A Movie Evaluation of 'The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas'

Movie evaluation essays often analyze the portrayal of historical events and characters, such as the Holocaust and its impact on individuals, as depicted in Mark Herman's 2008 film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. In the film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, directed by Mark Herman, viewers analyze this film as a good movie that portrays World War II events. Since Herman’s film is about a historical event, he directs his scenes by showing his viewers insight of the Holocaust through a child’s eyes. This fictional plot of the story is about a young boy named Bruno and this encounter with a Jewish boy, named Shmuel that he meets at the dence of a concentration camp. Their friendship beautifully builds on as the movie progresses through. The evaluation of the fictional story plot, main characters, cinematography, and the influence of the film are important factors on what makes this film emotionally impactful to watch.

Throughout the film, Herman includes different World War II elements that include German soliders, the Jews, and the biggest concentration camp, Auschwitz. The fictional story offers a unique perspective as viewers see the situation happen from a child’s perspective. The hatred and violence against innocent Jews are not directly shown due the film’s innoence of a child. “-the great conundrum of the Holocaust is that it was perpetrated by a human being, not monsters. Few movies have rendered this puzzle so powerfully, (Rainer).” Each of his characters portray a different perspective on the historical event. For example, while Bruno’s innocence blinds him from understanding the situation, his father is a heartless commander that controls the torture to the Jews. Despite the horrors of the war, Herman still gives us a small hint of hope and purity in which Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship brings in.

An important factor of a film is the characters and what they portray. The child actor, Asa Butterfield who played Bruno, is a typical 8-year-old just wanting to be an explorer. Herman shows Bruno’s curious self wandering around the forest and open fields. That is how Bruno comes to find Shmuel and becomes more interested in this new friend of his. Aside from Bruno’s friendship, David Thewlis, that acts as Bruno’s father, is the opposite perspective of the World War II event. In the film, his complex and upright character is seen from his actions as a commander. In an interview, Thewlis comments that he read books that helped influence his acting. “I want to really know what kind of minds we're dealing with here. And so I read - you know, I'd already read Primo Levy, and - lots of things I'd already read because I've got a history with the Jewish people myself, (Thewlis).”