The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

2008
  • Trust Weighted Very Good
  • 84 Trust Points
 

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davidmfishman's Review

Created Jan 01, 2009 04:26PM PST • Edited Jan 01, 2009 04:26PM PST

  1. Quality
  2. Summary
    Perfect 5.0

    A jarring, moving film showing how Germans handled the final solution from the inside, centered around the improbable tale of the camp-commandant’s 8 year son who befriends a Jewish concentration camp inmate of the same age. Realistic, contextual portrayals of ardent nazis (with British accents, of course), their corporate politics within the military. The violent contrast between 8-year-old Bruno’s view of the war and his father’s job, his mother’s reaction to the source of the smell that wafts into their chateau on the other side of the woods, are all realistically portrayed. The film bears its irony gently and respectfully. The power of the film is in its careful, incremental construction of Bruno’s world, and the incremental pace of events in the world around him, leading to a conclusion of overwhelming tragedy and power — befitting its awesome, awful subject.

  4. Acting
    Perfect 5.0
  5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0
  6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0
  7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0
  8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0
  10. Film
    Perfect 5.0
  11. Direction Perfect 5.0
  12. Play Perfect 5.0
  13. Music Perfect 5.0
  14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
  15. Content
  16. Edge
    Risqué 2.3
  17. Sex Innocent 1.0
  18. Violence Monstrous 5.0
  19. Rudeness Polite 1.0
  21. Reality
    Supernatural 3.7
  22. Circumstantial Fantasy 5.0
  23. Biological Natural 1.0
  24. Physical Natural 1.0

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Feb 22, 2009 7:21PM
davidmfishman

Regarding Wick’s Review
There’s a satirical purpose — and by satire I mean not humor, but use of inversion to upend social norms or to level a critique — in the absurd use of the children as a vehicle. While there is ample distortion in the construction of the drama, the core message of parallel humanity and its terrible toll, the humanity that plays a role in the innocent and the evil, overcomes any limitations of the plot devices.