DVD Review: The boy in the striped pyjamas

It’s been over a year since I wrote a DVD review on my blog, mainly because I wanted to concentrate on the 3 main topics. This is one film that really had an impact on me and so I wanted to post a review.

The film The boy in the striped pyjamas is about two 8 year old boys that become friends in the most unlikely of situations.
The film is set during the second world war. Bruno is German and the son of the newly appointed Commandant of a concentration / death camp. He meets Shmuel (the boy in the striped pyjamas) who lives on the other side of an electric fence.

The film is about the holocaust, about fascism, racism, hypocrisy, brutality, but also about friendship and the innocence of these two children.

Although this film is rated 12 this is a very intense and distressing film. It is also good as a thought provoking, educational film and a reminder as to why we should never allow ethnic cleansing to ever happen again. I would suggest you watch it first and make up your own mind, before letting a 12 year old watch it.

I’ve watched many other films on the holocaust, in particular Escape From Sobibor and Schindler’s Lis, both of which are very good films, but this has had the most profound effect out of all of them.

As with most fiction that is based around a real theme, the film has had its critics about lack of realism. I can understand that in reality it is extremely likely any 8 year old child would have been murdered almost as soon as he arrived at the camp, the young age of the child was critical to the story working as it did.

This is such a powerful film which left me thinking about it for hours afterwards. I watched it yesterday on a rental DVD, but then went and bought my own copy today, which I think shows how much I thought of the film.

I’d certainly recommend anyone to watch this film, but be prepared for a very distressing story relating to the way that Jews were persecuted under Hitlers Facist Nazi regime.