Movie Review

Movie critic Roger Ebert goes into detail about how The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is more than just about the Holocaust but also about all that happens to the young eight year old boy of a Nazi soldier. When this family moves to the country near a concentration camp, Bruno, the young eight year old boy of a Nazi soldier, becomes curious of the “farm” behind their house.  Because the family gives him an evasive answer, Bruno decides to find out for himself.  He discovers that this “farm” was definitely not a farm at all.  Even though he doesn’t necessarily know what a concentration camp is, he discovers that these people in the striped pajamas are not farmers. This is when Bruno meets Shmuel, which ultimately leads to Bruno’s death. Roger Ebert makes a very good point because Bruno plays a big role in this movie based on where he ends up in the end.  Even though The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a historical film based on the events in the Holocaust and the way the concentration camps worked, the events that Bruno witnessed were just as important.  The movie portrays Bruno as a naive little boy that has no idea what is really going on in the world around him and this concept basically explains most of the young people throughout this time period. Not just during the Holocaust but with most of the important historical events, adults like to censor the young from seeing the true impact of of the events that are going on around them.  Because of this, many children get curious and want to find out the answers to their own questions for themselves.  This is exactly how Bruno ended up dead at the end of the movie.  He got curious and wasn’t given answers so he went to look for answers on his own and found himself in the concentration camp being burned with the Jews being held there.