since I didn't watch a movie the last time we were supposed to, I figued that I better watch one this last weekend just to get my blog done. The move that I watched was The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
An eight-year-old boy, Bruno, who's father is a SS Officer. The movie starts with the family having to move away from Berlin, and Bruno and his older sister Gretel having to adjust to the move. Bruno really has no idea what his father's job is. In fact, most of the family doesn't really know that there is a consentration camp next door to their house besides their dad.
The mom is told that the camp that her husband is running is just a labor camp. She tells Bruno, her son, that they are living next door to a farm. Bruno, not having his friends, becomes extremely bored. One day, when Bruno was looking for something to do, he finds himself escaping through a shed window in order to venture into the woods. He comes across a fence, which has the prisoners in the concentration camp. that is where he meets 8-year-old Shmuel. Bruno and Shmuel become really close friends. Bruno continues to visit Shmuel and take him food, and the boys play games through the fence. Shmuel eventually convinces Bruno of his belief of that the camp is a farm. Shmuel has to explain to Bruno that he is a prisoner at a camp, and that he wears the striped pajamas because he is a Jew.
Bruno and Gretel are home-schooled. Their teacher fills them about information on current events, and fills their heads about the ideas of the Nazi party. He tries to explain how horrible the Jews are to the children, but this is difficult for Bruno to grasp because the Jews he knows in his life, Shmual and Paval, a Jew that works in their home, are good people. Gretel on the other hand becomes like all creepy and obsessed with the Third Reich.
One night at supper, Paval, accidently spills one of the Nazi's wine glass. To punish him, the Nazi takes Paval into the kitchen and sadly beats him to death. That was really sad. But anyways, to take Paval's place, Shmuel becomes a house boy. He tells Bruno how he is hungry so Bruno tells him to have a piece of cake. When he still is eating the mean Nazi that killed Paval comes in and makes Bruno scared so he betrays his friend. When Bruno goes back to the camp to visit Shmual he finds him there with his eye all swollen and it is obvious that he had been beat. The two boys make up and become friends again.
When the mom finds out that the camp is actually a Death Camp she does not approve of what her husband is doing and they decide that the mother should take herself and the children to go and move in with their aunt. The parents were still unaware of the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel, and had no idea what the two boys were planning. Shmuel had told Bruno that his dad had gone missing so Bruno, being the adventurous and kind-hearted boy he is, tells Shmuel that he is going to help him find his father. The boys cast out on their adventure the day that Bruno is supposed to move away. The boys planned that Bruno would get into the camp by digging a hole under the fence, and he would change into the striped pajamas and wear a little striped hat so he would look like a Jew.
They never find his dad, but instread they end up getting cramped into a small room where they were told that they would be taking showers. That really wasn't what was going to happen in there though.
When Bruno's family realizes Bruno is missing, they all go frantic and start a huge search. Eventually, they come across a hole under the fence, and Bruno's clothes laying on the dirt ground. The father goes in to search for Bruno, and to find that his son had been gassed at a death camp that he was in charge of.
I think that this movie was really sad. This movie is a really good refection on what happens to the Jews while in the death camps.
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