The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I haven’t done a movie review in ages! That’s because none of the movies has left such a big impact on me, giving me the pressing desire to express my emotions in words.

But this is one movie that has me really thinking about the fragility of life and the struggles to remain morally upright amidst external pressure.

“The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” is a movie based on a novel of the same name. Setting is of Germany during the World War II. 8 year-old Bruno is the son of a German Comandante who has been sent to Auschwitz to oversee the gas chambers. Staying in a house very near to the concentration camp, Bruno wondered over to it one day and made friends with a 8 year-old jewish boy called Schmuel. (Pronounced as Sch-moo) Although separated by an electric fence, friendship between the 2 boys flourished.

I won’t regurgitate the whole movie out scene by scene… you have wikipedia for that… Just want to share my thoughts…

Although knowing the background of the Holocaust and all, I can’t help but to think, how can someone treat another human being as a lesser person? And that exterminating a whole clan of people is for a greater good…

When put in that position, can I and will I stand up to defend what I think is right? Or will I hesitate, look away or blatantly ignore what is obviously a immoral and inhumane act for self-preservation?

There were tear-jerking moments but the one scene that is singularly stuck in my mind is that final poignant scene, where the camera initially focused on the door to the gas chamber and it slowly zoomed out to reveal rows of striped pyjamas haphazardly strewn around the place.

No gruesome images of men dying from the poisonous gas… But it will leave no doubt in your mind that many had died. And they died a meaningless death, not known by names but by numbers. Not known by the great lives that they would have led by being doctors, watchmakers, bakers… but by the same striped pyjamas.

2 words: Watch it!