Featured Image Credit: Miramax
Topics: History, Film and TV, Streaming, World War 2
Gerrard Kaonga
A World War 2 film has been deemed one of the saddest movies of all time by its fans but actually faced quite a lot of backlash when it initially release.
Since the end of World War 2, many storytellers have attempted to capture the horror of one of the worst mass conflicts in human history.
While many have the favorites that they feel capture the brutality and ruthlessness of the conflict through showing military campaigns, one film decided to take a different approach.
The popular film released in 2008 and focusses on a young German boy, Bruno, who is the son of a nazi commander.
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Bruno eventually comes across a concentration camp and befriends a holocaust prisoner, Shmuel, who he visits regularly.
For a film that takes place during the conflict, following the changing attitudes and appearance of concentration camps, through the eyes of a child was certainly an interesting choice, but added to its controversy.
The film, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, has received praise from viewers and maintains an impressive 85 percent popcorn meter score on Rotten Tomatoes and is currently available to watch on Amazon Prime.
In the Facebook Netflix Bangers group, multiple individuals named it as one of the saddest movies of all time, while discussing things to watch on streaming.
However, despite its positive reception, the film, which is based on the book of the same name by John Boyne, faced quite a pushback when it was released.
Some critics felt it focused too strongly on the nazi commander’s family and his navigation through nazi politics rather than the plight and horrific treatment of the Jewish prisoners.
The Holocaust Centre North charity wrote an article about the ‘problem’ with the film.
They wrote: “Because the focus of the story remains on Bruno’s family, the book does not engage with the main tragedy of the Holocaust: that none of the people in the gas chamber should have been there.
“Due to the way in which Shmuel’s character is portrayed in the novel, his character doesn’t engage the reader’s sympathy in the way that Bruno does. Shmuel represents the 1.5 million children murdered by the Nazi regime in Auschwitz-Birkenau... yet the reader’s sympathy is directed towards a Nazi concentration camp commandant and his family.”
This criticism of the book and by extension the film, is likely reflected in the Rotten Tomatoes critical score which maintains a percentage of 65 percent.
With that said, many have still regarded it as a ‘must watch’ for the intriguing child-like perspective in one of the worst acts of genocide in recent memory.
On a Reddit thread discussing the film, one user wrote: “Brutal movie, especially the ending. Definitely a must watch.”
Another added: “Great movie. Definitely a must watch.”
With a third agreeing and writing: “Great Movie, hugely underrated. Also sad so beware.”