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Film Title: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

 Best for ages: 13 and up.

Movie Website: Click Here 

Year Released: 2008

Rated: PG-13 (US)

SYNOPSIS

    Based upon the best selling novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas tells the story of a boy named Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer whom along with his family moves out of Berlin to go live with his father at his post in the German countryside. While there Bruno is very bored, he has no friends to play with, and even though the house he now lives in is very large his parents won't let him leave it to go exploring in the woods. Bruno has no idea why. He soon finds out from looking though his bedroom window that he can see people who he calls farmers working in the fields. He sees that they all wear funny looking pajamas so he asks his parents about the farmers to see if can can go meet them, in hopes that there are kids to play with. His parents tell him their weird people who need to be left alone. Bruno soon learns the truth when he sneaks out of the house and meets a boy named Shmuel. Shmuel however is behind an electric barbed wire fence. he soon tells Bruno about why he is there and the truth slowly reveals itself to Bruno. But he won't let this stop him from being friends with Shmuel, no matter what the cost.

VIOLENCE/GRAPHIC CONTENT/language

   Here is a film that's really hard to look at in such a way that I would say that everything in the film would be bad for kids to watch. Young kids I'd say  below the age of nine or ten should not see this film simply because I don't think they will understand it. But the thing about this film is that it is a film that deals with the history of World War II and the holocaust.  The good thing about this film is that it hides the violence very well, everything that is psychically violent is done off screen.  There is some fighting and yelling and screaming, but that is the extent of the violence in the film. The last scene of the film is intense as it does involve Jewish people in the concentration camp being marched by the Nazi army to the deaths in the gas chambers. One man falls down and a gunshot is heard off camera where it's assumed he has been killed by a Nazi solder. Shmuel is seen with a black eye after he is beaten by a Nazi solder, and the Jewish cook is also beaten to death off screen for spilling wine.

   The film is filled with a lot of Nazi propaganda, and being that Bruno and his sister are home schooled, the teacher is pretty much brain washing the kids, than he is teaching them. This causes Bruno sister to start to act and think like a Nazi, she hangs posters and pictures of Hitler and other Nazi propaganda photos all over her room.

   While I really didn't catch anything that I found to be bad language in the film; I'm sure there had to be a curse here or there that I didn't pick up. I know worlds like stupid and idiot were thrown around here and there. Jewish people are talked about like they are not human in the film. That's one thing that might be of a big concern for parents. They are really looked down upon, and I can remember one scene in which Bruno's father tells him that they are people that need to be eliminated for the good of mankind and Germany. So there is this talk that shows the way Nazi's spoke about Jewish people and what they thought should be done to the entire race.

   There is also hints in the film that people who disagreed with the Nazi views were handled. Bruno's grandmother though the Nazi party was disgusting for the things they were doing, and spoke freely about it to her family. When his grandparents come to visit only his grandfather shows up. When his grandfather leaves to go back to Berlin, we find out that his grandmother was killed, its said that she was killed by Ally bombing Berlin, buy we can tell that it's a lie.  One of the solders is moved to the front lines when it's bought to light that his father fled the country because he believed the same thing as well.

OVERALL VIEWS

    The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a film that is deep with History. The best way to describe it is to say it's a more toned down version of Shindler's List. It has elements of history such as the concentration camps, how Jewish people where treated and the way things were in Germany during World War II.  It also shows the German point of view and how Hitler had a hold on so many people in the country and had them doing whatever he wanted. Bruno the films main character is a boy with a heart. He has no clue as to why the Jewish people are being treated bad. He sneaks a peek at a German Propaganda film that his father and other Nazi officers are watching. In the film Jewish people are shown as being happy in the camps. Eating fine foods, playing games and having a lot of fun. Bruno thinks that they are lucky, but soon learns from Shmuel that it's not what it seems to be. Bruno is the innocence of the film, the ugliness of his father and the solders under his command are something that Bruno can't understand.  But he also sees the fear and emotions in the face of his mother when she finds out what's really going on in the camps, and the fear of the Jewish people working in his house.   It's a film that is full of a lot of emotion and it's at times very hard to watch as the truth is revealed to young Bruno.

   The DVD has a few special features such as Deleted Scenes with Optional commentary by Writer/Director Mark Herman and Author John Boyne. Friendship Beyond the Fence Featurette, as well as feature commentary with Writer/Director Mark Herman and Author John Boyne.

   This is a film where I think it's up to you as a parent if you want your child younger than the age of thirteen to see it. I remember being in High School and they found it acceptable to show kids in middle school Shindler's List, despite it's graphic and violent images. It was a piece of history being shown, something that should never be forgotten.  I feel the same with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.  Even though it's very toned down compared to Shindler's List I think it's a safe film to show to children under the age of thirteen as long as you the parent are watching it with them so you can explain what happened in Germany during World War II. Like I mentioned above, I don't think it's a film you should be showing a seven year old, but it's a film despite it's very sad ending, that can help your child understand what really happened during that time in history. It's also a fabulous, well made film, full of a lot of emotion.

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