The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Mark Herman

Writers:

John Boyne (novel)
Mark Herman (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 November 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | War

Tagline:

A timeless story of innocence lost and humanity found.

Plot:

Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.

Plot Keywords:

Concentration Camp | Friend | Friendship | Nazi Concentration Camp | Father Son Relationship

Awards:

2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Asa Butterfield	...	Bruno
Zac Mattoon O'Brien	...	Leon (as Zac Mattoon-O'Brien)
Domonkos Németh	...	Martin
Henry Kingsmill	...	Karl
Vera Farmiga	...	Mother
Cara Horgan	...	Maria
Zsuzsa Holl	...	Berlin Cook
Amber Beattie	...	Gretel
László Áron	...	Lars
David Thewlis	...	Father
Richard Johnson	...	Grandpa
Sheila Hancock	...	Grandma
Charlie Baker	...	Palm Court Singer
Iván Verebély	...	Meinberg
Béla Fesztbaum	...	Schultz

Also Known As:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (USA)
El niño con el pijama de rayas (Argentina) (Mexico) (Peru) (Spain) [es]
Chlapec v pruhovaném pyzamu (Czech Republic) [cs]
Der Junge im gestreiften Pyjama (Germany) [de]
Drengen i den stribede pyjamas (Denmark) [da]
El niño con el pijama a rayas (Chile) [es]
Il bambino con il pigiama a righe (Italy) [it]
O Menino do Pijama Listrado (Brazil) [pt]
O Rapaz do Pijama Às Riscas (Portugal) [pt]
Poika raidallisessa pyjamassa (Finland) [fi]
Pojken i randig pyjamas (Sweden) [sv]
To agori piso apo to syrmatoplegma (Greece) (DVD title) [el]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some mature thematic material involving the Holocaust.

Runtime:

94 min | Israel:93 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44276) | Ireland:12A | UK:12A | Norway:11 | Argentina:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | Brazil:12 | Chile:14 | Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | South Korea:12 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Germany:12 (f) | Hong Kong:IIA | Mexico:B | Japan:PG-12 | New Zealand:M | Peru:14

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

BBC Films

Trivia:

Vera Farmiga who plays the boy's mother is shown wearing her wedding band on her right hand. For Germany, this is correct and an excellent accurate detail.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: "In the beginning of the film the main character's father has the common SS bullets on his right collar. Shortly after, the Father's uniform collar changes to a Skull and Crossbones patch, which is inaccurate. The Skull and Crossbones or "Totenkopf" was worn on the SS man's Hat." This is not a goof: the Totenkopf insignia was used as a "trade" badge on the collar patch by that branch of the SS that guarded and administrated the camps, the so called "Totenkopf-Verbaende" that were part of the SS-Verfuegungstruppen". They wore this variant of collar patch in combination with copper brown piping, "waffenfarbe" , denoting the camp guards branch. The SS hat badge consisted only of a skull, without crossbones. Just look at original pictures of uniformed SS concentration camp guards.

Quotes:

Bruno: [from trailer] Dad's a good man.
Gretel: Of course he is.

Movie Connections:

References Theresienstadt (1944)

Soundtrack:

Mein Regiment, mein Heimatland

A movie that everyone must watch

I was sitting at the very back row of Cineworld, Dublin screen nine and struggling with my tears. I thought it would be extremely embarrassing if people see tears in my eyes. But I was so wrong! The lady sitting beside me was crying like anything. Finally we ended up with the move and it started showing casts on its black screen. But, not a single person moved from his seat or probably lost their (including myself) power to move. The only sound I heard was the sound of people's emotion. Guy sitting one row before me hugged his girlfriend who were crying like a little kid. The guy himself was also in tear. I saw a girl from Cineworld cleaning staff with horrifying red eyes. Everyone was spellbound there!

I am talking about the movie THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, unexpectedly a too good movie. I didn't have a single clue about the movie itself and just tried to explore something new. Fortunately or unfortunately, Bruno (main cast of the movie), a young 8-years old kid who love to explore new world explored too much for us that made us all cry while leaving the cinema. I just don't want to spoil your entertainment by giving hints about the story. Rather, I would suggest you to watch the movie and discover some critical facts that sometime we forget in this heartless world.

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, a movie from an Irish writer and an English director; everyone must watch. If you tell me to rate, I would say, 1 to 10 scale is not enough to rate this movie. We better keep it above rating!