The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Movie Review

Hey, so before I get into the movie, I felt the need to talk about this new poetry obsession I have. Two words: Erin. Hanson. She's a really great poet, and I think that you guys should check out her poems on www.thepoeticunderground.com. Okay, that's all :) enjoy the review!

WARNING: THIS IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE VERSION OF THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS. NOT THE BOOK.

Synopsis:

Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.

Source for image and synopsis: www.imdb.com

Overall Review:

    Okay, so I know that we’ve never done movie reviews before (though we’ve been planning on doing this, we’ve never really got around to it), but I seriously just needed to rant about this crazy movie. I know that the Holocaust was an awful event--we’ve talked about it in school countless times, like when we read The Diary of Anne Frank, when we went on our study trip to the east coast, and when we learned about WWII. But watching this movie still left me with this disgusting, awful feeling in my stomach.

Throughout the entire movie, I was basically thinking WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! I mean, honestly. The topic is one that everyone should be familiar with, and to have kids in the movie? I’m not talking teenagers or, like, 11-year-olds, even--I’m talking eight-year-olds. Little tiny people who should be playing with toy cars and stuff.

Oh, my gosh, I was pretty much freaking out throughout the entire movie, just like whatintheworldiswrongwiththeseawfulpeoplewhatwhatwhatwhatwhat. Well, I was thinking that and How in the world are things supposed to get better? HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING?! And then, when we finally got to the ending . . . well, I’ll get to that in a minute.

The acting was great--I was especially impressed with Asa Butterfield’s performance as Bruno. The emotions were raw and tangible. Jack Scanlon wasn’t as convincing as Shmuel, but he was adorable and tiny, so I still felt awful for him when he was in the concentration camp. The older actors were great, too, and the whole movie was intense and brought up lots of intense feelings in my parents and myself. Mostly anger. Because some of the people in this movie were just awful.

The story was interesting and unique, though I probably wouldn’t watch it again. Mostly because it’s super depressing, and I had to watch Pitch Perfect afterwards to cheer myself up. Seriously, I’m not kidding. I would not recommend this movie to people who hate sad movies. It’s not even remotely in the rom-com or feel-good family movie genres.

I’ll sign off now and give my rating, but if you want to see my thoughts on the conclusion, feel free to read on. But there’s a MAJOR SPOILER ALERT, so beware. Don’t read on if you don’t want the entire movie ruined for you. SERIOUSLY. Okay, thanks for reading!

Overall Rating: 6.7 out of 10

Adios, guys,

JC <3

Again, *SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!* I WON’T BE GOING INTO A WHOLE LOT OF DETAIL ON THE CONCLUSION, BUT THE GIST OF IT IS THERE. SERIOUSLY. DON’T READ ON UNLESS YOU WANT THE ENTIRE MOVIE RUINED FOR YOU. IF YOU DON’T CARE, THEN FEEL FREE. :)

The Conclusion:

    Okay, that ending just, like, blew my mind. And not in a good way. As soon as Bruno decided to sneak into the concentration camp, I knew things weren’t going to end well. My mind went from whatintheworldiswrongwiththeseawfulpeoplewhatwhatwhatwhatwhat to nonononononothisisbadthisisbadthisisNOTGOOD. And then it happened. He snuck in, and guess what? HE AND SHMUEL DIED.

Gosh, could this movie be any more disturbing? And talk about an open ending; lives were ruined in the last five minutes of the movie, and they just left us hanging. Well, lives were basically being ruined throughout the whole movie, but I was definitely not expecting Bruno to die! He was the most adorable little boy, and he just. Died. It was awful and disturbing and very sad, and I don’t really like sad endings.

I like sad movies that end happily. I like happy movies that end happy. I’m that kind of person. I don’t like it when they leave you with these unresolved sad feelings. It does not feel good. Which is why I had to watch Pitch Perfect right after.

That’s basically why my rating of the movie is so low; the ending just wasn’t for me. And Bruno’s poor mom and sister were so sad. The dad was sad, too, but a part of me felt like he had bad things coming to him. He wasn’t a good person, in my opinion. Bruno definitely did not deserve what he got, and neither did poor, sweet Shmuel.

The ending definitely caught me off-guard, which is kind of . . . good? I guess? I mean, it’s not predictable. But I didn’t necessarily like it . . . but that’s just due to my preferences. I’m sure that plenty of people love the movie . . . but it just wasn’t for me. Sorry. Do you get now why I gave so many spoiler alerts? Maybe you felt like I was overdoing it, but I don’t think so. If I know that a main character is going to die in the end, I usually don’t have much motivation for watching it.

Alright, I’m done. Hope you enjoyed my review more than I enjoyed that ending. Thanks again for reading, and I hope I didn’t ruin anything for you. Okay, thanks, bye! <3