Just watched the movie. I'm left literally speechless. Baffled.
"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 pyjamas, 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."
The ending scene was hard to watch. It was a scene where you feared for the worst, while disbelieving your fear because it is too devastating to be possible... only to discover that it is precisely what happens (sorry, minor spoiler here). And then the movie ends abruptly with no conclusion to console your troubled 'heart'. And so after you eventually recover from the 'shock', you are forced to come up with your own consolation as if in an useless attempt to make sense out of the insanity of it all.
I still have a lump in my throat that won't go away.
**WARNING**SPOILER**
...in WHITE, so you can only view it if you highlight the text. My advice, watch the movie first!
One thing really troubled me about the movie. In the last scene, seeing the two children 'meet their fate' really saddened me, because well, they were children - being innocent and all. But immediately then, I realized that I was not feeling any particular emotion for the rest of the innocent people who met the same fate. This isn't surprising, because they were 'strangers' to me (regrettably, it was as if they mattered less, at least in the movie), whereas I was quite acquainted with the children (they were the main characters of the movie). In reality, we do tend to (or perhaps even choose to) forget and ignore the fact that every stranger is not a stranger to everyone. Every stranger is surely connected to someone else.
Anyway it got me thinking, it's so easy to pass judgment on the Germans during the WWII - even those who were not directly involved - for being heartless and for choosing to be ignorant of the truth. But I question myself, had I been in their shoes at that time and in the same circumstances, would I have cared any more? And it scares me to think that I would perhaps have reacted in the same way. Indeed wars and its atrocities demand judgement, but perhaps more importantly, for us as individuals, it should serve as a reminder and warning of the frailty of so-called humanity. And that we should never think of ourselves as more than mere human - that we too are governed by the same weaknesses. It is therefore our responsibility to guard ourselves and those around us from succumbing to that very weakness.
... or maybe I'm just over analyzing, or it's that time of the night (morning) which messes around with your mind.There were many critiques (on IMDB) that said that the movie exploited the viewers emotions, taking them on a roller coaster ride, but stopped short on finding a purpose. I beg to differ. If this movie can cause me to question my own moralities, surely there is great substance in it. You just have stop dismantling the movie, and start digging in the right area - yourself, and how the movie has changed you.
Eitherhow, if you've watched it, would love to hear what you thought of it. Goodnight.




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