bruno's friend. Neither lad understands the differences between them until Shmuel is sent into Bruno's household to polish glasses for a party: the armed forces chauffeur Lieutenant Kotler (Rupert Friend) beats the 'little filthy Jew' for eating pastries Bruno has shared with him - a fact that the terrified Bruno denies.
The mother discovers the truth about the 'farm' and the smoke stacks and sinks into a depression, loathing that her husband is in charge of such atrocities. Gretel becomes transformed as a Hitler youth under the influence of the children's tutor (Jim Norton) and there are obvious philosophical schisms in the family. Bruno, regretting his treatment of Shmuel, continues to sneak food to him and plans to help his young friend save Shmuel's father: Bruno digs into the 'farm' and the results bring the film to a terrifying and abrupt end.
Both young actors give enormously moving performances and the manner in which Herman directs the action underlines the blur of perception many German's had about the reality of the Final Solution. But for what this viewer perceives as the reason the film sustains the powerful message it does is the manner in which it ends. There are no attempts to 'sanitize' this film: it simply ends with a lightning bolt jolt that is one of the most powerful statements in all of the many films about the Holocaust. It is simply a brilliant masterpiece of a movie from every aspect of judging it - acting, direction, music, cinematography, editing - and why this film failed to make an impression on the critics and public (and the Oscar folks!) when it was released in the theaters remains a conundrum. Highly recommended for all audiences. Grady Harp