Throughout my academic career I’ve always read passages from the book or seen clips from the movie, but I’ve never experienced either in full. I saw it on Netflix and figured, why not. The movie is about a nazi commandant and his family moving out to the countryside for his “work” as a soldier. The movie focuses on his eight year old son, Bruno. Bruno loves to explore and one day he finds an unconventional friend living on a “farm” in the woods. This movie shows how easily children can be influenced by war and propaganda, this is present in Bruno’s sister, Gretel. However, it also shows the resilience of the childlike spirit and beliefs. Throughout the whole movie it’s evident that Bruno doesn’t believe any of it. The movie is not heartwarming by any means. No matter how cute and innocent Bruno is, the reality of the war around him is still disgusting. It leaves the viewer quite upset after watching. Just the content that’s covered in the movie is unsettling. Objectively, the film obviously had a large budget. It was well directed and shot. The props were well made and accurate for the era. The entire film was a huge juxtaposition. The opening scene is bright red nazi flags against a tan backdrop. It pans to children playing and running through the streets. They run right past a group of jewish people being taken away into a camp. Subjectively, the film was dark but riveting. I likely wouldn’t watch it again as it does not leave you feeling particularly cheery afterwards. However, for the time I watched it, it was emotionally engaging and overall visually well done. I’d recommend watching it at least once as it is well made and endearing, just set aside an afternoon because you will feel depressed afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjRqZJj3j2Y
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