Boy in the Striped Pajamas: I posted my review of this film on IMDb the film link. It is not the best I have ever written because I did not take the time to hone it. It was in response to some which criticized the film for various reasons. I thought those reasons trivial. It gets my point across. This film is highly recommended by me and is in rental and On Demand. Do so if you get the chance.
I thoroughly loved this film. I do NOT care one wit that one could say this was not probable or that was not probable. This is based on a book of fiction BUT it had HUGE NON-fiction things to say about the complexities moral and otherwise of the Holocaust. It had HUGE things to say about the innocence of childhood and how a child tries to make sense of things that make NO sense at all. It may not have been absolutely accurate in terms of possibilities of what could or could not have occurred but it is ABSOLUTELY accurate as to the essence of the character substance and in the horror of the undeniable.
This was not only a good representation of the nature of the camp and the juxtaposition between the "other" the Jew and the privileged Nazis who lived normal lives next door to insanity it was a WONDERFUL representation of the nature of this beast of humanity that was the Holocaust. It matters NOTHING whether Shumel could have entered the camp or whether he could have talked to the boy or whether he could have gotten clothes for him or not gotten clothes. THOSE THINGS ARE TRIVIAL.
What is NOT trivial is their friendship and our age old questions of how did this possibly happen. How could it have happened in an advanced culture and how could ADULTS do this to other human beings even children? It shows how the youth were indoctrinated and it shows how some such as the mother had a DEGREE of humanity and morality that put her at great odds with her husband the commandant. We KNOW some Germans rebelled against this moral insanity. Bruno is the child who sees the unseeable and cannot get it. It makes NO sense to him. It makes NO sense to me either. It is the one occurrence in human history that is INEXPLICABLE if I lived to be 1000 I could not understand it. It IS BEYOND comprehension to a moral adult as it WAS to the boy of eight.
It is man's shame, it is his eternal crime and it should NEVER be forgotten EVER no matter what ignorant human tries to deny it. They cannot. History speaks. As long as there is a planet earth the Holocaust will be remembered forever. This film speaks volumes about its essence, volumes about man's cruelty and volumes about the innocence of childhood and the joys of simple friendship one human being to another which could never be in life. Only in death could they be equal and together. It is too bad adults have to lose that innocence. Once lost it can never be regained. It is a film for all time including and most especially our own. This film was, in my opinion, SUPERB!
