The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

My partner brought this one home from Tesco just before we left for Rome in December, 2010.

As we had been to Prague in August and physically, mentally and emotionally experienced TEREZIN WORK CAMP (unesco site) he thought we might get *something* out of this DVD...I had my doubts. We already own Schindler's List, and went to Terezin primarily because of that film, and it's impact upon us. We never stop quoting Liam Neeson who excelled in the lead role in it. (Oskar Schindler)

So, we sat, toffees and tissues at the ready, wrapped in our cozy-blankets with our feet extended before us on the reclining chairs we view tv and videos from - in the darkness. And it began.

Well, what can I say?

The two boys, the German son of the Camp Commandant, and the Jewish son of missing (presumed gassed and gone) parents, meet through a large electrified fence.

The pure innocence of this German child, faced with an emprisoned, lost and lonely Jewish child the same age, is more than *touching*, it is purest humanity, purest friendship, and purest ignorance of the world and it's wickedness.

I do not even now know the names of the actors.

That would break the spell.

They ARE the people they portrayed so convincingly, to me. Always shall be so.

A mother, who lost her son, after almost losing her mind as the truth began to dawn upon her - she organised her "escape" only to lose her son whilst doing so. A father, so consumed with the *responsibility* of his new job; the status; the admiration of his father and the withdrawal of his mother that he could not SEE, until too late, what he was doing to his wife and 2 children. The sister, who turned from a child of 12 who played with dolls, to a neo-Nazi almost overnight because she became infatuated with a young German/Nazi soldier.

What an astoundingly informative movie!

So rare, to find no bad language/vernacular in every sentence.

So rare, to see no sex, nudity (except the final "shower scene" which was totally RELEVANT AND ESSENTIAL TO THE STORY)

So rare, to find no excuses offered, no patronising leading the viewer from only ONE side of the coin, this film offers a unique perspective on the horrors of the gas chambers; the work camps; the enslavement and persecution of the Jews in this case - but there are parallels in history which can be drawn from this film - the scripts were convincing, credible and clean-cut.

The entire film was informative, refined and sensitive.

For me, it runs a close second to Schindler's List, which can never be surpassed for excellence, but is so worthy of credit and mention I just had to SHARE with you!

Buy it. go and see it, but be ready with the kleenex!

It's a tear-jerker.

Happy viewing ::}}

Just back from watching The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - fantastic. You could have heard a pin drop in the cinema as the credits started to roll at the end.

It has been thus far a fantastic year for film. We've had the return of the Caped Crusader, and seen a gigantic monster attack New York City. It's very likely that everyone will remember 2008 as the year of The Dark Knight and Cloverfield, but with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, we have a film I feel deserves to stand aside these two Hollywood blockbusters.There have been many films based on the Holocaust over the years, most notably Schindler's List, and many people will feel that maybe they've seen enough of one of the darkest chapters in human history. But The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very different to its predecessors. Based on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, the film is told through the eyes of Bruno, a young German boy. Bruno's happy care free life is turned upside down when he's told he has to move from his home in Berlin to a desolate area on the outside of the city. What Bruno doesn't know is that his father, a German Commander, is being sent there to take charge of a Concentration Camp, which is holding many innocent Jews as prisoners. Bruno quickly becomes subdued and bored with his new surroundings, where there isn't too much exploring to be done and no one to play with- until he meets Shmuel.Shmuel is one of the prisoners being held at the camp and he and Bruno quickly strike a friendship. The connection between the two boys is a touching contrast from what is taking place all around them, but the friendship becomes more and more dangerous for the two youngsters with inevitable tragic consequences.Despite not having the scale of film making that Spielberg produced in Schindler's List, this is a film that is very well made. It features some fantastic cinematography, and has great acting all around, especially from Bruno's mother (played by Vera Farminga, from the Oscar winning The Departed).The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is touching, shocking, horrific and tragic rolled into one. It is the story of innocence up against one of the world's greatest tragedies. One that will have you talking long after the credits have rolled.

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is so good, highly recommended, you have to watch it =D!