Movie Review: Boy In The Striped Pajamas

Set against the backdrop of World War II, “Boy In The Striped Pajamas” (2008), directed by Mark Herman, balances the curiosity of boyhood with the horrors of Jewish holocaust.

Having travelled to Buchenwald, Germany, and other concentration camps, I assumed this movie would rekindle memories of gas chambers, chimneys, and trenches. My assumption was justified. For those who have yet to study the tragedy of Nazi Holocaust, this film serves as a good introduction, and moreover, the Christological message in this film is worth all the Kleenexes you’ll need to get you through the end.

Maintaining a delicate tension between freedom and bondage, hope and despair, life and death, this movie raises questions of good and evil, light and dark.

Great attention to artistic detail is displayed in every scene, along with clever visual elements that reflect its multilayered title. In one instance, the bars of a staircase is briefly accented. In another, the vertical lines of a shadow, reflecting the concentration camp uniforms. “By his stripes,” I was reminded, “we are healed.”

At times during the movie, I felt as resistant to the German idealistic indoctrinations as the main character, an eight-year old boy who befriends an imprisoned Jew. At other times, I felt as guilty as the Nazi soldiers who assisted (some by willful ignorance) the deaths of millions.

To this end, Boy In The Striped Pajamas is an honest, sobering, and powerful call to keep remembering.

(This article was adapted from “Media Review” by Christian George, Summer 2009, www.myMissionFulfilled.com)

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