Eighteen Years On, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Still Earns Its Tragic Point Of View

A boy in striped pyjamas is the center of this quiet drama, and he carries the whole weight of it. Bruno is nine years old, and he does not know what the striped pyjamas mean. He only knows that his father has been given a new job, and that means moving away from everything he knows.

Trailer, via The Movie Planet.

Bruno’s World

Bruno lives a comfortable life in Berlin. His family is well off, and he has servants and a garden. When his father becomes Kommandant of a camp, the family moves, and Bruno finds himself in a world he cannot understand. He calls the camp “Out-With,” a child’s way of saying Auschwitz, because he does not want to say the real name.

Shmuel and the Fence

Shmuel is a boy in the camp, and he is also nine years old. He is thin and sad, and he has nothing but his name and a hunger for food. Bruno and Shmuel become friends across the fence that separates them. Bruno does not understand why Shmuel is there, and Shmuel does not explain. The friendship is the heart of the film, and it is built on trust between two boys who should not be trusted with each other.

The Father’s Job

The father is a good man, but he believes in the wrong things. He thinks he is doing God’s work, and he is proud of his job. He does not see the camp for what it is. The film asks us to look at him with sympathy even as we condemn him, and that balance is hard to hold.

The Camp’s Secret

The film does not show the horror directly. There is no blood, no screaming, no bodies piled high. Instead, it shows the daily routine of the camp, the way the guards move through it, and the way the prisoners wait. The horror is implied in the silence, in the way the children are treated, and in the final act of the story.

The Ending

The ending is a tragedy, and it is earned by everything that comes before it. Bruno makes a choice, and the consequences are terrible. The film does not soften the ending to make it easier to watch. It lets the tragedy stand on its own, and that is rare in films about the Holocaust.

What Works and What Falls Short

• Bruno’s innocence gives the story a point of view that is both childish and truthful
• The friendship between Bruno and Shmuel is tender and believable
• The father’s character is complicated, not a simple villain
• The camp is shown with restraint, not spectacle

The film is too gentle for its subject. It treats the Holocaust as a mystery that can be solved by kindness, and that is not true. The film also spends too much time on Bruno’s life before the move, which slows down the story and makes the middle stretch feel padded. Some scenes are slow and talky, and they do not add much to the overall effect.

A Good Film With Limits

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a well-made film with a strong performance from Asa Butterfield as Bruno and Jack Scanlon as Shmuel. It is not a great film, and it does not pretend to be. It is a film about a boy who could not understand what he saw, and it asks the audience to sit with that confusion. That is a worthy goal, even if the execution is uneven.

The film is best when it stays close to Bruno’s point of view. It loses its power when it tries to explain the camp to the audience in ways that feel too simple. The ending is the strongest part of the film, and it leaves a lasting impression.

This is a film that honors its subject without turning it into a spectacle. It is a film that is worth seeing, but it is not a film that demands a second viewing. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas earns a score of 5.5 out of 10.

Asa Butterfield · Auschwitz · Boy in the Striped Pyjamas · Holocaust film · Jack Scanlon · movie review