We have seen so
many movies about World War II, about Hitler, Anne Frank, the Nazi’s and so
many wonderful but sad stories about Jews during that time, but no other movie
could let us know better how everything happened like The Boy in Stripped Pajamas (2008), based on the book of the same
name from the author John Boyne.
Bruno (Asa
Butterfield) was a happy 8 year old boy with a big imagination and an
adventurous spirit; he had a sister, a loving mother and his own hero which he
had called dad. His father, an SS Commander, was now being re-located to the
countryside to take command of a concentration camp. As it was expected, Bruno
and his sister were not pleased to moved out and let all of their friends
behind, but they understand that this step would be important for the good of
their country.
As the family
started to unpacked and getting used to their new home, Bruno discovers from
his window what it looked like a farm but with strange people that would only
used pajamas all day long. Not being allowed to go to the back side of his
house Bruno got really bored and gotten the news that school was coming home
instead of going to school was even worse. Few days had past and Bruno saw the
opportunity to go and explore beyond his back yard. Bruno gets amazed by the
forest and soon he finds himself with the farm he had seen from his window, he
sees a boy who later discovers his name was Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a Jewish boy
with his same age. The movie then develops on how the innocent eyes of two boys
had seen the most horrible era the world had.
The plot of the
movie develops smoothly, as it doesn’t have any sub plots, characters or any
fictional feature, people will soon get the point of what the movie is about
and will soon grab the people’s attention. The scenario can help you project whenever the
character is happy, worry, sad, etc, as it can easily change from warm gold
days to cold and gray. The simple cuts and edits that this movie has, makes it
feel more natural, like if we were following Bruno’s steps in his
adventure. The most important thing that
makes this movie very remarkable is that even though it is expected to talk
and/or have many scenes about Nazi’s, you barely hear, see or even know what’s
going on with the Nazi’s (historically
talking). Knowing that this movie is related with the Nazi’s you will expect to
see or hear about Hitler in one moment of the movie but nothing is ever mention
about him, except watching that condolence card he sends to Bruno’s family when
his grandmother dies.
Another very
important “character” that this movie has is the music itself. The music in The
Boy in Stripped Pajamas can be seen as non-digested, but is the movie itself
that bring the audience with more tension or relief, depending on the situation
the character is facing. For example the last scene, when Bruno and Shmuel are
running around the concentration camp the music gets really dramatic and fast,
which gets you in a scene of eager to know what’s going to happened next.
The characters are
well done and almost exact like in the book, the development that each one has
throughout the movie is well define and fast. Take for example Gretel (Amber
Beattie), Bruno’s sister, in the first minutes of the movie (or rather while
still living on the old house)we see her like a normal 10 year old girl that
plays and takes care of her dolls, but after a time living in the new house she
starts to realize how important her father job really is, and thanks to a
couple of people, her tutor and one of his dad’s soldiers, she became to take a
whole interest in the Nazi party and the war itself, leaving her childhood
behind. There a scene in the movie were Bruno had just find out all of her
sister’s dolls in the basement, worried about he just saw he runs up to
Gretel’s room and tell her that why were her dolls in the basement, which
Gretel just answers “Dolls, are for little girls” while she was hanging out a
Nazi poster on one of the walls of her room. There’s also a kind of irony on
Bruno’s mother (Vera Farminga) since she doesn’t know exactly what her husband
job is, what does the Nazi party really means and what the war is all about,
but as soon as she found out we see a big change with the relation she has with
her husband.
Although they are
not about the same topic, and both historical events are 100 years apart from
each other, I think we can compare this movie to the Titanic (1997). They both talk about important historical events
and they both have tragic endings. The important difference we can see in both
movies is that the Titanic had recognizable actors as the leading characters
and a song that everyone can recognize as part of the movie. But the major
difference that I can think and that makes The Boy in Stripped Pajamas better,
is that this movie doesn’t centralizes in the typical love story, it doesn’t
have the action that we see on the Titanic and thus is talking about a
historical event that we have read, hear and seen about it so many times like
the Titanic, we really don’t know what the ending of the movie exactly will be.
As the movie was
about to end some tears started to came out of my eyes, the last scene, coming
from a close up of a door all the way to a wide shot of the “pajamas”, fade out
to black and the credits started to roll up there was nothing in the movie
theater than complete silence and, I guess, shock. That’s when I realize that
this movie was leaving us with a big impact, and then it automatically became
my number one favorite movie of all times. The sub title of the movie really
talks about what the whole movie is about “Lines may divide us, but hope will
united us”. The Boy in Stripped Pajamas makes us realize how kids will always
see the bright side of the things and that we need to learn there’s always hope
even in the darkest of time.
