"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

Melody:	At first glance at the title this story sounds like it may be a subject for a children’s book, and although it is centered on two 8 year-old boys, we quickly learn that the tenor of this is much more serious. The “striped pajamas” are the clothes issued by the Nazis to the Jewish boy behind the barbed wire fence of a prison camp.
Mike:	The story is based on John Boyne’s best selling young adult’s novel. It’s a gut wrenching Holocaust story about a German boy named Bruno (Asa Butterfield) who is growing up quietly and comfortably in the city of Berlin around 1940. His father (David Thewlis) goes off to his office each day to work as a high-ranking Nazi soldier.
Melody:	Bruno isn’t pleased when the news comes that his father has a new job, and is moving the family to the country. Bruno and his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie), and their mother (Vera Farmiga) pack up and go with him to the large house that’s surrounded by ominous high walls.
Mike:	Bruno is confused about why it is he can’t walk the grounds of the property, or play in the nearby fields. From his bedroom window he can see a “farm,” which of course is a concentration camp.
Melody:	Eventually his curiosity and sense of adventure lures him to sneak away to explore the farm where he can see many people wearing striped pajamas. And it’s at the fence that he meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon).
Mike:	They’re around the same age, and become friends playing catch and checkers through the fence. Neither one has a real sense of what’s going on around them, but Bruno becomes more aware of how dangerous it is for them to be friends when he watches some of Shmuel’s family and friends brutally beaten by their Nazi captors.
Melody:	Bruno begins to question the creed of hate the Nazis purport, and in turn questions his father, who until now he has looked to as a hero.
Mike:	It’s when he realizes Shmuel is in trouble that Bruno promises to help, and the twosome hatch an outlandish plan for escape.
Melody:	This really is a reminder of just how horrific the treatment of an entire race by the Nazis really was. The fact that it was played out through the simple minds of two young boys cuts it that much closer to the bone. Some very good performances by the boys and especially Bruno’s mom, Vera Farmiga.
Mike:	Neither boy really grasps what’s going on around them, but one knows that every day is filled with hard work and hunger, and little hope, while the other has an innocent, sheltered view of the world. This is a sensational film that should be required viewing in middle and high schools around the world. It’s a reminder of how young minds are shaped, and how they sometimes can be poisoned by evil and prejudice of their elders.
Melody:	It is a symbolic tale that drives home some powerful messages. You do have to allow for some cinematic leaps of faith, such as how the two youngsters can go undetected for such long periods of time in a far off corner of the camp. And how Bruno isn’t missed by a very protective mother and a home with Nazi soldiers milling about day and night. But if you can get beyond a few trivial matters…
Mike:	And the fact that the actors, supposed to be German, speak in impeccable British accents.
Melody:	These things don’t detract, nor really distract from the point of it all. Seek this one out, folks.
Mike:	* * *
Melody:	* * * and a half.

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