Comedy & Jokes Community - messages #74196

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Boy in Stripped PJs

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#1 of 29 Posted Nov-2 2:11 AM

From DEKE Posts 7163 Last 8:54 AM
To All [Msg # 74196.1 ]

Thanks to Netflix, I watched The Boy In Striped Pajamas this evening. While watching it I was thinking I was going to highly recommend this movie in C&JF. I enjoyed the characters because they were so much more developed than in the typical WW2 movie. Most movies portray WW2 Germans as 100% war crazed Nazis, always serious unless they are happily celebrating taking over France. In this movie the dad is a hard working, loving father and husband. He cares deeply for the welfare of his country. He only wants the best for all....except of course for those damn Jews. Dear old dad happens to be a German general who is appointed to run an extermination camp and has no problem seeing Jews as vermin in need of extermination.

The mom doesn't seem to have the hatred for the Jews, just as long as her family isn't hurt in the process, dad's job is just fine. The daughter, the older sister, hates Jews because that's what she's been taught by the dashing young soldiers and her teacher.

The little boy, Bruno, 8 years old, kept sheltered by his parents from the evil of the war, thinks the Jews are working on a farm and doesn't understand why they all wear the same outfit. Bruno befriends a little Jewish boy inside the fence but never comes to fully understand why the Jews are fenced in. The story is really about the innocence of Bruno, who goes from worshiping his very important soldier dad, to just beginning to wonder how wonderful-dad can be connected to a possibly evil dad that runs the strange camp. He sees the propaganda movie about how wonderful the camp is and assumes it's all true, even though he can see that reality is very different.

I'm not going to say it is a great story. It made my wife cry and the ending certainly gives no satisfaction. But it was a great way to start a discussion with my wee lass about the war and man's inhumanity to man throughout time. Yes, she's learned a little about the holocaust in school, but school never seems to give life to the people and families that were tortured and killed.

Brooke will be happy to know that the movie also gave me a way to discuss with the wee lass, the constant fight freedom has with every gov't. The Nazis showed perfectly how gov't is used as a means to acquire power over others. Of course I made comparisons to how some Dimocrats want to use gov't power to take money from the rich, how Theopublicans want to use gov't power to strengthen their religious preferences, how xenophobes want to use gov't power to keep Mexicans out of our country. Of course we discussed how evil it is for Obama to desire to control our healthcare industry.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, go rent it.

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#2 of 29 Posted Nov-2 12:18 PM

From Brooke Posts 9151 Last 10:46 PM
To DEKE [Msg # 74196.2 74196.1 ]

Take wee lass to Holocaust museum in D.C..

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#3 of 29 Posted Nov-2 1:44 PM

From JD Posts 5238 Last 6:24 PM
To Brooke [Msg # 74196.3 74196.2 ]

Take wee lass to Holocaust museum in D.C..>>>

Been there.

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#4 of 29 Posted Nov-2 5:43 PM

From DEKE Posts 7163 Last 8:54 AM
To Brooke [Msg # 74196.4 74196.2 ]

>>Take wee lass to Holocaust museum in D.C..<<

We did several years back when we had relatives in town. She was too young to understand what she was seeing. I probably won't go back. I had a huge fascination with all things WW2 when I was a kid, including the Holocaust. I just don't want to see all that again.

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#5 of 29 Posted Nov-2 6:17 PM

From JD Posts 5238 Last 6:24 PM
To DEKE [Msg # 74196.5 74196.4 ]

We did several years back when we had relatives in town. She was too young to understand what she was seeing. I probably won't go back. I had a huge fascination with all things WW2 when I was a kid, including the Holocaust. I just don't want to see all that again.>>>

Of all the sites we visited on our DC trip, none had more security than that place.

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#6 of 29 Posted Nov-2 9:53 PM

From DEKE Posts 7163 Last 8:54 AM
To JD [Msg # 74196.6 74196.5 ]

>>Of all the sites we visited on our DC trip, none had more security than that place.<<

Which is why this guy was dumber than dumb. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061001768.html

Unfortunately the one dead guy wasn't the holocaust denier. I read on some NRA related site that the only reason the shooter survived was the security system. SOmeone triggered a door closing system so some of the security guard's bullets, despite being well aimed, struck bullet proof glass doors that closed between the shooter and the guards. The doors shut so fast, the guards couldn't react fast enough to not fire at the glass.

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#7 of 29 Posted Nov-2 11:50 PM

From Blake Posts 2543 Last 5:21 AM
To DEKE [Msg # 74196.7 74196.1 ]

My review:

The story takes place in Germany in WWII and concerns an eight-year-old boy whose Nazi father (literally, not the more common metaphorical "Nazi" you read about these days) gets transferred to a concentration camp. Isolated from his friends, the boy Bruno--looking for all the world to me like a mini-Bud Court circa Harold and Maude days--looks for friends in the area and happens to come across an eight-year-old Jew behind the fence of the camp his father runs.

WWII afficianados assure me this is impossible. But, hey. I'm amused by the fact that "Hogan's Heroes" has made it impossible for anyone in a movie about Nazis to have a German accent. We all just think of that lovable Sgt. Shultz!

What we have here is a fable, an antithesis to Benigni's La Vita E Bella. Only instead of a father trying to keep his Jewish son unaware of the horror they live in, it's a father trying to keep his German son (and whole family) unaware of the horror they're committing.

Heavy-handed? Oh, yeah, without any of the lightness of Benigni. But what the hell else can you do? The mother is the first to figure out what's going on, and the knowledge breaks her. The sister, having a crush on her father's driver, endeavors to be a good Nazi, but even she's taken aback when she pieces it together.

We don't actually know if Bruno ever figures it out.

It's not bad. There's a scene in the beginning where Bruno is playing soldier with his friends that's more than a little trite. And there's a scene in the middle where the sister has gotten rid of her dolls, and the pile looks like a bunch of dead bodies. Other than that, the director spares us most of the really weighty symbolism.

It is in danger of being regarded as important, mind you, like Crash or Babel or any of the other Oscar-baiting crap one sees. But I think Benigni had the harder task.

Ultimately, if there's a flaw in the story--beyond the whether-you-can-suspend-disbelief-this-much, which is your problem, not the movie's--it's sort of that it's a morality tale, a stern warning, a scolding--ultimately directed at long dead people.

I mean, seriously, the odds of me running a genocidal camp while my children are still young enough to be negatively impacted are pretty small. I'm not even in the genocide field so, you know, I'd have to start as camp janitor or cafeteria worker or whatever. It's just too late in life for me to change careers.

Sorry, is that in poor taste? (If you have to ask....)

It's just that the writers are in a corner. There's very little actual death in the movie, but we can't whitewash the Holocaust. Therefore more difficult and challenging endings that respect the complexity of the situation are forsaken for a tidy, less-than-happy ending that really drives home how bad the Holocaust was.

You know, in case you hadn't heard. Or maybe needed driven home to you. (Last year's The Counterfeiters does a pretty good job.)

I guess my point is, I hate Nazis as much as the next guy, but this movie feels like it's lecturing Nazis, and I just didn't think there were many in that theater. Even when it was sold out.

Blake

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#8 of 29 Posted Nov-3 7:39 AM

From DEKE Posts 7163 Last 8:54 AM
To Blake [Msg # 74196.8 74196.7 ]

Fisr, I haven't seen a one of those other movies you mentioned, so some of what you said whooshed right over. Second, I love stories about kids. I'm not sure why, but I always have. And STFU with what you're thinking.

>> the odds of me running a genocidal camp while my children are still young enough to be negatively impacted are pretty small.<<

LOL - there you go again with that glass half empty thinking.

>>I guess my point is, I hate Nazis as much as the next guy, but this movie feels like it's lecturing Nazis, and I just didn't think there were many in that theater. Even when it was sold out.<<

I didn't see it as a anti-Nazi hate fest. More the opposite, that the Germans were people too, not the monolithic, one dimensional, Heil Hitler saluting mob so frequently portrayed in the movies. And the reason I like seeing the Germans as everyday people is because it shows that that level of evil isn't all that far a leap from everyday people anywhere else. So many Americans like to think we are so far removed from that level of barbarity, but let people with power get hungry, angry, or hurt enough and they can justify just about anything. At least that's what history proves and I don't know why, all of a sudden, just 60 years away from the Holocaust .

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#9 of 29 Posted Nov-3 9:09 PM

From Blake Posts 2543 Last 5:21 AM
To DEKE [Msg # 74196.9 74196.8 ]

Fisr, I haven't seen a one of those other movies you mentioned, so some of what you said whooshed right over. Second, I love stories about kids. I'm not sure why, but I always have. And STFU with what you're thinking.

I can't be held accountable for your cinematic ignorance.

LOL - there you go again with that glass half empty thinking.

I'm not even on the waiting list!

I didn't see it as a anti-Nazi hate fest. More the opposite, that the Germans were people too, not the monolithic, one dimensional, Heil Hitler saluting mob so frequently portrayed in the movies. And the reason I like seeing the Germans as everyday people is because it shows that that level of evil isn't all that far a leap from everyday people anywhere else. So many Americans like to think we are so far removed from that level of barbarity, but let people with power get hungry, angry, or hurt enough and they can justify just about anything. At least that's what history proves and I don't know why, all of a sudden, just 60 years away from the Holocaust .

Yeah, yeah, but when Nazi-ism re-emerges, it's not going to be wearing swastikas.

It'll probably come in the form of "Hope" and "Change".

Blake

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#10 of 29 Posted Nov-4 3:16 AM

From DEKE Posts 7163 Last 8:54 AM
To Blake [Msg # 74196.10 74196.9 ]

>>I can't be held accountable for your cinematic ignorance.<<

Why not? You're the one that has seen every movie known to man. I can't be held accountable for you failing to teach us properly.

>>Yeah, yeah, but when Nazi-ism re-emerges, it's not going to be wearing swastikas.

It'll probably come in the form of "Hope" and "Change".<<

Exactly. Fortunately, there is hope and the change started today in Virginia and New Jersey.

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#11 of 29 Posted Nov-5 8:40 PM

From Blake Posts 2543 Last 5:21 AM
To DEKE [Msg # 74196.11 74196.10 ]

Why not? You're the one that has seen every movie known to man. I can't be held accountable for you failing to teach us properly.

Between us, we're so unaccountable, we could run for school board.

Exactly. Fortunately, there is hope and the change started today in Virginia and New Jersey.

I think NY-23 was interesting. Third party nobody came from nowhere in a month to almost squeak out a win against both major parties.

Blake

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#12 of 29 Posted Nov-6 4:23 AM

From DEKE Posts 7163 Last 8:54 AM
To Blake [Msg # 74196.12 74196.11 ]

>>I think NY-23 was interesting. Third party nobody came from nowhere in a month to almost squeak out a win against both major parties.<<

Yep, that's the one I wanted the most. I would love to see a third party get a real foot hold.

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#13 of 29 Posted Nov-6 10:47 AM

From JD Posts 5238 Last 6:24 PM
To DEKE [Msg # 74196.13 74196.12 ]

My father is chairman of a NY county conservative party. I'm sure he was involved in that somehow. I was involved with him (ok, I was a kid, but I helped) when the first third-party candidate was elected to a major office. Remember him?

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