Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Date Viewed: 14/1/10
Director: Mark Herman (male)
Cultural Perspective: German
Genre: Drama

The movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is quite an interesting movie and it intrigued me. It’s about a small boy called Bruno whose father is a Nazi commandant who’s just moved next to a concentration camp which Bruno refers to as the “Out-With”. To begin with, Bruno is a bit unsure about moving to the “Out-With” and leaving all his friends back in Berlin. His sister Gretel has also moved with the family and Bruno refers to her as “the hopeless case” and at the time isn’t very fond of her.

As the movie progress’s Bruno runs out of things to do and decides to start exploring. One day Bruno goes exploring and finds a big long fence going around the perimeter of the house. While he’s walking around it he spots a small boy on the other side of the fence. Bruno walks up and starts talking to him and despite their differences they actually get along well. But what Bruno doesn’t know is that the little boy, Shmuel is actually a prisoner of the concentration camp that Bruno’s father is the commandant of. Throughout the movie Bruno and Shmuel friendship grows until Shmuel’s dad goes missing. Bruno decides to dress up as a Jew and go into the concentration camp to help Shmuel find his dad. It doesn’t turn out well.

If I was the director of this movie I wouldn’t change much because I think it was a good depiction of the book and was a well made movie. I maybe would have showed more of Shmuel’s life to see how he lived instead of just seeing it from Bruno’s point of view.

In my opinion this is a good movie and is worth seeing if you are looking for a deep movie. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to younger viewers because it wouldn’t make complete sense but is a great one for a more mature audience