Brutal

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 2008)

Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The (2008)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Holocaust drama seen through the eyes of eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) who moves with his German soldier father (David Thewlis) to a new house. What Bruno fails to realize at first is that what he believes to be a farm behind his house is actually a concentration camp and across the fence is a Jewish boy (Zac Mattoon O'Brien). There are so many interesting things brought up in this film that it's hard to believe that director/writer Herman got everything in under 90-minutes. The movie is devastating, shocking, depressing and it never holds back any punches in showing what horrors were being done due to hatred. I've seen message boards where people asked if we needed another film that dealt with the Holocaust and after seeing this I'd have to say yes. What I loved most is that often time serious subjects are held away from children and parents will debate when children are old enough to knows the horrors of the world. The Holocaust here is seen and learned through the eyes of a kid and the movie does a masterful job at showing everything as innocent as it can as if a child was seeing it. The German boy is being taught to hate Jews even though he's not sure why. The boy sees a broken down Jewish man being beaten yet he doesn't understand why. He doesn't understand why his new friend has to stay behind the fence. The German boy only knows that he's suppose to hate yet he's curious as to why. Not only are the two kids characters fully written but so are the German parents. The father risking everything to be a good soldier and his wife (Vera Farmiga) a person against the slaughter of the Jews. Both are given their reasons in believing what they do and they will have to face these thoughts at the end of the movie. The effect is also seen through Bruno's older sister, someone who doesn't stop to think about why she hates and instead just hates those different than her. I won't spoil the ending but I will say it's downright shocking how everything plays out and I couldn't help but walk away from the film feeling devastated and sick to my stomach. The amount of guts the director shows will be the reason this movie will probably be around fifty years from now even though there are a few shortcomings at the start of the film. The performances by the main four characters are all brilliantly done and should be remembered at Oscar time, although I doubt they will be. This isn't an easy film to watch as the majority of it is downright depressing and the only uplifting moment, shared by the two boys, happens in the most horrific event.