The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

November. 07,2008      PG-13
Rating:
7.7
Trailer Synopsis Cast

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

Asa Butterfield as  Bruno
Vera Farmiga as  Mother
Cara Horgan as  Maria
Amber Beattie as  Gretel
László Áron as  Lars
David Thewlis as  Father
Richard Johnson as  Grandpa
Sheila Hancock as  Grandma
Charlie Baker as  Palm Court Singer
Iván Verebély as  Meinberg

Similar titles

A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
A Christmas Carol 1999
The Namesake
Prime Video
The Namesake
After moving from Calcutta to New York, members of the Ganguli family maintain a delicate balancing act between honoring the traditions of their native India and blending into American culture. Although parents Ashoke and Ashima are proud of the sacrifices they make to give their children opportunities, their son Gogol strives to forge his own identity without forgetting his heritage.
The Namesake 2006
The Heroes of Telemark
The Heroes of Telemark
Set in German-occupied Norway, resistance fighter Knut Straud enlists the reluctant physicist Rolf Pedersen in an effort to destroy the German heavy water production plant in rural Telemark.
The Heroes of Telemark 1965
Inglourious Basterds
Prime Video
Inglourious Basterds
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.
Inglourious Basterds 2009
Truman
Truman
Biographical account of America's President for the latter part of WWII. Shows Truman's rise from small-town nobody to leader of the USA, his decision to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan, and subsequent election as the US' post-war President.
Truman 1995
The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea
At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer
The Cruel Sea 1953
The Big Red One
The Big Red One
A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.
The Big Red One 1980
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black
When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing.
The Woman in Black 1989
Attack and Capture: The Story of U-Boat 505
Attack and Capture: The Story of U-Boat 505
On June 4, 1944 Captain Daniel Gallery and his men of the U.S. Naval Task Force 22.3 did the nearly impossible - they captured a German U-boat. It was the first enemy vessel-of-war captured in battle on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since 1815. Climb aboard the historic U-505 and relive its journey from a powerhouse of the German fleet to a display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Witness archival footage and rare interviews with both German and American crew members involved in the capture of the U-505. And view even rarer footage of Captains Daniel Gallery and Harold Lange, captain of the 505 at the time of its capture..
Attack and Capture: The Story of U-Boat 505 2002
Long Live the Republic
Long Live the Republic
Oldrich is the runt of his village, beaten by his father, bullied by the other boys. But he has imagination on his side, and a wiry toughness they can’t defeat. The village is in turmoil, because the Nazi occupiers have just retreated and the Red Army is advancing. Oldrich dodges amid the mayhem and panic, taking his share of blows but always managing to stay one step ahead. Beautifully shot and darkly ironic, Karel Kachyna’s forgotten masterpiece jumbles reality, memory and fantasy to capture the intensity and confusion of childhood in a war zone.
Long Live the Republic 1965

You May Also Like

The Book Thief
Max
The Book Thief
While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.
The Book Thief 2013
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Paramount+
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987
Hachi: A Dog's Tale
Starz
Hachi: A Dog's Tale
A drama based on the true story of a college professor's bond with the abandoned dog he takes into his home.
Hachi: A Dog's Tale 2009
The Pianist
Prime Video
The Pianist
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
The Pianist 2002
The Fighter
Prime Video
The Fighter
Boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime.
The Fighter 2010
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Prime Video
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny discovers that the children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in. Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant, Nanny uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang 2010
The Kite Runner
Paramount+
The Kite Runner
After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
The Kite Runner 2007
The Pursuit of Happyness
Paramount+
The Pursuit of Happyness
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
The Pursuit of Happyness 2006
The Space Between Us
Freevee
The Space Between Us
A young man raised by scientists on Mars returns to Earth to find his father.
The Space Between Us 2017
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Prime Video
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flits in and out of his life as she grows up to be a dancer. Though he has all sorts of unusual adventures over the course of his life, it is his relationship with Daisy, and the hope that they will come together at the right time, that drives Benjamin forward.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2008

Reviews

Solemplex
2008/11/07

To me, this movie is perfection.

... more
Kamila Bell
2008/11/08

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

... more
Fatma Suarez
2008/11/09

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

... more
Paynbob
2008/11/10

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

... more
invisibleunicornninja
2008/11/11

Everything about this movie is bad. The acting is bad. The plot is bad. Except for like one or two things nothing is historically accurate. The script is terrible. Its boring. The cinematography is passable. All the characters act like total idiots. No I do not recommend this dumpster fire.

... more
doranbriscoe
2008/11/12

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is perhaps a decent movie for general audiences with limited exposure to films more substantial than Hollywood's common and lighthearted blockbusters, but I feel it does not have the true depth it is sometimes credited as having. Now, I don't mean to demean anyone who had a powerful experience in viewing this film- it's good for people to have their minds stirred to the tragedies of the past who may or may not otherwise, and the movie has proved effective in bringing its viewers to tears, no doubt, but only through juvenile methods of storytelling. The issue lies in its framework. It attempts to confront a delicately heavy subject, the Holocaust (which is automatically something that should tug at one's heartstrings for obvious reasons). But it doesn't do it in an authentic manner: it stretches the historical events around its plot, instead of the other way around as it should. I needn't go into the details as one can find them with a quick internet search, but the historical inaccuracies are downright blatant- yet integral to the plot. I understand the concept of "the suspension of disbelief" when approaching fiction (and even historical fiction), but the story has to work by the rules that it sets forth. A comparison I will give is Life is Beautiful, another Holocaust film that stretched the truth: however, the world that movie had established was one of hi-jinks and coincidence, and therefore the minor historical liberties it takes are forgivable because the viewer ought not take it at face value. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, though, the story is presented as true-to-life, and therefore has a responsibility to neither mislead its viewership nor insult their intelligence, which is exactly what it does. Because of this, it doesn't come across as authentic- not only by its historical falsities, but also in its far-fetched unfoldings of its plot, and in the flat traits and utter obliviousness of main characters. Many an audience can look past these shortcomings, it seems, but I found it to be insufferably jarring to the viewer experience, and the ending felt contrived and shallow as a result.

... more
maoenjoyhappy
2008/11/13

During WWⅡ, Bruno from a wealthy family, whose father is a German soldier, moves to the countryside in Germany where a concentration camp for Jews is back yard to his house. When exploring around his house secretly, he meets a boy dressed in a striped pajama, Shmuel. They are good on terms little by little... and they attempt to conduct an irreversible matter. One thing that I am relieved is that not everyone in Germany agrees with taking part in the WWⅡ, even the top military's relatives as well. Also, it proves that children don't care about their race and background. This needs to be taught to adult at once seriously. This film is one of the best and touching ones that I have ever seen before in regard to WWⅡ. You'll never expect the ending literally and the story goes on making us breathless all the time. I would like people in the world to watch this and this will be helpful to change a way of thinking concerning war and discrimination.

... more
Jean-Pol Cardin
2008/11/14

My opinion---"The boy in the striped pajamas" is a drama of war realized with the hands of a master by: Mark Herman, he knew how to put his sensibility on a subject that can not be more delicate than this black period of human history, with His deportations, his massacres, his pure horror. A very realistic and very hard movie on the concentration camps, and the story is really poignant, and the characters are well written and superbly interpreted by very convincing actors. Asa Butterfield in the role: Bruno and Jack Scanlon in the role of Shmuel (the Jewish boy) and Vera Farmiga in the role of Asa's mother and David Thewlis in the role of Asa's father. A movie that fills the spectator with emotion, a great film of its kind, because all these wars are also all the misfortunes of the world that fall on the heads of the innocent, a movie to be discovered absolutely for its sensitivity to the skin

... more