The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) (2008)
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 135
Fresh: 85 | Rotten: 50
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.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 12
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.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 108,903
My Rating
Movie Info
Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, and Asa Butterfield star in Little Voice writer/director Mark Herman's adaptation of John Boyne's novel concerning the forbidden friendship that between an eight-year-old German boy and a Jewish concentration camp prisoner in World War II-era Germany. The innocent son of a high-ranking Nazi commandant, Bruno has been largely shielded from the harsh realities of the war. When Bruno discovers that his father has been promoted and that their family will be moving from
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Cast
-
Asa Butterfield
Bruno -
Jack Scanlon
Shmuel -
Amber Beattie
Gretel -
David Thewlis
Bruno's Father -
Vera Farmiga
Elsa Bruno's Mother -
Richard Johnson
Grandpa -
Sheila Hancock
Grandma -
Rupert Friend
Lieutenant Kotler -
David Hayman
Pavel -
Jim Norton
Herr Liszt -
Cara Horgan
maria
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All Critics (137) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (92) | Rotten (51) | DVD (9)
The result isn't a deep film, but rather a profound one.
Top CriticYoung Scanlon and Butterfield are scathingly effective, never overplaying their roles.
In truth, the film is sure to stop the hearts of many who see it. There may indeed be hope in hell, but better to avoid hell altogether.
Because its gaze is so level and so unyielding, it stands as one of the better dramatic films made on this subject (although it's not nearly as fine as Louis Malle's Au Revoir les Enfants, in which the camps remain a distant abstraction).
Although it's told from the perspective of a child, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is as shattering as any film about the Holocaust could be, perhaps more so.
I think that's what makes it so powerful, is because it is so small.
Not without its qualities, the movie ultimately does a disservice to the very people it purports to represent.
A film dealing with the Holocaust really should be a little less clumsily executed, manipulative and contrived than this.
Built upon a powerful but gimmicky end, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas would make a fine short. As a full-length feature, though, the pajamas wear thin quickly.
We are left in no doubt about the brutality of what's going on there but it's almost entirely off-screen. Still, the film is terribly confronting.
This writer can't remember witnessing a harder-hitting kids' movie denouement than the one that closes this microcosm of middle-class German family life in WWII.
Much of the film depends on our ability to suspend disbelief and see the world as Bruno sees it. It has a finale designed to shock.
You may get halfway through and wonder why it's getting so heavily recommended here. Once you've experienced it in its entirety, you'll know why.
For me, the pluses far outweighed any misgivings I had with this ultimately very moving film.
The performances never falter, and even James Horner's heavy-handed score can't dim the film's unfathomable, unshakable ending.
The story is passable, albeit a little too manufactured for my taste in terms of its moral lessons, but the execution is so stilted and unconvincing that the experience is uncomfortable
The power of this story and the way director Mark Herman tells it through the innocent eyes of an eight year old boy overcome all the hurdles with its child-like simplicity that clutches our hearts
The novel was written for young adults and the film feels like it pulls its punches. The final horrifying revelation is still a long way from the painful realities of those days.
Extras on the disc include a full-length audio commentary by writer/ director Mark Herman and novelist John Boyne.
When the time comes for resolution, writer/ director Mark Herman suddenly delivers the unexpected; he does not sell out.
Why do the all the Nazis here have British accents? How confusing is that? An unintentionally-comical cross of Hogan's Heroes and Springtime for Hitler!
Why do the all the Nazis here have British accents? How confusing is that? An unintentionally-comical cross of Hogan's Heroes and Springtime for Hitler!
Audience Reviews for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)
Super Reviewer
Told from the perspective of a child, the foolishness of the adults in this story comes in stark relief, which is one of the film's strengths, especially considering all the films made on this subject. Good performances by Vera Farmiga and David Thewlis hammer home the film's point.
I did think that the conclusion was contrived and needed too much help from the protagonists' naivete in order for it to work.
Overall, this is a strong, unique film about the Holocaust.
Super Reviewer
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- Bruno: We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?
-
- Bruno: We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?
-
- Elsa Bruno's Mother: It won't feel like home until we make it feel like home.
-
- Pavel: I practiced as a doctor.
- Bruno: You must not have been very good then, if you had to practice.
-
- Bruno: There is such thing as a nice Jew, though, isn't there?
- Herr Liszt: I think, Bruno, if you ever found a nice Jew, you would be the best explorer in the world.
-
- Bruno: Why do you wear pajamas all day?
- Shmuel: The soldiers. They took all our clothes away.
- Bruno: My dad's a soldier, but not the sort that takes people's clothes away.
Discussion Forum
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| dumbass | 4 months ago | 0 |
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Foreign Titles
- Der Junge im gestreiften Pyjama (DE)
- The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (UK)
