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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas | 
| Director: Mark Herman
Actors: Sheila Hancock, David Thewlis, David Hayman, Jim Norton, Vera Farmiga
Studio: MIRAMAX
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $4.65
as of 7/31/2010 12:36 MDT details
You Save: $25.34 (84%)
New (36) Used (23) from $4.65
Seller: moviesandgamestore
Rating:  160 reviews
Sales Rank: 1295
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: DISD55883D
UPC: 786936749274
EAN: 0786936749274
ASIN: B001N26GFM
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: March 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
BORED & RESTLESS IN HIS NEW HOME, BRUNO, AN INNOCENT & NAIVE 8 YEAR OLD, IGNORES HIS MOTHER & SETS OFF ON AN ADVENTURE INTO THE WOODS. SOON HE MEETS A YOUNG BOY & A SURPRISING FRIENDSHIP DEVELOPS. SET DURING WWII, THIS REMARKABLE & INSPIRING STORY WILL CAPTURE YOUR HEART & ENGAGE YOUR MIND.
Amazon.com
The innocence of childhood savagely collides with the Holocaust in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Bruno (Asa Butterfield) knows that his father is a soldier and that they have to move to a new house in the country... a house near what he thinks is a farm. But his father isn't just a soldier; he's a high-ranking officer in Hitler's elite SS troops who's just been placed in command of Auschwitz. As Bruno explores the woods around the house, he discovers the concentration camp's perimeter fence. On the other side sits a boy his own age, with whom Bruno strikes up a friendship--a friendship that will have tragic consequences. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is most powerful in the details: The casual brutality of a Nazi lieutenant; the uncomfortable juxtaposition of the family's domestic life with glimpses of the treatment of the imprisoned Jews; a ghastly propaganda film suggesting that life at Auschwitz was like a holiday. But more than anything else, Butterfield's performance makes this film compelling. The young actor perfectly conveys Bruno's limited perspective even as the film carefully unveils the larger, darker reality. The movie's ending will undoubtedly spark arguments, but only because of the emotional complexity of what happens--The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is made with great skill and compassion. Also featuring David Thewlis (Naked) and Vera Farmiga (The Departed) as Bruno's parents. --Bret Fetzer
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 160
 A very good, thought-provoking film. February 7, 2009
Sophia Petrillo (NC, USA)
60 out of 68 found this review helpful
After I read the novel by John Boyne and heard the news that a movie adaption was currently in theatres, I was slightly scared that the film would be too extreme and dramatic for me, because I don't do well at all with films that scare me or make me sad- and thinking about the plot of the book, I knew watching a movie version would tear me to pieces.
But, as it happened, my school went on a field trip to see the movie a few weeks after I finished the book, and I ended up having to watch the whole movie through and write a report comparing and contrasting it from the novel. And guess what?- I sobbed like a baby in front of all my friends.
Although the last parts of the movie are very sad and deeply patronizing, it is overall a very good adaption of the book that caused so much controversy among young readers like me(I'm 15 by the way).
Excellent Movie February 16, 2009
Eli Houston (Alabama)
26 out of 30 found this review helpful
I know that many movie critics bombed this movie, but you really need to decide for yourself.
I thought this movie was very well made, the acting was excellent, and the story was very intriguing. I have read the book the movie is based from, and the movie follows the book very closely.
I have to say my favorite part of the movie is the music - the soundtrack is amazing! It was made by the same composer that did the soundtrack for Titanic and Braveheart, to name a few.
Be prepared for a shocking ending - some don't like it, but I did. I think it's a realistic approach to the Holocaust - not every story has a happy ending.
Brilliant Yet Disturbing March 1, 2009
Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"
Disturbing Yet Brilliant
Amos Lassen
There seems to be a lot of films about the Holocaust coming out of late and some of them seem to be cashing in on the darkest period in the history of the world. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" rises above them all and shows us what so many others don't. It is a shocking film--not in physical violence but in inferred inhumanity. This is a movie that will give you chills and break any emotionless person. It is as near perfect as a film can be yet it deals with a plot that is beyond logical comprehension. The film upsets and disturbs and it is hard to get out of the seat after seeing it but it also gives us a lesson of compassion and love while it slaps us across the face
When I read the book upon which the movie is based, I thought to myself that there is no way the story could be filmed. I was wrong--the film is almost identical to the book but actually seeing what I had read was more intense, even though I knew what was coming. The power of this film will affect anyone who sees it.
Asa Butterfield is Bruno, a boy growing up in war time Germany during the Holocaust and the story is told through him. He is the son of the commander of the camp which is right outside of his window. He interacts with Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), an inmate at the camp and they build a friendship even though they are separated by a fence and their lives are worlds apart.
Bruno's father (David Thewlis), a Nazi official goes to work everyday and Bruno is somewhat impressed by his father's position. When Bruno hears that they will be moving to the country so his father can have an even better job, he is somewhat upset. But he is reassured by his parents and the family arrives at a big house in the country which is a fancy farmhouse surrounded by high walls. Bruno sees the fields from his window and he notices that the farmers are all wearing striped pajamas. He is driven to find out more about them and sitting behind barbed wire, he meets a boy who is about his own age. They become "friends" and visit each other often. Neither of the boys really understands what is going on.
The movie is structured like a fable and from the very beginning it evokes strong feelings and what we really see is the powerless of childhood. Bruno is torn by what he has learned about Jews, They are supposed to be "bad" but Shmuel is good. As Bruno realizes that terrible things are happening on the "farm" that his father is the overseer. His heart begins to break.
The two boys turn in amazing performances as they navigate the gamut of emotions from wonder to betrayal to guilt and when the movie reaches its end, the finale is so shocking that everyone feels he has lost something.
The film opens with credits that are flashed against a red background and then as the camera pulls back, the Nazi flag comes into view. And then we see flags hanging from a government building and we see children playing on a beautiful spring day. Seeing the swastikas reminds us that we are in for an experience that shows man's inhumanity to man. We are somewhat dislocated when we see the contrasts that soon follow and even though we know what is coming, we are not prepared for what we see.
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is not a typical Holocaust movie. There is an attractive German family and we see them living an ordinary life until...................
If you see no other movie this year, then you must see this. The script, performances, cinematography and everything else about "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" show this movie to become a classic.
The Wisdom of Children March 15, 2009
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is a 'compleat' motion picture: even the title states the vision of the film in a subtly powerful way. Based on the excellent novel by John Boyne and adapted for the screen by director Mark Herman, this film has the courage to re-visit the Holocaust from the child's perspective. Not that it covers up the atrocities of that horrid event and time - quite the opposite: in electing to examine that period in history the stance is that of two children, one German son of an officer in Hitler's armed forces and one son of a Jewish captive living with his father in a concentration camp. The juxtaposition of these two eight year old boys separated not only by a fence but by an ideology neither of them can fathom the other's side makes for not only a brilliant film but also an unforgettable emotional experience.
Bruno (Asa Butterfield in an extraordinary performance) is eight, his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) is twelve and the two live with their parents in 1940 Berlin - father (David Thewlis) is a Komandant in Hitler's army and mother (Vera Farminga) is a popular socialite and loving mother. Father is 'promoted' and will be in charge of a new 'position' that means moving from their beautiful Berlin home to a 'home in the country'. Though Bruno doesn't want to leave his friends the family does indeed move - to a cold house next to what Bruno perceives is a farm. The father is forbidden to share his role and the meaning of it with his family, but it soon becomes obvious by the smoke stacks spewing hideously smelling odors into the atmosphere that the 'farm' is a concentration camp. The house servant Pavel (David Hayman), though abused by the father, becomes Bruno's friend when Bruno sustains an injury: Pavel quietly admits to Bruno that despite his 'pajama' uniform from the 'farm' that he practiced medicine in the past. Bored, Bruno explores the forbidden area outside his home confines and finds a barbed wire electrified fence behind which sits Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) who becomes Bruno's friend. Neither lad understands the differences between them until Shmuel is sent into Bruno's household to polish glasses for a party: the armed forces chauffeur Lieutenant Kotler (Rupert Friend) beats the 'little filthy Jew' for eating pastries Bruno has shared with him - a fact that the terrified Bruno denies.
The mother discovers the truth about the 'farm' and the smoke stacks and sinks into a depression, loathing that her husband is in charge of such atrocities. Gretel becomes transformed as a Hitler youth under the influence of the children's tutor (Jim Norton) and there are obvious philosophical schisms in the family. Bruno, regretting his treatment of Shmuel, continues to sneak food to him and plans to help his young friend save Shmuel's father: Bruno digs into the 'farm' and the results bring the film to a terrifying and abrupt end.
Both young actors give enormously moving performances and the manner in which Herman directs the action underlines the blur of perception many German's had about the reality of the Final Solution. But for what this viewer perceives as the reason the film sustains the powerful message it does is the manner in which it ends. There are no attempts to 'sanitize' this film: it simply ends with a lightning bolt jolt that is one of the most powerful statements in all of the many films about the Holocaust. It is simply a brilliant masterpiece of a movie from every aspect of judging it - acting, direction, music, cinematography, editing - and why this film failed to make an impression on the critics and public (and the Oscar folks!) when it was released in the theaters remains a conundrum. Highly recommended for all audiences. Grady Harp, March 09
Appalling July 6, 2009
Leonidas (Kentucky)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Not the movie, it is a beautiful work of gut-wrenching horror. I wept like a baby and I am a 62 year-old man. What is appalling to me is reading all of the one-star reviews. I now see how the holocaust (shoah) could have taken place, all that is necessary is for a nation to be composed of and ruled by people with no feelings, bereft of human compassion and sensitivity, just like several of the reviewers here.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 160
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