This is an article summarizing, in my own words, the experience of watching the movie ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, released in 2008 and based on a novel by John Boyne. It’s about an unlikely friendship between two boys, set in the period of the Second World War.
Initial Unease
I was already possessed with a vague sense of unease before I started to watch the movie, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ on Netflix. The thumbnail for the movie shows two boys, aged around nine, sitting on a grassy field with a netted fence in between. One of them is completely bald, wearing striped pyjamas and a strained grimace on his little face. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that he is located within some kind of prison. The fact that he seems to be talking to someone who is not, cannot bode well for him and by extension, the viewers of the film.
Building Dread Through Contrast
The movie does well to build on that same unease it generates at the beginning, through preliminary scenes where a group of young boys run around in play on the austere streets of Berlin. The careless movements of the lads at the prime of their childhood contrasts markedly with the stultifying gloom in the air around them. Men and women in dark, sombre colours stream all around the gambolling children. The best-dressed among the masses are smiling or laughing bearing no marks of pain in their facial expressions. In horrific juxtaposition, prisoners of war, dressed in tatters, meekly follow the orders of armed soldiers. In such an environment, does the movie begin.
Bruno’s Innocent Perspective
Soon, we understand that the narrative is unfolding from the point of view of Bruno, one of the kids in the gang. He is an innocent boy, typical of someone his age. His father, as we will soon learn, is the manager of a concentration camp in the countryside, a fact of which the rest of the family is initially unaware. The poignant effect of war is cushioned when seen from the eyes of Bruno as dialogues and actions of terrible import made by the adult characters around him brush by, not delivering an emotional blow just yet. There is a sense instilled in us, steadily growing, that the way is being cleared for an eventuality that will shock and dismay. I am a sensitive viewer and my heart grows heavier as I watch.
An Unlikely Friendship
Bruno, newly deprived of companionship in a strange new countryside that his family has moved to, meets Shmuel who is another boy his age. Shmuel is always clothed in grimy pyjamas supplemented with a streak of dirt on his cheeks. The two bond ferociously over a love for board games and conversation, unaware that they are on the scene of that dreaded site of human fallacy — the concentration camp. Even though the visuals focus on these youngsters who are blissfully unaware of the troubles of the land, I kept expecting to see a bloodied prisoner with wild eyes burst into the scene ranting about sharp-edged tools and evil monsters.
Escalating Tension
With this niggling feeling ever-present, the film artfully depicts the blooming friendship between Bruno and Shmuel. While the boys nurse but just an iota of an understanding of the situation dominant in Germany at the time, they are incapable of recognizing its full significance or its reach down to their own personal lives. Nobody is aware of Bruno’s companionship with Shmuel, all the adults are wrapped up in their own perversities. Gradually, we are shown flashes of the merciless regime at its full force – a Nazi soldier beating a Jew servant to death for a wayward comment, a report of the sudden ‘disappearance’ of Shmuel’s father. One can feel the eventuality looming ahead, magnified with every pained look and unwilling action that the characters take, captured masterfully by the camera.
The tension builds. In alarm, we watch Bruno as he sneaks out of his house and runs to the fence; he starts digging with the intention of joining his buddy’s search for his father on the other side. We want to call out, reach into the screen and drag him back by the shoulders – can he not sense the impending doom? But how can he, when he is just a little child, guided by the noble instincts of friendship and kindness that the world has not yet managed to loot from him?
The Brutal Climax
The alarm slowly changes into horror as we realize that he is going into the shelter of the camp with Shmuel to search for the latter’s father, and that the two of them are not turning back even when they encounter crowds of strange men, miserable and dirty; weak with fatigue and pain. The horror I’ve been experiencing crests gradually and then fades into an aching sadness when I witness the eventuality. Little Bruno and Shmuel are locked up and sprayed with poisonous gas along with innumerable others.
It is a brutal ending, though not unexpected. Although the plot could have dictated that Shmuel is the one who runs to the other side, the side of freedom and joy, it is not to be. It is Bruno who innocently enters into the realm of unimaginable cruelty to help his new friend. His virtue kills him; after all, the world at this time was a theatre for the worst human traits – here in this strange upside-down place, the most heinous were rewarded with Life while sweet babes were slaughtered. War claims countless casualties – people, properties, morals, and the film does faithful justice to its harsh realities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this is a film worth watching for its stolid realism and consummate execution of plot, but remember to go in with a tough heart!