The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas review
Jul. 4th, 2010 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI wasn't expecting The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas to have a happy ending and, rightly, it doesn't. It is extremely well done - the holocaust from the point of view of an eight-year-old, who is almost completely sheltered from the horrors of his father's assignment as commandant of a concentration camp, and who is therefore unable to understand why he shouldn't be friends with the boy on the other side of the fence. Bruno's bewilderment at events the audience would be all too capable of comprehending was very affecting.
However, I found it bordering on offensive that it was deemed necessary to condemn an innocent Aryan German boy along with the Jews in order to emphasise the atrocity of the gas chamber. The tears in the eyes of the house servant Pavel when he talked of previously being a doctor were enough for me.
I think Schindler's List did a much better job of putting across the same message, but I also think that (the annoyance at the ending aside) films like these are still important.
However, I found it bordering on offensive that it was deemed necessary to condemn an innocent Aryan German boy along with the Jews in order to emphasise the atrocity of the gas chamber. The tears in the eyes of the house servant Pavel when he talked of previously being a doctor were enough for me.
I think Schindler's List did a much better job of putting across the same message, but I also think that (the annoyance at the ending aside) films like these are still important.
