Movie: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
“Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in Pre-war Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and army Commandant father. The family re-locate to the countryside where his father is assigned to commandeer a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno befriends another youth, strangely dressed in striped pajamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electrified fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to befriend his new friend as he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination. Written by rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)”
- Director: Mark Herman
- Release Date: 14 November 2008 (USA)
- Run Time: 94 min | Israel:93 min
- Country: UK , USA
- Genre: Drama , Thriller , War
- MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some mature thematic material involving the Holocaust.
Tagline: A timeless story of innocence lost and humanity found.
Trivia: Although the concentration camp where the movie is set is never actually mentioned by name throughout the movie, we know it is Auschwitz because it was the only Nazi death camp with 4 crematoria. The SS officers are discussing the building’s construction in the Commandant’s office when Bruno’s mother interrupts the meeting.
Goofs: Incorrectly regarded as goofs: “In the beginning of the film the main character’s father has the common SS bullets on his right collar. Shortly after, the Father’s uniform collar changes to a Skull and Crossbones patch, which is inaccurate. The Skull and Crossbones or “Totenkopf” was worn on the SS man’s Hat.” This is not a goof: the Totenkopf insignia was used as a “trade” badge on the collar patch by that branch of the SS that guarded and administrated the camps, the so called “Totenkopf-Verbaende” that were part of the SS-Verfuegungstruppen”. They wore this variant of collar patch in combination with copper brown piping, “waffenfarbe” , denoting the camp guards branch. The SS hat badge consisted only of a skull, without crossbones. Just look at original pictures of uniformed SS concentration camp guards.