The Boy in the Striped Pajamas [DVD]

By Darrell Stoddard, [email protected] emotionally wrenching film deserves 10 Stars. Changed my life forever and a major part of my life was spent in motion pictures. The movie will change your life everlastingly too if you open your heart to a simple fictional story of a little German boy who befriends a Jewish boy through the barbed wire fence of a concentration camp.My heart was ripped out, but I will be a more loving, gracious, forgiving person for having seen this sensitive and also horrifying motion picture. YES, as the reviewers have said: It is "historically inaccurate to the extreme." "It is total fiction." It is "ridiculously contrived." It is "all too absurd." It is "hard to swallow." It is "forced and artificial," and "The actors have British accents instead of German."One critic posed the question, "Did Bruno's father in the end get what he deserved?" Such moralizing and such criticisms of the film make me wonder if those viewers of the film missed the unanswered questions of the Holocaust. How could it happen? How could so many good people allow it to happen?The most insightful reviewer said, "What is appalling to me is reading all of the one-star reviews. I now see how the holocaust (shoah) could have taken place. All that is necessary is for a nation to be composed of and ruled by people with no feelings, bereft of human compassion and sensitivity, just like several of the reviewers here."Great Art (even fiction) reveals to us "things as they really are". Through Bruno and his mother, we see through the eyes of Germans who were totally innocent until they came face to face with with the horrors of the "final solution." Most Europeans accepted the deportation of Jews, some not knowing what would be their fate and others even accepting the fate of Jews because it was so easy to blame Jewish Merchants and Jewish Bankers for World War 1 and for the collapse of the German economy. Savings were totally wiped out. It took 22 million German Marks to buy a loaf of bread. Though not the same, we can understand today how easy it would be to blame all Muslims for 9/11.Through Bruno's sister we see how easy it was to indoctrinate an entire nation of German youth. A notable exception was the 17 year old Mormon boy, Helmuth Hubener, that resisted the 3rd Reich and was sentenced by a German Court for treason and beheaded by guillotine on October 27, 1942 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. (See his true story on Wikipedia!)In this motion picture we see and learn how good men, good fathers, and good soldiers, putting military obedience ahead of even their mothers, wives and children, directed and became the executioners of millions of Jews. Even still photos of all the corpses, and eye witness accounts of the Holocaust do not give us that understanding.Last, by identifying and seeing through the eyes of an innocent child, we learn from the film what it was like to be ordered into the gas chambers. No other motion picture, book, or document has ever, or ever will, capture that experience or the depth of those feelings like the film "Boy in the Stripped Pajamas."Would that each viewer could become as a little child (Matthew 18:3), like Bruno, not judgmental, and not critical. The Holocaust (like the film) is hard to believe but the gas chambers to kill and the ovens to burn bodies were real. I've seen them with my own eyes. I've been in the house made sacred by Anne Frank. My next door neighbor was one of the first U.S. soldiers into the Dachau Prison Camp, and my neighbor across the street served in the Danish Underground.Let us resolve, NEVER AGAIN, not just in five languages, but in all the languages of the world. There were those in Germany that truly did not know what was happening to the Jews, but no other film answers for me how an entire nation could be led by one man to kill, or accept the killing, of so many. I will be forever haunted by the words, "If he had been your Fuehrer, you would have followed him too." Although it is fiction, "Boy In the Striped Pajamas" reveals not the historical truth, but the TRUTH of Nazi Germany as it was.FOOTNOTE: What follows regarding man's inhumanity to man is presented because HISTORY WILL REPEAT ITSELF IF WE DO NOT KNOW AND UNDERSTAND IT!People today need to know that Hitler did not invent anti-semitism. It began with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and has never ceased. It is mind boggling to learn that throughout history there have been innumerable and hundreds of attempts in many countries to kill all of the Jews. (See "Pogroms" on Google, then read the Wikipedia account.)I was shocked beyond belief to read Martin Luther's anti Jewish sentiments published in 1543 (See "On the Jews and Their Lies - Wikipedia" Luther's feelings about the Jews and what should be done to them were as vile and reprehensible, as any words spoken in Nazi Germany. Indeed, Luther's document may have been the blueprint for the Nazi Holocaust.Seeing history repeat itself so many times makes us wonder if there is hope to save the Jews and the world from so much hate and killing. Pope John VI in 1965 issued his historic "Nostra Aetate" that expresses understanding, forgiveness and love for the Jews and for all religions. Pope John Paul VI states in this history changing document that the death of Christ, "cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today." The age old doctrine behind all of the Pogroms which stated that "all Jews, past, present, and future were collectively guilty of the Crucifixion of Jesus," was officially revoked by a Catholic Pope! EVERYONE should read entirely the "Nostra Aetate" which is one of the most important documents in the history of mankind (It takes just a few minutes to read and can be found on Google)! The current Pope Benedict XVI who was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a child in Nazi Germany (in two books) has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ. There is hope for the world! These are history changing actions by two Catholic Popes. It would be well for everyone who wants the world to be a better place to thank Catholics for Pope John VI and Pope Benedict XVI.We must be ever vigilant against condemning another. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, Oh man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself: for thou that judgest doest the same things." (Romans 2:1). Jews who migrated to Israel after World War 11, themselves committed a Holocaust of the Palestinian people. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million were forced into refugee camps. "This is my Land. God gave this Land to me," was not justification for killing the Palestinians!There is one notable voice in the Middle East that documents the atrocities by all three sides and seeks to reconcile Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Melkite Christian Priest has established a school in Ibillon near Galilee where Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Druze study side by side. More important than their secular studies, students learn to love their enemies. To bring peace to the Holy Land, Elias Chacour's book "BLOOD BROTHERS" SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR EVERYONE.Two unsung and less known heroes of the Holocaust are Irena Sendler and Raoul Wallenberg. Their stories should be told along with the stories of Oskar Schindler, Corrie Ten Boom, and Anne Frank. Irena Sendler was a Polish Catholic Social worker who saved more than 2500 Jewish Children from the Warsaw Ghetto. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, YOU MUST READ the inspiring story "Life in A Jar - The Irena Sendler Story" on Google. In 2007 when Sendler was still alive, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Al Gore received the prize that year instead.Raoul Wallenberg is credited with saving near 100,000 Hungarian Jews. At the peril of his life he defied the Nazis innumerable times. Read a summary of Wallenberg's unbelievable courage to save Hungarian Jews on Google: "Profile of a Leader: The Wallenberg Effect." See Wallenberg's complete story in the book "Righteous Gentile" available used from amazon.com from a number of book dealers for one cent plus $3.99 for shipping and handling. EVERY reviewer gave the book 5 stars! Unlike Schindler, Wallenberg had only his humanity and no ulterior motive in saving Jews; and he probably saved more Jews than Schindler.Few Motion pictures can compare to the book. The motion picture "Wallenberg A Hero's Story" is even equal to the book "Righteous Gentile"! Both the book and the movie will lift your very being to heaven. Man at his best is so good, so noble, so Christlike, that we would fain throw a cover over men and women when they are less. Mankind needs Hero's like Wallenberg to lift and redeem us. It will make anyone a better person to make the book or the motion picture a part of their life.See all of my Reviews. I write only about books, events, or motion pictures that have changed the course of history or unforgettable books or motion pictures that will totally change peoples lives.Darrell Stoddard, Founder - Pain Research Institute and saveusa.biz

Loved the book better

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is extremely intense, even painful, but so beautifully done that one becomes pulled in. In this film, we see the holocaust through the eyes of innocence - and the eyes are German. We experience the story in the heart of a loving family - and the family is German. Because of that viewpoint, we can understand a little better how people remained morally unchallenged during the holocaust, even when the ghastly truth was literally just outside their gates. We can see, achingly, that we, as good people, are not immune to allowing that which we now condemn in hindsight. The film draws parallels between the world of the camp, with the striped clothing those interred there must wear behind electrified fences, and the stark, fortress-like house in which the German commandant's family lives, with it's barred stair rail and locked, guarded fence. We come to see that both groups are, in very different ways, imprisoned. The fact that the main characters, Bruno and Schmuel, are each eight years old, allows us to feel tenderly toward them in their different innocent circumstances, and levels our sympathies. Bruno's mother is a sensitive and nurturing woman, and the daughter dabbles with the Reich teachings and the Reich heroes in the manner that we'd recognize in a twelve-year-old girl of today idolizing media stars. We are even shown the loving father inside the proud, severe military commandant. This makes experiencing the film very difficult, as the viewer becomes emotionally engaged in the friendship between Schmuel inside the camp, and Bruno with his warm German family in their compound. As a retired teacher I recall the difficulties of encouraging young people to understand this time in history. To them, the holocaust is something that happened long ago, done buy a known monster, and something that they, as modern people, simply wouldn't do. I wish I'd had this film to help them open their eyes to the commonality of people. It shows us that Germans of the holocaust were ordinary people, too. The film is fiction, but somehow it is truer than a documentary because it lets us into the hearts of those who lived in that time, and leads us to recognize that the kind of thinking that lead to the holocaust is not, most unfortunately, banished to the distant past. The seeds of the holocaust flowered into horrible fruit then, and the same seeds are within each of us now. The film shows us through the commandant's innocent family that expressions of hate can devastate the hater as well. We have an obligation to pass on the story of the holocaust to the current generation, so the mindset which lead to the atrocities can be recognized and avoided. Though it is difficult viewing, parents should watch it with children whom they judge capable, so that the priceless understanding that comes through the film will not be lost to the future.

Llegó un día antes de lo estimado, súper rápido la verdad, es la versión de Zima de México y si trae doblaje al Español 5.1 Dolby Digital, así que todo súper bien, es región 1 y 4 👍🏽

Ich muss sagen, dass ich immer noch ganz ergriffen bin von dem Gesehenen. "Der Junge im gestreiften Pyjama", nach dem gleichnamigen Roman von John Boyne, ist für mich ein sehr gelungenes Werk mit überzeugender schauspielerischer Leistung.Aus der Sicht eines achtjährigen Jungen schildert der Film die Gefühle und Eindrücke eines Kindes in einer mehr als wichtigen Epoche unserer jüngeren Geschichte.Bruno ist der Sohn eines wichtigen Wehrmachtoffiziers aus Berlin, der eines Tages als Leiter eines Konzentrationslagers aufs Land versetzt wird. Bruno fällt es sehr schwer Berlin, aber vor allem seine Freunde zu verlassen.In seinem neuen Zuhause angekommen, sieht er aus seinem Fenster einen " Bauernhof " und hofft dort neue Freunde zu finden. Doch seine Eltern wollen nicht, dass Bruno die Gegend erkundet und Kontakt mit den Kindern vom " Bauernhof " aufnimmt. Die Villa , in der Bruno mit seiner Familie lebt, ist stark abgeschirmt und von Soldaten bewacht, die Bruno ein Entkommen aus diesem Haus und dem Grundstück sehr schwer machen. Doch eines Tages gelingt es Bruno vom Grundstück zu entkommen und auf Entdeckungstour zu gehen. Was er entdeckt, ist ein Konzentrationslager, dass er aber nicht als solches erkennt, da er auch nicht um seine Bestimmung weiß.Er freundet sich mit Shmuel an, einem ebenfalls achtjährigen Jungen, der in dem Lager lebt und den er am Zaun des Lagers trifft.Ja, dieser Film sollte wirklich in Schulen eingesetzt werden, da er sehr überzeugend die damalige Zeit und die Zerrissenheit des achtjährigen Bruno widerspiegelt, der das erste Mal im Leben mit den Taten des 3. Reiches konfrontiert wird.Sich nicht des schrecklichen Gräuel bewusst, ist er doch nur auf der Suche nach einem Freund, den er auch in Shmuel findet. Auch wenn ihm in den Gesprächen , die die Eltern miteinander führen und durch die Doktrin seines Hauslehrers, immer wieder bewusst gemacht wird, dass Juden anders und verabscheuenswürdig und für die Schmach der Deutschen verantwortlich sind, kann er dies nicht mit seiner Freundschaft mit Shmuel in Zusammenhang bringen, da er für ihn ein Freund ist.Trotzdem wird er durch eine Situation dazu gezwungen Schmuel zu verleugnen.Ich finde, es ist dem Regisseur sehr gut gelungen, die Zerrissenheit und das Unverständnis des achtjährigen Bruno rüber zu bringen. Bruno fühlt schon eine gewisse Bedrohung und die sich immer mehr zuspitzende Situation in seinem Elternhaus (auch die Eltern streiten sich immer öfter), aber er kann es mit seiner kindlichen Weltanschauung nicht in Zusammenhang bringen. Ihm ist es wichtig, seine Freundschaft mit Schmeul zu retten und dafür ist er auch bereit zu lügen.Mir fallen noch so viele Dinge ein , die ich zu diesem Film sagen möchte, daran merke ich auch, wie sehr er mich beeindruckt und tief bewegt hat,Doch ich glaube ich würde einfach zuviel verraten und ich finde es sollte sich jeder sein eigenes Bild machen über dieses außergewöhnliche Werk. Mein Dank gilt vor allem John Boyne, der dieses wichtige Thema aufgegriffen hat und eines meiner Meinung nach sehr gut nachfühlbar macht. Die filmische Darstellung dieses herausragenden Werkes ist meiner Meinung nach sehr gut gelungen und man kann so etwas nicht oft genug zeigen , um die Taten der damaligen Zeit lebendig zu erhalten.Dies gilt meines Erachtens als die beste Abschreckung.

I thought that this was quite frightening because it showed the evil and malicious lies told to impressionable people about the Jews, and how everyone should be proud of their motherland no matter the cost. It also depicted the naivety shown by many as to the real horrors of the camps. Of course David Thewlis was only “ obeying orders “. David Heyman was excellent as Pavel, but the two boys stole the show. Maybe the ending was inevitable, but it highlighted the propaganda fed by the Nazi regime, and who would question the lessons of a tutor? The costumes were very good, and the background music just right and not overpowering. I cannot comment on its adaptation from the book, but I’m sure I shall read it soon. Some reviewers suggested that this film should be shown to children, but in my opinion maybe older than 12.

Essentially, this is a movie about the tragic friendship between two 8-year-old boys set against the backdrop of the Holocaust during the Second World War.Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is the adventurous 8-year-old son of an SS Major (David Thewlis) living in Berlin who has just been promoted to the rank of SS Lieutenant Colonel in order to take charge of a new job in the remote countryside of Poland--as the new commandant of a concentration camp there. Dismayed at having to leave all his friends behind in Berlin for a new home in Poland, Bruno resents the move and soon becomes critical of everything and everyone in his new home--including his condescending 12-year-old sister Gretel (brilliantly played by Amber Beattie). Prone to fantasies of becoming a great adventurer and explorer, Bruno daydreams from his bedroom window as he looks out over the treetops of the woods surrounding his new home. In a small gap in the trees, he notices in the far distance what he thinks is a `farm' where he can see people moving about. He concludes that there must be children on this `farm' and sees the opportunity to perhaps make some new friends and at the same time explore the woods.His first efforts to venture out into the woods are met with opposition from his parents who forbid him to leave the immediate confines of the house and garden--and forbid him to go anywhere near the woods or the `farm'. This, of course, only makes the inquisitive lad even more curious and determined to `explore' the forbidden mysteries of the woods and `farm'. Bored with virtually nothing to do and no friends to play with he decides that a garden swing would go a long way to alleviating the hum-drum boredom of his childhood existence and consequently, enlists the help of Pavel (played by David Hayman), a Jewish concentration camp inmate who has been assigned to work as one of the household servants (but who's will and spirit has already been broken by the brutalities of concentration camp life), to help him make a swing from an old spare tyre. One day, while sitting on the swing, Bruno notices large plumes of black smoke rising into the sky from the `farm' in the distance. His curiosity aroused he tries to stand on the swing for a better look, loses his footing and falls off, grazing his knee and knocking himself unconscious. Pavel takes him indoors and bandages his knee. At this point, Bruno finds out that Pavel used to be a doctor before Pavel "gave it up to peel potatoes".Eventually, Bruno manages to evade the tight security surrounding his new home and sneaks off into the woods to `explore'. At the far edge of the woods he comes to a clearing where he encounters a barbed wire fence and a lonely, forlorn lad in stripped `pyjamas' with a shaved head sitting on the other side. Here is where Bruno meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), the other 8-year-old boy of the story. Shmuel is a Jew and is himself a prisoner in the `farm' run by Bruno's father. A friendship develops and the rest of the film is devoted to the ups and downs of this friendship.For those of you who have not seen this film I will not divulge the ending but simply say, buy it and watch it for yourself--the ending is a complete departure from the norm! What this story tries to teach are two moral axioms: (1) that the innocence of childhood doesn't know anything about racial hatred or cultural prejudices; these things are acquired (or taught) by parents, teachers, or other members of the adult world (in this case by Bruno's father and by the boy's private tutor) and (2) that in the midst of adversity, deprivation and despair, the power of the human spirit can stand against any evil and that true friendship, even among children, cannot be broken not even in the face of death.Asa Butterfield is brilliant and perfectly cast as the blue-eyed Aryan boy `Bruno', who's piercing blue eyes and facial expressions comes across the screen and cuts right through you to give an astounding on-screen performance, and although he is not as polished or accomplished in delivering his lines as his adult counterparts, nevertheless his on-screen persona and astonishing ability to actually command your attention in almost every scene by acting with his eyes and facial expressions really has to be seen to be believed. There are three scenes in particular where master Butterfield demonstrates his acting prowess: when Bruno first encounters Pavel in the kitchen and notices his dishevelled state; where Bruno is searching in the dark cellar of his new home for his football and comes across his sister Gretel's discarded dolls, all of which have been divested of their clothes and are piled up in a heap in one corner of the cellar (echoing the piles of dead bodies seen in newsreel footage of Belsen and other camps); an in the final scene at the end where he demonstrates the emotions of fear and apprehension. To my knowledge, there has only ever been two other child stars with this phenomenal ability to act with their eyes and facial expression: Martin Stephens as the leader of the blonde, alien, mind-controlling children in `Village of the Damned' (1960) and Joseph Clarke as the 14-year-old schoolboy Molar in `The Medusa Touch' (1978). Unfortunately, for some strange reason these two child stars faded into acting obscurity after their remarkable on-screen performances and were never heard of again. I do hope this doesn't happen with master Butterfield, his extraordinary acting talent is plain for all to see and it would be a great pity and a dreadful loss to the acting profession if he too were to suffer the same fate as the other two child stars. Master Butterfield's acting career is already off to a flying start with his performance in this movie and should be encouraged, nurtured, and developed by those academic professionals who know what they are doing and can guide, exploit, and develop his already extraordinary in-built acting abilities.The technical details and period costumes (including the military uniforms) are all very accurate and very well rendered. However, there are a number of technical errors in this film (as there are in all movies dealing with the Holocaust), one is so glaringly obvious that it almost jumps out at you from the screen: in the scenes depicting the encounters of the two boys at the concentration camp fence, there are no armed foot patrols patrolling outside the perimeter of the camp (as there would have been in a real concentration camp); no Capos keeping a close eye on all the prisoners within the camp compound (as there would have been in a real concentration camp); and perhaps the most obvious error of all, no armed guard `watchtowers' at either corner of the camp perimeter--all these omissions were unheard of in the real concentration camp system. These conspicuous omissions ruin the authentic `feel' of the film and completely destroys any attempt to create the illusion of menace or danger (many camps were also surrounded by minefields and a second, outer perimeter fence). But, I suppose, if they were included, then the encounter between the two boys would not have taken place and you would not have a story to tell. But it is still a good film nonetheless, if rather expensive to buy.

très beau film je recommande