The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Movie Review

Typically when you think of World War II movies, you think of an American solider or an allie of an American soldier being the main character/hero; however, in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the main character, Bruno, is the young son of a highly ranked National Socialist soldier. When he and his family move to the countryside for his father’s work, Bruno is upset as he is leaving his friends behind. But, Bruno will soon make a better friend than he’s ever had. Shmuel, an eight year old Jewish boy being held captive in a concentration camp, is surprised when another young boy comes climbing out of the forest, up to the concentration camp fence, and begins to talk to him. These two young boys develop a friendship, despite their major, major differences in background. Will they be able to maintain their relationship underneath Bruno’s dad’s nose? This film is, simply put, very thought provoking. It makes the great point of showing that all humans are the same, and that no race or religion should set us apart. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I highly recommend for anyone to watch it.

          Adolf Hitler and his chief of police Heinrich Himmler inspecting the SS Guard

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was perfectly cast. The acting was superb, which, paired with an amazing script with believable characters and dialogue, made for an almost perfect film. The acting was especially powerful, it seems, from the Jewish actors. There was one scene in particular that really drew out emotions for me: a Jewish man who was a “worker” for Bruno’s family helped clean out Bruno’s wound and applied a bandage. Afterwards, Bruno and the man had a conversation, and the emotion displayed from the Jewish man is simply heart-wrenching. It almost brought me to tears. Throughout the film, Bruno slowly realized that Jews were people with feelings, thoughts, and ideas, contrary to what he had been taught his whole life.

                                        Bruno, from The Boy in The Striped Pajamas

The dramatic aspects of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas were phenomenal. To start with, the sets; the sets are absolutely beautiful, particularly the Berlin set at the beginning of the movie. Another set I really liked was, for almost the exact opposite reason, the gas chamber set. It was so absolutely disgusting and filthy that it seemed just like the real thing, and that set alone was very powerful. Another part of the dramatic aspect that was great was the music. It was placed so perfectly that at points I didn’t even notice there was music playing. For example, the scene where a Jewish man leads Bruno to the shed to get a tire for a swing—the music created a very cool atmosphere. Another small detail of a movie that is actually very important is the costumes. The Nazi uniforms look extremely real in this movie which is, for me, a major plus.

The cinematography in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is for lack of a better word, awesome. I really liked almost all of the shots and angles, but there were some that stood out. For starters, the opening shots of 1940s Berlin were simply beautiful, and the resolution was extremely crisp. The shots of countryside were also extremely nice, but my absolute favourite was the shot of the quiet gas chamber door. It was very, very eerie and powerful.

                                     A photo of the Auschwitz concentration camp

In conclusion, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is an absolutely amazing film. You may have noticed that I used the word ‘powerful’ quite a few times in my review and that is simply because that is what comes to mind when I think of this movie. Right when the credits started rolling, I said to myself, “that was powerful.” I would highly recommend this movie to anyone, and I give it a 9/10.