I believe that the director’s purpose was to show the
argument amongst Germans regarding WWII. Most commonly we see it painted that
all Germans were for the war and hated Jews, but this film shows that some
disagreed, and some didn’t understand the war at all. The film portrays the
family of a high ranking German officer, Ralf, and the struggle they go through
while he commands a concentration camp (Assumed to be Auschwitz). The mother,
Elsa, disagrees with what is going on, the daughter, Gretel, becomes infatuated
with a soldier under her father’s command and begins to obsess over Hitler in
support of the war, and the son, Bruno, doesn’t understand why the war is
happening in the first place. He is told that the Jews are evil people who have
destroyed Germany, but the Jewish people in his life, the nanny/maid, garden
hand, and boy from the camp, Shmuel, who he befriends, all appear to be nice
people. The way the film ends seems to be a sort of punishment for Ralf.
The effects of the film all seem very natural and don’t
distract, but they help to pull you into the film as a reality. The dialogue
seems to be mostly natural for the time period though slow moving at times. The
musical score sometimes gets a little loud and over dramatic to match the feel and
story, which becomes distracting because it is so startling.
I feel like the acting seemed fairly believable, Ralf has a
relentless drive to do his duty, and Elsa is convincingly angry and distraught
at the situation. Bruno seems realistically bored with the empty house and
convincingly confused about the whole situation with the Jews.
The film does a fabulous job showing the inner struggle of a
German family during the war, with the arguments between the parents and the
complete confusion of Bruno. He sees only nice things coming from the Jewish
people he meets and only mean acts from the German soldiers towards them, for
no reason at all. At one point he is swinging and falls off, the Jewish
Gardner/kitchen hand carries him inside & bandages his him up, admitting to
having previously been a doctor. Later when the man accidentally spills wine at
a supper a Nazi soldier drags him into the other room and Bruno hears him be
beat to death. Not only does this confuse Bruno, but Elsa doesn’t approve of
it, which leads her to argue with Ralf, ending in them deciding to move the
children away.
We start this first clip the morning after the Jewish doctor
was beaten (By the Nazi soldier we see in the clip), and the boy that Bruno has
befriended, Shmuel, has been sent to the home to work. It starts with a small
recap of various things Bruno has been told about the Jews.
Youtube 54:55-57:55 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8ygCnILBCo)
In this second clip we start after it has been decided that
Bruno and his sister are to leave. Bruno has snuck off to say goodbye to
Shmuel. Shmuel reveals that his father is missing and as an apology for
betraying him previously, Bruno agrees to help him search for his father. He
digs a hole under the fence, dresses in the striped uniform, and once they
begin their search, Bruno’s parents realize he is missing and go searching for
him.
Youtube 1:20:00-1:25:00
I enjoyed the film in that I thought it was believable, I
got into it, I was rooting for Bruno. Though I know the outcome couldn’t be
good I wanted Shmuel to find his father and escape. I think it was very well
put together and tells a story of WWII that to my knowledge hasn’t been shown
before.
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