A friend recently gave me the DVD of Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

It was one of the most intense Holocaust movies I've seen in years and all told from the perspective of an eight year old German boy.

It was hart to watch in several parts.

The movie should have sweeped the Oscars but it didn't.

I agree. It was such a horrowing film to watch.

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:02 am A friend recently gave me the DVD of Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

It was one of the most intense Holocaust movies I've seen in years and all told from the perspective of an eight year old German boy.

It was hart to watch in several parts.

The movie should have sweeped the Oscars but it didn't.

I saw the movie, and I liked it, but it is a work of fiction and was the cause of much controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_in ... ed_Pyjamas

Rabbi Benjamin Blech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Blech) said: "This book is not just a lie and not just a fairytale, but a profanation." His chief complaint is that it supports the idea that ordinary people were unaware of the horrors of the Nazis' mass extermination of Jews. He argues that everyone for miles around could smell the stench of death and expresses doubt that the 8-year-old son of a Nazi official could be unaware of what a Jew is (or whether he himself is one). He writes, "Note to the reader: There were no 8-year-old Jewish boys in Auschwitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz) -- the Nazis immediately gassed those not old enough to work. Also, the Auschwitz death camp was surrounded by electric fences, making any attempts to crawl in through a hole impossible."

I have some concerns about it myself: the Holocaust was horrific. Did the author write this fabrication to demonstrate that or was it just an attempt to tug on the heartstrings of the reader in order to sell books?

If you want a true story of a boy caught up in the Holocaust, I recommend, Night by Elie Wiesel, about his experience at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944-1945. He was 16 when liberated in 1945. This book is worth reading and re-reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(book)

The real story here is not whether this is a piece of fiction or a true story. It shows how someone can be consumed by the evil that they create.

Slammr (imported) wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:42 pm I saw the movie, and I liked it, but it is a work of fiction and was the cause of much controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_in ... ed_Pyjamas

I have some concerns about it myself: the Holocaust was horrific. Did the author write this fabrication to demonstrate that or was it just an attempt to tug on the heartstrings of the reader in order to sell books?

If you want a true story of a boy caught up in the Holocaust, I recommend, Night by Elie Wiesel, about his experience at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944-1945. He was 16 when liberated in 1945. This book is worth reading and re-reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(book)

I completely agree with you on this point, that historical movies and novels MUST be historically accurate. The old adage "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" should be taught to our children, and there are a many very good reasons for our young people to be shown the truth about the past, and not some writer's or movie director's revised version of the facts.

Yet, I sometimes wonder, if possibly, these fantastic revisions of history might serve some good purpose... For example, the much over-hyped horribly inaccurate movie "Inglourious Basterds" starring Brad Pitt. I cannot begin to count the inaccuracies and outright LIES that are in that movie, and oddly it is WORSE because the film is done so well, it is so realistic, yet filled with lies. My first impression was that this film was a horrible insult to the REAL men and women who fought in World War II, I still just hate this movie because it is so misleading... Then I think about how the movie is so well made, good acting, plausable dialogues and events depicted on very well made sets, (that just makes is WORSE because it is a well told LIE), and this movie will clearly appeal to the younger viewers, who will go away with the idea that Adolf Hitler and his top henchmen were assassinated in a movie theatre in Paris and.... OH MY GOD THAT IS SOOOO WRONG!! But it does at least cause the younger viewers to think, is that all bad?

To an old geezer like myself, films such as "The Boy In Striped Pajamas" and "Inglourious Basterds" are offensive insults to the very REAL people who were in the depicted events. But maybe I take reality too seriously, after all, films and novels depicting an alternate reality, and alternate future, or an improbable possibility (e.g. "Dr. Strangelove," "Fatherland," "The Terminator," or "Red Dawn") do not offend me one bit. So why should "Inglourious Basterds" annoy me so much? After all, it is just a movie where the gifted director Quentin Tarantino sort of says "Wouldn't it have been great if Hitler and his henchmen could have been killed off sooner? Wouldn't it be neat if it could have happened like this?" And Christoph Waltz's portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa is soooooo good as to make this horrilbly inaccurate movie worth watching anyway. Maybe it does serve a good purpose in that it causes younger people to think about the history of it, but I worry that it makes them think a completely WRONG version of history.

I had no problem with Inglorious Bastards. It was presented as an alternative version of history, and I like to explore alternative histories. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, however, was not alternative history; it was distorted history. The truth, that the boy would have been gassed on his arrival at the camp, is more horrible than the story presented in the movie. Also, the German boy would have known the boy was a Jew and was, therefore, subhuman (their characterization). He wouldn't have become friends with him.

Although this movie tugged at my heartstrings, it's too much a distortion of history for me to like it in retrospect.

I didn't see either of these movies, so I can't comment other than that.

The Hungarian film "Fateless" (2005) is a film I would recommend.

Another WWII movie that somewhat touches on this subject, watch "Edged of the Lord" I think this may be much closer to the truth.

Ken

"Edges..." was a GREAT movie, and probably the best acting that Haley Joel Osment has ever done.