| | | "Lines May Divide Us, But Hope Will Unite Us."
Features: DVD
From Miramax Films, the studio that brought you the Academy Award-winning Life is Beautiful (Best Foreign Language Film, 1998) comes The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Based on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, it's "an unforgettable motion picture experience powerful and moving beyond words" (Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com). Bored and restless in his new home, Bruno, an innocent and naive eight-year-old, ignores his mother and sets off on an adventure in the woods. Soon he meets a young boy, and a surprising friendship develops. Set during World War II, this remarkable and inspiring story about the power of the human spirit will capture your heart and engage your mind.
"This beautifully rendered family film is told in a classic and old-fashioned style, in the best sense, providing poignant and powerful teachable moments." Claudia Puig, USA Today
"One of the best films of the year." Jeffrey Lyons, NBC/Reel Talk
"...a thoughtful, well-acted film that manages to view this most inconceivable of travesties through the eyes of child without being childish itself." Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian
"...the great conundrum of the Holocaust is that it was perpetrated by human beings, not monsters. Few movies have rendered this puzzle so powerfully." Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
"...packs as devastating a punch as an adult-oriented drama about the subject." Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Editor's Note
Based on the novel by John Boyne, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is a wrenching Holocaust story about a young German boy and his forbidden friendship with a Jewish child. Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is living a charmed life in Berlin as the son of a high-ranking Nazi soldier, when his father (David Thewlis) is suddenly transferred to a job out in the country. Bruno, as well as his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) and mother (Vera Farmiga) must all join him at his new post. Bruno is lonely and confused by his new surroundings, and he doesn't understand why he can't wander the grounds or play at a nearby farm. The "farm," of course, is a concentration camp, though Bruno doesn't know this. He soon sneaks away to explore, and meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) a prisoner of the camp. Shmuel is eight, the same age as Bruno, and the two form a timid, careful friendship, playing checkers and catch through the barbed wire fence. Bruno knows that his friendship with Shmuel is dangerous, but after witnessing brutal violence perpetrated against some very kind people, he has begun to question the Nazi doctrine of hate. He is no longer sure what to make of his soldier father, whom he once believed to be a hero. When he learns that Shmuel is in trouble, he vows to help him, and together the boys form an outrageous plan that culminates in the film's devastating climax.Farmiga and Thewlis put in excellent performances, while Scanlon and Butterfield, are equally impressive, doing a fine job of carrying the weight of such a heavy film. The BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS is a deeply moving and--it must be said--disturbing movie. But it is a remarkable story, told with masterly intelligence and grace.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Deleted Scenes (With Optional Audio Commentary By Writer/Director Mark Herman & Author John Boyne) | | Feature Audio Commentary By Writer/Director Mark Herman & Author John Boyne | | Featurette: Friendship Beyond The Fence | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: Spanish |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - DVD Review By: Brandon Cozart - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 3/10/2009 11:37 PM | | 2008 was a very big year for films adapted from books, with several reaching the high acclaim of Academy Award nominations. One adapted film that didn't get much recognition, however, is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, based on the novel by John Boyne. The film opens with the following quote emblazoned on the screen: "Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows." As the quote suggests, this is a sort of coming of age film, and over the course of 94 minutes,those in the audience slowly watch the innocence of children unravel before their eyes as the reality of what is taking place becomes more and more illuminated....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 12/26/2009 |
| Running Time: 94 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 05588300 | | UPC: 00786936749274 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "Mark Herman's adaptation of John Boyne's novella succeeds....Both Vera Farmiga and David Thewlis furnish their parental roles with real humanity." 10/01/2008 p.69USA Today
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS adds another poignant tale to the canon of Holocaust movies....It is also a notably faithful rendering of John Boyne's novel, told from the perspective of a young boy." 11/07/2008 Los Angeles Times
"[A]n affecting drama that refuses to soft-pedal its harrowing conclusion." 11/07/2008 Chicago Sun-Times
"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." 11/05/2008 Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "[T]he power of the story and the performances -- young Butterfield amazes -- is indisputable." 11/13/2008 p.98 ReelViews 7 of 10
The Holocaust is one of the great tragedies in recent human history, so it's no surprise that a fair amount of film and literature produced over the last 60+ years has addressed the subject in one way or another. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, based on the young adult novel by John Boyne, provides a window to proceedings through the eyes of an eight-year old boy. While this perspective allows the film to represent events in an atypical fashion, it also gives The Boy in the Striped Pajamas an artificial, fairy tale quality that one could argue undermines the seriousness of the subject matter. A certain degree of sanitization is applied to the horror to make it more easily consumed - not "comfortable," to be sure, but "less uncomfortable." While the ending provides some shock value, the visceral "gut punch" impact is associated more with the specifics of the plot than the overall truth of the Holocaust, and this creates a curious sense of imbalance. If you doubt this, consider why the ending has an impact...The film's strength is the way it attempts with some success to present the viewpoint of an innocent boy. Viewers, with the perspective of history and distance to inform their understanding, see ominous aspects to things offered by director Mark Herman as childish or inconsequential...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. The fairy tale aspect is both a strength and a weakness - it provides a fresh perspective but raises serious questions about intent. I admit to being conflicted about the film. It is a well-made, serious effort, but the pervasive sense of oversimplification and contrivance left me unpersuaded that this is more than a minor take on a major historical event. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
Mark Herman's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" depends for its powerful impact on why, and when, it transfers the film's point of view. For almost all of the way, we see events through the eyes of a bright, plucky 8-year-old. Then we begin to look out through the eyes of his parents. Why and when that transfer takes place gathers all of the film's tightly wound tensions and savagely uncoils them. It is not what happens to the boy, which I will not tell you. It is -- all that happens...Other than what "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is about, it almost seems to be an orderly story of those British who always know how to speak and behave. Those British? Yes, the actors speak with crisp British accents, which I think is actually more effective than having them speaking with German accents, or in subtitles. It dramatizes the way the German professional class internalized Hitler's rule and treated it as business as usual...How can ordinary professional people proceed in this orderly routine when their business is evil? Easier than we think, I believe. I still obsess about those few Enron executives who knew the entire company was a Ponzi scheme. I can't forget the Oregon railroader who had his pension stolen. The laughter of Enron soldiers who joked about killing grandmothers with their phony California "energy crisis." Whenever loyalty to the enterprise becomes more important than simple morality, you will find evil functioning smoothly..."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. Do I think the people responsible for our economic crisis were Nazis? Certainly not. But instead of collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in rewards for denying to themselves what they were doing, I wish they had been forced to flee to Paraguay in submarines. - Roger Ebert
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