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Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 33 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Mark Herman
Directed by: Mark Herman
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 7, 2008
DVD: March 10, 2009
Running Time: 93 minutes, Color
Origin: UK | USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some mature thematic material involving the Holocaust
Starring David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Rupert Friend, Asa Butterfield, and Jack Scalon
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a powerful fictional story that offers a unique perspective on how prejudice, hatred and violence affect innocent people, particularly children, during wartime. Through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy largely shielded from the reality of World War II, we witness a forbidden friendship that forms between Bruno, the son of Nazi commandant, and Shmuel, a Jewish boy held captive in a concentration camp. Though the two are separated physically by a barbed wire fence, their lives become inescapably intertwined. The imagined story of Bruno and Shmuel sheds light on the brutality, senselessness and devastating consequences of war from an unusual point of view. Together, their tragic journey helps recall the millions of innocent victims of the Holocaust. (Miramax Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
And yet the great conundrum of the Holocaust is that it was perpetrated by human beings, not monsters. Few movies have rendered this puzzle so powerfully.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Even though it unfolds almost entirely through a child's eyes, and contains no onscreen violence, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas packs as devastating a punch as an adult-oriented drama about the subject. Its concluding five minutes are almost impossible to watch.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not only about Germany during the war, although the story it tells is heartbreaking in more than one way. It is about a value system that survives like a virus.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Viewers should know that the film's resolution, though admirably restrained and unsentimental, is devastatingly sad. Parents should take this into account. This beautifully rendered family film is told in a classic and old-fashioned style, in the best sense, providing poignant and powerful teachable moments.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The film has any number of chances to exploit the setting and Butterfield's wide-eyed innocence, but instead, it mines a vast, eerie tension by keeping both boys in the dark.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Turns out this is a thoughtful, well-acted film that manages to view this most inconceivable of travesties through the eyes of child without being childish itself.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
Boyne's tale is starkly cautionary, and writer-director Herman handles a difficult topic with great sensitivity, drawing splendid performances from his young actors with David Thewlis and Vera Farmiga and the other grown-ups reliably efficient.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
Opening half-hour has some of the best stuff in the movie, walking a precarious line between black irony and showing the war from a totally German viewpoint, without tipping over into gallows humor or parody.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Chuck Wilson
In adapting Irishman John Boyne's acclaimed young-adult novel, writer-director Mark Herman (Little Voice) draws beautifully modulated performances from his two child actors, who navigate a full range of emotions from wonder to betrayal to guilt.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
In key ways, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is like Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth": a child, caught in the waking nightmare of one of history's ugliest times, confronting the horrors of a grown-up world, and dealing with them as best he, or she, can.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The power of this Holocaust tale sneaks up and floors you.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Told from a different angle than any other Holocaust film I've seen.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Because its gaze is so level and so unyielding, it stands as one of the better dramatic films made on this subject (although it's not nearly as fine as Louis Malle's "Au Revoir les Enfants."
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The result isn't meant to be an historical document transmuted into fiction; instead, it's fiction turned into a fable, a dark fable.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Sheri Linden
The film's two levels -- metaphoric and nitty-gritty -- don't mesh until the devastation of the closing sequence, which both indulges in and transcends melodrama.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas should be heartbreaking, but it isn't. The muted quality of its impact is the result of narrative shortcuts and a desire to keep the images from being too startling.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Herman's intentions are admirable, but his results are unsettling in the worst ways.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The bulk of the movie consists of scene after scene coyly setting up the same ironic juxtaposition, in the exact same way, about innocence vs. Nazism.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The film succeeds to the degree that it does -- partially, but honorably and sometimes affectingly -- because it was made as well as it was.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
True artists will risk sacrificing audience goodwill for truth and sentimentality for cold historical reality, but Herman doesn't want your respect; he just wants your tears.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
I found the movie impossibly basic and sanitized as a "never again" parable of the Final Solution - and simply wrongheaded as a story about children.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
Although it's a far less objectionable Holocaust revision than, say, Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful," Herman's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is yet another attempt to revisit a sorrowful event in history that should never be forgotten or used for entertainment.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
The faux-naive point of view probably worked better in the novel; the literalness of film renders certain of the story's conceits overly precious.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Nathan Southern
Herman fails to journey beyond the surface-level realities of his central perspective, which makes his film feel half-developed and poorly conceived, and drives it into sensationalism.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
An appalling, jaw-dropping movie that will cause serious nightmares.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
This might have had some potential as a German exercise in self-examination, but as a tony BBC Films production, with the actors all speaking British-accented English (including Jersey girl Farmiga), it reeks of self-righteousness.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Eric Z gave it a9:
It was a harsh ending, but well done. The actors were incredible.
Pete T gave it a1:
Awful, awful, awful. I'm not heartless. Parts of it are touching of course, but it's terribly done. It's like Shindler's List for kids, expect I'd never show it to kids (and I'm a teacher).
mauricio l gave it a9:
Very goood movie, really sad and kept me really interested through out the hole movie.
Eric C gave it a10:
Beautifully done! It made me cry twice.
Jay H. gave it a7:
Beautifully made and acted. The story is a bit familiar and it's pretty easy to see where the film is going. Still, it's very poignant. Excellent cinematography. It's a fine film overall.
Ann D. gave it a10:
I thought the movie was wonderful. A poignant tale involving the bigotry of the adults and the innocence of the children. The ending was heart wrenching but necessary for the punch!
Cynthia C. gave it a10:
This was the best film I've seen this year, for acting, cinematography and content. Very powerful.
