Wow!

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2011)

This a movie that hits you in the gut. It's beautifully shot and very well performed. The ending... Well let's say it left me sitting in front of the TV as though someone had just given me a hard punch in the gut. (Thus the "wow" above.) But of its many powerful elements, the most effective is the portrayal of the family. Here is a man who runs a concentration camp yet he is a loving father and caring husband. (It's said that Josef Mengele used to feed the birds.) Nor are the military characters the stereotyped jack booted Nazi shouting in bad German accents. Indeed, the characters are restrained and speak in slight British accents. That technique doesn't always work but here it does. It also paints an interesting portrait of "the good life" in the Third Reich in 1940-41 when they had occupied most of Europe and were winning the war. One of the great scenes is when Bruno falls off his swing and a concentration camp inmate working in the commandant's house bandages his leg. His mother, brainwashed to believe that Jews are non-human, has a great struggle with herself before saying a halting "thank you" to him. The scenes between Bruno and his friend behind the wire --- the boy in the striped pyjamas --- are compelling. What a credit that two child actors could achieve such depth. A must see movie and a novel inside out view of Nazi-ism at its height of power.