"The Boy In The Striped Pajamas".
"The Boy In The Striped Pajamas".
WishingOnlyWounds2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/25/08
#1"The Boy In The Striped Pajamas".
Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:04pm
I saw this movie today and I have to say it is by far one of the best movies I have ever seen. I had never heard of it and saw an online advertisement today and got really interested.
Unlike other Holocaust movies this is told through the German side of the war and reveals what was really going and what was happening to the Jewish people was kept secret from the German children, and wives of the Nazis. What also sets it apart is that it is not a graphic movie, there are no torture scenes, or gory scenes.
If you go to the website you can read the synopsis and watch a trailer.
I recommend this movie to any and everyone, it truly is one of the best, most emotional movies to come around in a long time.
Official movie website.
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
WishingOnlyWounds2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/25/08
#2re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:09pmIt got rave reviews and everyone walking out of the theatre was speaking so positively about it. No one actually got up right away. The theatre was dead silent after the credits and people were sitting there for a few minutes. Oh, that ending...
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#3re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:16pmWell, it's gotten mixed reviews. I think it looks kinda treacly.
TheatreDiva90016
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#4re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:19pm
Gaping Wound,
Please search before posting:
Previous Thread On This Subject
WishingOnlyWounds2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/25/08
#5re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:28pmI looked, it didn't come up. Sorry.
#6re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 9:39am
I worked on the DVD and saw the movie months ago. And I honestly can't understand why it's being blasted so much by the media. I'm not saying it's a perfect film. Or a great film, but it doesn't even remotely suck. It's a child's view of a horrific, tragic situation.
Sometimes I think critics are idiots.
Wait... I ALWAYS think critics are idiots.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#7re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 9:56am
Like I said, I haven't seen it, so I'm just going on secondhand info. I'll see it when it comes on dvd, but just seeing commercials for it gave me the icks.
At the end, I wasn't bawling, just dying to get the hell out. In the early moments of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," I wondered if this might be an OK movie for kids, for the way it tries to spell out the horrors of the camps in gentle but simple terms. Then I remembered my own confusion when, around age 8, I asked my mother about the Holocaust and couldn't for the life of me wrap my brain around it: It made no sense whatsoever. And watching "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," it struck me that weaving a touching little tale about a death-camp friendship is actually a pretty bad way to teach kids about the Holocaust. (I must add that the ending is likely to be extremely upsetting for children.) Not everything in life, or in history, needs to be framed in terms of things children can relate to. I'm not talking about shielding kids; I'm just saying that some ideas are so horrific that they shouldn't be framed in childish terms. The Holocaust, as Isser Harel, the Israeli secret service agent who helped capture Adolf Eichmann, put it, "had no place in the world of reality." Forget explaining it to children; it's not even something adults can comprehend. The last thing it should be used for is Oscar bait.
Salon
#9re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:44am
It's relentlessly depressing, but that doesn't mean it sucks.
I think there's something even more disgusting that a Holocaust movie about children, from their point of view...
And that's critics (like the one you posted) thinking this should have some "warm and fuzzy" sugarcoat surrounding it. That seems to be the reason this critic wanted to "get the hell out" and thought it was terrible. Did they say the film was badly made? No. Did they say the acting or direction was terrible? No. Or the script? No. I'm fairly disgusted by our society's desire to wrap every tragedy for kids inside a fluffy bunny package. And if we don't get our "fuzzy bunny" we leave saying it sucked. How shallow is that?
That's as bad as fans who are mad at a Broadway star who wasn't particularly nice to them at the stage door deciding their performance in the show sucked because of that.
It's the HOLOCAUST. Don't see it with children if you don't want to teach them about it. But if you DO want to teach them, don't expect this movie (or any movie, book, or even pamphlet) to be sugarcoated. That's a much SICKER idea than an uncompromising portrayal of the event itself.
What the hell is wrong with people today? And how are we raising our children? We didn't used to be like that. Not when I was growing up.
If this Holocaust movie skeeves you out, then say so! But don't say it sucks primarily because it's horribly depressing for kids. And "my little Jessica or Brittany might cry when she sees it."
Anyway, I repeat, this isn't a great film. Not remotely one of my favorites. But it isn't total wasted crap either. And my jaw is dropping from the critics rationale as to why it's "bad." That's the infuriating part. If they would say it was badly made, I wouldn't argue with that.
But really it's the critics who are reviewing this movie that are crap. And have a seriously warped idea of how to raise our children on "ugly" subject matter.
Honestly, did any of you grow up thinking the Holocaust, or WWI or WWII or lynchings in the South or any other "ugly" historical event was less than what it was?
I remember seeing horrible photos, films and TV shows that were uncompromsing. And they made a huge impact on me as a child. I didn't need a Hallmark Hall of Fame glossed-over view of the Civil War, Vietnam, or anything else.
Sorry for the rant. And actually it has NOTHING to do with this movie. I can't say I recommend it wholeheartedly. It's VERY depressing. But these critics disgust me. They should know better. And they should do their jobs better.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#10re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:52am
A much better (Oscar-winning) film on the tragedies of WWII told through the eyes of children. Made in 1952.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Games
I wonder if these critics today would say the same kind of comments. "We can't tell stories of the Holocaust through kiddies' eyes," etc. What idiots!
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#11re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:53am
And that's critics (like the one you posted) thinking this should have some "warm and fuzzy" sugarcoat surrounding it
Actually, I don't think that's what the critic is saying at all.
#12re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:56am
"Not everything in life, or in history, needs to be framed in terms of things children can relate to. I'm not talking about shielding kids; I'm just saying that some ideas are so horrific that they shouldn't be framed in childish terms."
Yeah, they're contradicting themselves, but YES, that's exactly what they are saying.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#13re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:58amI still don't think so. I think it's saying that the movie IS framed as something warm and fuzzy so kids can relate to it.
#14re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 11:01am
This movie is not remotely warm and fuzzy. The main kid doesn't know what's going on at first. So it's innocent. But it's FAR from "warm and fuzzy." He sees only what he sees until he finally learns more about what's really going on.
I think this critic was expecting warm and fuzzy, and was shocked when they didn't get that. Too bad.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#15re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 11:05am
This movie isn't "warm and fuzzy," but it IS a child's point of view. They're the two main characters. The two kids.
It's like the stupid criticisms that "To Kill A Mockingbird" received (from Ebert among others) saying that they trivialized the trial of Tom Robinson by making this movie all about Atticus Finch and the kids.
But it's the KID's story. Scout is telling it. It's her point of view. She sees what she sees. She doesn't know Tom Robinson. She doesn't approach the subject matter from an adult perspective.
Why should film critics have to be told this?
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#16re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 2:42pmIf you haven't read the book, read it. It's good, and quick. I didn't quite understand the hype around the book having read it, because I found it a tiny bit pretentious towards the end, but there you go.
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#17re: 'The Boy In The Striped Pajamas'.
Posted: 12/24/08 at 5:02pm
A lot of the criticism I saw of the movie centered on the overload of movies that try to use the Holocaust as Oscar-bait. Manohla Dargis, a critic I rather like, said:
See the Holocaust trivialized, glossed over, kitsched up, commercially exploited and hijacked for a tragedy about a Nazi family. Better yet and in all sincerity: don’t.
In other words, enough already. At a certain point, using the old death camp plot point is just manipulative.
Videos