The film "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas": reviews. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (2008): the plot, the actors

For fans of films that show the events of the period of World War II, this work will be just a gift. But there are no military operations or formidable generals in it. What does it catch?

On the attitude of viewers to the work, we'll talk at the end of the article. But if you evaluate the reviews, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" amazes all viewers with the depth of meaning and strength of the finale. True, the endings of the book and the film are completely different.

Let's get acquainted with this masterpiece closer.

Roman Boyn

John Boyne is a 43-year-old Irish writer, author of twelve novels and more than seventy stories. For all the time, more than five million copies have been sold, which was largely facilitated by the adaptation by Miramax company "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas".

This work was awarded two international awards. In addition, for eighty weeks, the novel topped the Irish bestseller rating, the New York Times bestseller list, and also became almost the most popular book in Spain in 2007-2008.

There is a famous phrase that the mouth of the baby speaks truth. On the pages of the novel Boy in the Striped Pajamas Boyne tells of the terrible events of the twentieth century through the prism of their perception of an eight-year-old child.

Let's figure out what attracted the readers of this work, and also why the film turned out to be a bit more prosaic, but heavier than the book.

But first you need to make a small digression.

The Holocaust in Germany during the war years

In Greek, this term means "burnt offering", in Hebrew it is called "shoa" - "catastrophe". This is one of the most vile pages of human history of the twentieth century. For several years, not only Jews, but also Slavs, gypsies, homosexuals, physically inferior and seriously ill people were systematically destroyed.

In the work "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" the plot deals exclusively with the Jewish question, so we will only go on about it further.

What do we know from historical sources? The most realistic document is the protocols of the Nuremberg Trials. They contain the testimony of Standartenfuhrer SS Dieter Wisliceni. He calls the figure of more than five million human victims.

How did this policy develop? It all started with the arrival of the Nazis in power in 1933. Decisions are made on "cleaning the Aryan race from unwanted elements." The project was implemented in several stages. Let's look at this in more detail.

In 1935 the Nuremberg laws were promulgated, which deprived Jews of many rights and actually forced them to flee the country. The problem was only that the majority had nothing to go on and no place to go. In addition, all countries, except the Dominican Republic, refused to accept a large number of refugees, closing the borders.

The next significant event was the "Crystal Night", when there were extensive and numerous Jewish pogroms in Germany. It got such a name because of the splinters of the window panes, with which the sidewalks were strewn.

Then there was the stage of forced relocation to the east, to Poland, Belarus, Western Ukraine, where ghettos were created . These are fenced areas, labor camps, where they drove and brought Jews. According to experts, the biggest was the Lviv ghetto, where over a few years more than four hundred thousand people visited.

The goal was the following. It was necessary to separate the non-Jewish population from the Jewish population and force the latter to become slaves.

The last phase began in August 1941, when Goering gave Heydrich the order for a final solution of the Jewish question. Since that time, concentration camps have begun to be created, where "niggles" are destroyed by thousands in "gas chambers".

The novel "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" reflects the period when the execution of Goering's order began. But we'll talk about the plot a little later.

Conflicts of the work

In the book and the adaptation of the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", the content illustrates the mood of the Germans in the first years of the Second World War with the example of a single family.

Here several characters are intertwined, which reflect a different attitude to the Jewish question.

The main theme is revealed through the prism of the worldview of an eight-year-old German boy who made friends with a small Jew in a concentration camp. He does not understand what kind of "farm" is not far away, and also why he is not allowed to go there.

Over time, communicating with the servant-prisoner, as well as the boy Shmul, he understands that something bad is happening, but still idealizes the father.

The culmination comes in the final of the book, which remains open. In the film, the strongest moment is also reflected in the ending, but it is made complete.

The second heroine is the twelve-year-old sister Bruno-Gretel. She is at the beginning of the transition years and already deprived of many naive illusions. Her flexible worldview reacts vividly to fairy tales about the terrible Jew who destroys the German nation. Before the ending of the film, she fervently supports the idea of clearing the nation of evil non-humans.

Also, the conflict between father and mother is revealed, the emotional experiences of both adults are shown. The first wants to make his family happy, getting a raise, but hiding from everyone, what he really does. Mother wants to protect children from the horrors of war, but the culmination comes when she learns the truth about the concentration camp.

Lieutenant, grandmother and grandfather Bruno reflect the opposite attitude to events in Germany. The first is set up radically, the second is strongly negative, and the grandfather is more neutral.

A noteworthy point is the death of the old lady. We learn that she is "sick" (the official version for Bruno, why she does not come to visit), and then report her death. This event is fraught with a mystery, but does not get any more developed in the film.
It turns out that it symbolizes the image of people who spoke categorically against the new government and its methods. Such "protesters" simply disappeared without a trace or died suddenly.

Thus, outlining briefly the mood in the novel, let's talk more about the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas."

The plot of the movie

The German officer gets a promotion and is forced to move with his family from Berlin to the countryside. He was promised a big house. But the first shots of the new dwelling show that not everything is as good as it seemed at first.

The building is more like a prison, everywhere soldiers go. There is a feeling that the children and the woman ended up in prison. Father simply "does the work." What he exactly does not know yet.

Getting used to it, Bruno sees a strange "farm" in the window, whose inhabitants walk in striped pajamas. Mom even allows him to play with them. Here the first conflict arises, when the horrors of war begin to seep into the family.

Children see a prisoner-servant who is assigned to the commandant's family, and parents quarrel because the camp is close to home.

The development of the story takes place in two directions. On the one hand, a tutor arrives, who begins to drive the ideas of National Socialism and the purity of the Aryan race into the children's heads. On the other hand, the boy often makes his way through the backyard to the fence of the concentration camp, after which he sees something quite different.

At a time when Gretel is infected with Hitler's ideals, hangs his posters in his room, Bruno knows the other side of the coin. He begins to communicate with Shmul, an eight-year-old Jew, through barbed wire, and also talks with a servant.

In answers to the puzzled and naive questions of the little German, the author reveals all the horror and hopelessness of the situation of prisoners. But this is only the beginning of the tragedy.

Periodically, the wind brings a terrible stink from the camp. The family is informed that it burns the dirty clothes of prisoners. The coup takes place at the end of the film, when Shmul tells Bruno about the mountains of unnecessary clothes in barracks. And the lieutenant accidentally speaks out to the commandant's wife about the real "fuel" of the stoves.

The culmination comes when the German boy promises to help the Jewish find his father in the camp. This he is trying to atone for his betrayal of their newly made friendship, when, according to his slander, Shmulia was punished.

The book ends with the penetration of Bruno into the concentration camp through a tunnel. The film is a little broader novel. In the film "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the end was created complete, unlike the printed version.

In the film adaptation we see the death of two boys in the "gas vans", as well as the grief of the family. His father's eyes express the complete collapse of his past convictions.

The final scene with a bunch of abandoned clothes of murdered people returns once again to the thoughts of the horror of all these events.

Now let's briefly get acquainted with the cast.

The first significant role of Butterfield

The boy Bruno played Ace Butterfield. This role became his first serious appearance on the screens. He was then nine years old. The acting career of this young talent began in seven years on the stage of the school theater. Then there was the role in one TV drama.

For the role of Bruno, he was nominated for "The Most Promising Newcomer", but took second place. What did this role conquer the hearts of the audience?

We will find the answer by reading the testimonials. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" - a film that opened the door to a young actor in the world of popularity.

Ace managed to convey the image of a sincere and naive eight-year-old boy (who, in fact, he was at that time). Knowing the world and relations between people, he first encountered the cruelty and injustice of reality.

In the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the actors are amazingly cope with the implementation of their roles. The game fully reflects the dramatic nature of the situation.

And the death of Bruno, according to some critics, symbolizes the death of humanity in the grip of the military machine of the Reich.

Mother and Sister Bruno

These two women perfectly played their roles. Amber Beatty is an actress who played a daughter, and Vera Farmiga is a mother.

They needed to express the feelings of German women of two age groups, with whom they coped brilliantly.

If you pay attention to the reviews, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" touches the worldview of many people today. After all, similar ideas are popular in our time.

Gretel absorbed all the characteristics of an idealistic, young and hot youth. And already settled Elsa, who has something to lose and what to fight for, shows us the mood of peaceful philistines who do not sympathize with Hitler's policy.

For most of the film, they live in their own fictional world. Elsa hides behind the position of the mother and wife, who "does not get into the affairs of her husband", but only deals with the home and children. And her daughter is in false fantasies, put into her head by a tutor, and the image of a beautiful lieutenant, in whom she falls in love.

The collapse of illusions comes at the end of the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." The actors played a tremendous role in the state of people on whom reality collapsed. Both the young idealist and the mature mother of the family were destroyed by the machine of war.

Heavy selection of the commandant

Regarding the film "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" the book gives more opportunities for reflection. However, the dramatization of the commandant's image is better represented precisely in the film adaptation.

David Thewlis plays a German officer who gets between an anvil and a hammer. He is trying to protect the family from the current situation in the country, on the one hand. On the other hand, he has to tie up the collapsing relationship with his wife and children, who do not stand up to the brutality of the events.

Particularly noteworthy is the moment in the finale of the work "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." The film even accentuates the viewer's attention. The commandant, who rationalized the process of killing prisoners, immediately loses his son in this monstrous meat grinder.

Its role reflects the slavish position of a person in the state mechanism.

Forced to obey orders without question, Ralph performs his duties exceptionally well. Not bad, he copes with the role of his father in the initial stage. But in the end everything collapses.

Actor as a lieutenant

We get at the beginning of the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" description of the young officer as an ardent champion of the new ideology. He stands for the purity of the nation and is clearly proud of his involvement in the "garbage collection" process. Rupert Friend amazingly coped with his role.

He tries to become perfect in his new image. Why in the new? Because in the process of plot development we learn about his father. It turns out that this man was an opponent of Hitler's policy and left for Switzerland.

So, with only one answer to the empty question of the guest about the family, the entire career of the young lieutenant is crumbling, to which he placed such hopes. In addition, Kurt makes a second mistake. He blurts out to the commandant's wife (thinking that she is aware of and shares his delight) that the stoves in the stoves are not clothes, but corpses.

This accidentally escaped remark simultaneously destroys both the family of Ralph and Elsa, and the future of Lieutenant Ketler. As a result, he is sent to the front.

Thus, in the novel Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the author shows the soullessness of a military machine that does not pay attention to either "one's own" or "strangers", but simply "eats" human lives. And they are sacrificed in completely different ways, which plunge people into the abyss of death and madness, in addition to their will.

Assessments of critics

In the beginning, let's say about the adaptation of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." The film receives several awards.

At the Chicago Film Festival, he wins a spectator prize. In Spain, he receives the Goya Award as the best film in Europe. Vera Farmiga receives an independent film award of Great Britain as the best actress of the year.

In addition, Ace Butterfield was nominated as the "Discovery of the Year" for his role in the film "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." The content and staging so captured the members of the jury that Herman receives a prize in the nomination "Best Director".

Now reviews of critics about the novel. Media such as The Guardian and Irish Time have described it as a small masterpiece that sinks in the heart and literally corrodes the soul.

Also interesting is this review: "This is a parable about the purity of human good and innocence, which are beyond the eternal struggle of light and darkness."

What about the novel Boy in the Striped Pajamas? The book at one time produced a furore in Europe and honestly took its place among the masterpieces of world literature.

The main sad motif of the work is that such atrocities happened a very long time, in the last century, and they will not be repeated again. The tragedy of this phrase is that in reality it turns out to be sarcasm.

Related artworks

There are many examples from the cinema that resemble the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." Related films can be called the following.

• "Pianist": a story about a Polish Jewish musician who finds himself in the dungeons of the Warsaw ghetto.
• "Life is beautiful" - a film that illustrates the father's desire to protect the child, by the will of fate found himself next to him in a concentration camp.
• The notorious "Schindler's List", which once stirred up the public. It tells about the manufacturer, who during the Second World War saved more than a thousand Jews.

What conclusions can you make if you read the reviews? "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is a film that should not be looked at for the elaboration of visual effects, but for the feelings that it awakens in people.