The horrors of war and the indignities suffered
by those interned in Third Reich death camps are endlessly contrasted
throughout with the innocence of youth.
Whereas the bulk of films set in the same era allow viewers to draw these obvious conclusions for themselves, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas beats you over the head with them with about as much subtlety as a Luftwaffe air raid.
All
right, we get it. Children see the world with a purity and clarity of
vision that eventually becomes tainted by the responsibilities,
disappointments and ideologies of adult life.
But if I
had to endure another shot of wide-eyed Bruno asking a question rife
with cloying naiveté I would have been one step away from putting my
own head in the oven.
Maybe it’s just me being cynical, but I
found the film’s endless rehashing of its rather obvious points grating
instead of profound.
Its characters were also largely
one-dimensional, screenplay inferior to the novel from which it drew
inspiration and its cinematography lethargic. Further to this all
the lead actors are English! It can’t be that hard to find decent
German actors these days can it?
Not if The Lives of Others, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Inglorious Basterds
and others are anything to go by. I know cinema is all about suspension
of disbelief, but when a supposed SS officer barks his orders in
stiff-upper-lipped King’s, the resultant effect is more than a little
absurd.
At any rate the film does effectively highlight those German citizens who would choose to be blinkered by ignorance.
Bruno’s
mother doesn’t question the suffering around her, or the injustice
inherent in a former doctor being reduced to the status of her
housekeeper by the mere fact of his ethnicity. But when she is informed
by a young soldier (Rupert Friend) that the smoke bellowing from the
nearby chimneys is not in fact caused by the burning of rubbish, but of
people, the penny drops and she is suddenly repulsed by her husband’s
unquestioning adherence to his ‘duty’.
This would have been
interesting angle for the film to explore; unfortunately however her
character stays on the periphery and by the film’s conclusion is little
more than a cardboard cut-out.
Butterfield is undeniably
good, as is Jack Scanlon as his young Jewish companion. Friend is
likewise excellent as the brash upstart blinded by Nazi dogma.
Overall
however the film isn’t as accomplished or convincing as it would like
to think, and several elements of the plot are so implausible as to be
near-preposterous.
On second thought, I don’t think I am a cynic...
Like millions of others I’ve laughed, cried, rejoiced and despaired through Life is Beautiful, The Pianist, The Book Thief and similar depictions of life during the horrors of the Second World War.
But
whereas these works moved audiences through the unspoken power of their
central thesis – that due to the indomitable strength of the human
will, beauty and hope can flourish even in times of unspeakable evil – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
makes a shameless play for the viewer’s emotions from the outset,
diluting the potency of any real message and dooming it, ultimately, to
being a rather middling and self-satisfied affair.
DVD Special Features
Some excellent extras here
including the "Friendship Beyond the Fence" featurette, a slew of
Deleted Scenes, plus a fairly in-depth Audio Commentary with Director
Mark Herman and Author John Boyne.
Conclusion:
Movie 40% Extras: 55%
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