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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (film)
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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Mark Herman
Produced by
David Heyman
Screenplay by
Mark Herman
Based on
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne
Starring
Vera Farmiga
David Thewlis
Rupert Friend
David Hayman
Asa Butterfield
Music by
James Horner
Cinematography
Benoît Delhomme
Edited by
Michael Ellis
Production
companies
BBC Films
Heyday Films
Distributed by
Miramax Films
Release date
12 September 2008 (2008-09-12)
Running time
94 minutes
Country
United Kingdom[1]
United States[1]
Language
English
Budget
$12.5 million[2]
Box office
$44.1 million[3]
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (released as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in the United States; see spelling differences) is a 2008 British-American historical period drama based on the novel of the same name by Irish writer John Boyne.[4] Directed by Mark Herman, produced by BBC Films and Heyday Films, and distributed by Miramax (North America) and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (International), the film stars Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Asa Butterfield, and Jack Scanlon. It was released on 12 September 2008 in the United Kingdom.
The Holocaust drama explores the horror of a World War II Nazi extermination camp through the eyes of two 8-year-old boys; Bruno (Butterfield), the son of the camp's Nazi commandant, and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a Jewish inmate.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Reception
3.1 Critical response
3.2 Historical accuracy
3.3 Accolades
4 References
5 See also
6 External links
Plot[edit]
The film opens with the quote, "Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows," by John Betjeman. A young boy named Bruno lives with his family in Berlin, in Nazi Germany during the period of the Holocaust. He learns that his father Ralf has been promoted, due to which their family, including Bruno's mother Elsa and sister Gretel, relocate to the countryside. Bruno hates his new home as there is no one to play with and very little to explore. After commenting that he has spotted people working on what he thinks is a farm in the distance, he is also forbidden from playing in the back garden.
Bruno and Gretel get a private tutor, Herr Liszt, who pushes an agenda of antisemitism and nationalist propaganda. As a result, Gretel becomes extremely fanatical in her support for the Third Reich, to the point of covering her bedroom wall with Nazi propaganda posters and portraits of Adolf Hitler. Bruno is confused as the Jews he has seen, in particular the family's Jewish servant Pavel, do not resemble the caricatures in Liszt's teachings.
One day, Bruno disobeys his parents and sneaks off into the woods, eventually arriving at an electric barbed wire fence surrounding a camp. He befriends a boy his own age named Shmuel. The pair's lack of knowledge on the true nature of the camp is revealed: Bruno thinks that the striped uniforms that Shmuel, Pavel, and the other prisoners wear are pyjamas and Shmuel believes his grandparents died from an illness during their journey to the camp. Bruno starts meeting Shmuel regularly, sneaking him food and playing board games with him. He eventually learns that Shmuel is a Jew and was brought to the camp with his father and mother.
Prisoner's clothing from Sachsenhausen concentration camp
One day, Elsa discovers the reality of Ralf's assignment after Lieutenant Kurt Kotler lets slip that the black smoke coming from the camp's chimneys is due to the burning corpses of Jews. She confronts Ralf, disgusted and heartbroken. At dinner that night, Kotler admits that his father had left his family and moved to Switzerland. Upon hearing this, Ralf tells Kotler that he should have informed the authorities of his father's disagreement with the current political regime as it was his duty. The embarrassed Kotler then becomes infuriated with Pavel for accidentally spilling a glass of wine and violently beats him, presumably to the point of killing him. The next morning the maid, Maria, is seen scrubbing the blood stains.
Later that day, Bruno sees Shmuel working in his home. Shmuel is there to clean wine glasses because they needed someone with small hands to do it. Bruno offers him some cake and willingly Shmuel accepts it. Unfortunately, Kotler happens to walk into the room where Bruno and Shmuel are socialising. Kotler is furious and yells at Shmuel for talking to Bruno. In the midst of his scolding, Kotler notices Shmuel chewing the food Bruno gave him. When Kotler asks Shmuel where he got the food, he says Bruno offered the cake, but Bruno, fearful of Kotler, denies this. Believing Bruno, Kotler tells Shmuel that they will have a "little chat" later. Distraught, Bruno goes to apologise to Shmuel, but finds him gone. Every day, Bruno returns to the same spot by the camp but does not see Shmuel. Eventually, Shmuel reappears behind the fence, sporting a black eye. Bruno apologises and Shmuel forgives him, renewing the friendship.
After the funeral of his mother, who was killed in Berlin by an enemy bombing, Ralf tells Bruno and Gretel that their mother suggests that they go to live with a relative because it is not safe there. Their mother suggests this because she does not want her children living with their murderous father. Shmuel has problems of his own; his father has gone missing after those with whom he participated in a march did not return to the camp. Bruno decides to redeem himself by helping Shmuel find his father. The next day, Bruno, who is due to leave that afternoon, dons a striped prisoners' outfit and a cap to cover his unshaven hair, and digs under the fence to join Shmuel in the search. Bruno soon discovers the true nature of the camp after seeing the many sick and weak-looking Jews, much to his shock. While searching, the boys are taken on a march with other inmates by Sonderkommandos.
At the house, Gretel and Elsa discover Bruno's disappearance. After they discover the open window he went through, Elsa bursts into Ralf's meeting to alert him that Bruno is missing. Ralf and his men mount a search. Led by a dog tracking Bruno's scent they find his discarded clothing outside the fence. Elsa and Gretel are following along behind. They enter the camp, looking for him; Bruno, Shmuel and the other inmates are stopped inside a changing room and are told to remove their clothes for a "shower". They are packed into a gas chamber, where Bruno and Shmuel hold each other's hands. A Schutzstaffel soldier pours some Zyklon B pellets inside, and the prisoners start panicking, yelling and banging on the metal door. When Ralf realises that a gassing is taking place, he cries out his son's name, and Elsa and Gretel fall to their knees in despair and mourn Bruno. The film ends by showing the closed door of the now-silent gas chamber, indicating that all prisoners, including Bruno and Shmuel, are dead.
Cast[edit]
Asa Butterfield as Bruno
Jack Scanlon as Shmuel, a young Jew sent to a camp
Vera Farmiga as Elsa, Bruno's mother
David Thewlis as Ralf, Bruno's father
Amber Beattie as Gretel, Bruno's older sister
Rupert Friend as Lieutenant Kurt Kotler
David Hayman as Pavel
Sheila Hancock as Natalie, Bruno's grandmother
Richard Johnson as Matthias, Bruno's grandfather
Cara Horgan as Maria
Jim Norton as Herr Liszt
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has a 63% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 135 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A touching and haunting family film that deals with the Holocaust in an arresting and unusual manner, and packs a brutal final punch of a twist."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a normalized score of 55 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]
James Christopher, of The Times, referred to the film as "a hugely affecting film. Important, too."[7] Manohla Dargis, of The New York Times said the film "trivialized, glossed over, kitsched up, commercially exploited and hijacked [the Holocaust] for a tragedy about a Nazi family."[8]
Historical accuracy[edit]
Some critics have criticised the premise of the book and subsequent film. Reviewing the original book, Rabbi Benjamin Blech wrote: "Note to the reader: There were no 9-year-old Jewish boys in Auschwitz – the Nazis immediately gassed those not old enough to work."[9] Rabbi Blech affirmed the opinion of a Holocaust survivor friend that the book is "not just a lie and not just a fairytale, but a profanation." Blech acknowledges the objection that a "fable" need not be factually accurate; he counters that the book trivialises the conditions in and around the death camps and perpetuates the "myth that those not directly involved can claim innocence," and thus undermines its moral authority. Students who read it, he warns, may believe the camps "weren't that bad" if a boy could conduct a clandestine friendship with a Jewish captive of the same age, unaware of "the constant presence of death."[9]
Kathryn Hughes, whilst agreeing about the implausibility of the plot, argues that "Bruno's innocence comes to stand for the wilful refusal of all adult Germans to see what was going on under their noses."[10] In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert says the film is not a reconstruction of Germany during the war, but is "about a value system that survives like a virus."[11]
Accolades[edit]
Year
Award
Category
Recipient(s)
Result
2008 British Independent Film Awards[12] Best Actress Vera Farmiga Won
Best Director Mark Herman Nominated
Most Promising Newcomer Asa Butterfield Nominated
2009 Premio Goya Best European Film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Nominated
Irish Film and Television Awards[13] Best International Film Nominated
Young Artist Awards[14] Best Leading Performance (International Feature Film) Asa Butterfield & Jack Scanlon Nominated
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)". British Film Institute. 30 December 2016.
Jump up ^ "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
Jump up ^ "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) – Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
Jump up ^ Vilkomerson, Sara (31 March 2009). "On Demand This Week: Lost Boys". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on 7 December 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
Jump up ^ "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
Jump up ^ "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
Jump up ^ Christopher, James (11 September 2008). "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Review". The Times. Archived from the original on 30 August 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
Jump up ^ Dargis, Manohla (7 November 2008). "Horror Through a Child's Eyes". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b Blech, Benjamin (23 October 2008). "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". Aish. Archived from the original on 30 August 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
Jump up ^ Hughes, Kathryn (21 January 2006). "Educating Bruno". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (5 November 2008). "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
Jump up ^ "BIFA 2008 Nominations". British Independent Film Awards. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
Jump up ^ "2009 Winners—Film Categories". The Irish Film & Television Academy.
Jump up ^ "2009 Nominations & Recipients". Young Artist Awards.
See also[edit]
The Day the Clown Cried
External links[edit]
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas at Box Office Mojo
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas on IMDb
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas at Rotten Tomatoes
Production notes
[hide]
v
t
e
Films directed by Mark Herman
Blame It on the Bellboy (1992)
Brassed Off (1996)
Little Voice (1998)
Purely Belter (2000)
Hope Springs (2003)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 230335176
BNE: XX4862942
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Boy_in_the_Striped_Pyjamas_(film)&oldid=806889760"
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