The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

This does not qualify as an official movie critique since I didn't know the actors and I don't remember the director... I only remember that it was put out by MIRAMAX FILMS because the "Coming Attractions" and other movie sales stuff prior to the movie drove the point home over and over.

But we watched a movie last night; the movie was called, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". We do not have cable or dish so what we watch we get from NetFlix (hey, do you think they might sponsor me if I mention their name again?) and this movie sat on our kitchen counter for the better part of a week before R. and I watched it.

It could be because of the movie's foreboding subject matter (the Holocaust) . . . but more likely it was because our lives have been tail-spinning at a frenetic pace for too long now (remember, for us "tail-spinning at a frenetic pace" equals having to leave the home one weeknight after supper to pick up a gallon of milk at the Walmarts).

Anyway, we got to it last night.

I really prefer something lighter on Sunday nights. When I was a kid, we often came home from Sunday night church to watch Bonanza and eat leftover roast beef sandwiches, but occasionally we would catch something funny or it would be an episode featuring Dan Blocker - those were the nights I liked best.

Well I knew that a WWII movie would not be light fare, but we watched it anyway.

Aside from the fact that the family in the movie was supposed to be German and they spoke with distinctly British dialects, the movie was pretty good.

It's about a family led by their father, a Nazi officer. When they move to the country, the parents have a hard time explaining to their eight year old, the concentration camp that is almost in their back yard. And they have a hard time justifying their harsh treatment of the Jewish people.

Bruno - the little boy in the picture - sneaks away to the camp (which he - in his innocence mistakes for a "farm" where people wear pajamas) and befriends a boy his age who resides on the other side of the barbed electric wire.

The movie provides very good insights into how the people of Nazi Germany fell back on propaganda to justify their atrocities. At one point the boy and his sister are instructed by a tutor who explains how that every negative thing in their society is due to "the Jew".

It made me realize once again, that there is a real danger when a society closes its eyes and ears to the truth and began to buy into propaganda. When those with the positions of prominence began to point out certain segments of society as "evil" or "dangerous".

It is a very fragile truth that cannot withstand the confrontation of opposing views - in fact it is not truth at all.

If you haven't seen the movie, I won't spoil it for you. But suffice it to say, the message of the movie is a heavy one and a burden not easily borne.

We must be careful that we do not buy into the ideas that "people who earn bonuses are evil or greedy" or that "troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan could be particularly dangerous" - just because they have some strongly held beliefs about what the freedom they laid down their lives for should look like, or that "Christians in America are intolerant", or people who are against abortion are scary ... and the list goes on and on.

Remember that the Truth does not get defensive when questioned - it just shines brighter.