I finally watched this film today. I suppose that I fall into the middle ground in how I feel about it. Even though it got some pretty good reviews (away from here), I don't really think of it as a major film, so I don't really have that many major gripes. As far as things which bothered me a bit, I'd say the fact that a little kid could dig into a camp so easily and that he could also be at that fence repeatedly without ever being seen would go to near the top of the list. Even though the film is on the blatant side, I really didn't have any problems with the tutor trying to turn the kids into good little Hitler Youth. It basically is a form of denial for the Father to justify his rise in importance to the actual extermination of Jews. The greater his responsibility for mass deaths (at the behest of his superiors), the greater the Father needs to have his children indoctrinated with the Big Lie about the Jews in some "context" of German history.
I thought the film did a pretty good job of showing some dissatisfaction within German society regarding the way the "War" was being carried out. I do admit that it's not terribly subtle, but it's something which normally isn't allowed without direct punishment. I do not read anything symbolic in the death of the Father's Mother. His dad says that she died in a bombing and I believe that's what happened to her. Also, PW, I'm not sure how you couldn't tell that the film wasn't about Nazis (unless that was a joke). Less than a minute into the movie, we see banners with swastikas covering a building.
The strongest part of the film for me would have to be the relationship between the two boys. Bruno's life consists of playing, and he mostly wants to play war games since we see him "flying" with his friends at the beginning of the film. The more his Father becomes a soldier though, the less Bruno seems to want to play war. When Bruno finally makes it to the "Farm", he doesn't realize that it has anything to do with the war. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Bruno doesn't really know what war is, except that soldiers dress up in cool uniforms and some of them get to fly airplanes. His dad also gets to wear that cool hat with the skull on it. But when he meets his Jewish counterpart, the only boy his own age he's seen since his family moved to the country, he naturally wants to play with him, but the barbed wire makes it difficult. It's only when the other boy's father goes missing (presumably killed) that Bruno concocts the scheme to make it up to his friend for lying and causing him to be beaten earlier. Even when Bruno puts on the "striped pajamas", he starts laughing because he believes that he's playing a game.
I didn't really find the finale elongated. Ten minutes was a pretty short time to show what was happening in the camp and crosscut it with the family searching for Bruno. Bruno dies trying to find his friend's father while at the same time Bruno's father is trying to find him. Of course, if Bruno's Father had already been a "real man", none of what happened would have occurred, at least to his family. For example, if Bruno's Father had left the country (preferably with his family) such as the Lieutenant's father had earlier, Bruno would still be with his family. Of course, in the larger picture, there would still have been death camps, at least unless the entire German military had risen up against Der Fuhrer or all the "good people" had done what they could have to stop things from getting completely out of control in time. But now I'm looking at the film as something major while I feel it takes a major event in history and presents a minor, ironic incident. I just rewatched
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, and I believe what's in that film is significant, thought-provoking and maddening. This film is maddening but part of that is because it's almost impossible to know what to feel and why. I think if you feel something, even hate, then it may have accomplished its modest task.
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