BAMM: I finally got around to seeing "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas"

As mentioned in the title of this one, I have now seen "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas". It was somewhat different than I expected, though after having seen it, I certainly wouldn't change a single word in my last recommendation concerning children seeing it. Talk to them about it before and after! 

Onto my review (henceforth everything I write is completely editorial in nature except for the plot flow... if you don't like hints of what might be spoilers, please don't hesitate to discontinue reading):

The beginning of this movie is lovely. Bruno is a normal little boy racing around the streets of Berlin with his friends, pretending they are fighter pilots. He lives in a beautiful, warm, comfortable home with his father, mother, and sister. Most of the scenes set here are homey, celebratory, and contented - in complete contrast to the rest of the film. The day that Bruno and his family move from this house there is one scene of foreshadowing that is a little disturbing for those who are aware of how the story ends, but for those unaware of the ending, it wouldn't really give rise to too much concern, it is something of a bookend though.

The family moves from their home in Berlin to a new house out in the country, far away from Berlin and everything Bruno had ever known. Needless to say, he does not like it. The new house is hard, and sterile, and cold, and there is no one around that is Bruno's age to make friends with. It is at this house that the shadow begins to fall, as one thing after another begins to turn sour. 

Out of boredom, Bruno eventually "explores" himself right into the wood behind his new backyard, a place his mother has forbidden him to go. It is just on the other side of this wood that Bruno finally meets Shmuel, another little boy his own age who wears "stripped pajamas" all the time. Bruno is thrilled about making a new friend, the only problem is, Shmuel is behind a large electric barbed wire fence. The two of them have some stumbles, but the seemingly ever-hungry Shmuel is sweet enough to forgive Bruno for his grievances of ignorance and unintentional betrayal. Bruno in turn offers the boon of childhood joys, foods, apology, constancy, and compassion for Shmuel's hardships. In spite of the enormous obstacle that the fence represents, these two boys quickly develop a close friendship. 

Before I type any farther, I have to admit, I was a little afraid of seeing this movie because I wasn't sure of the effect that the ending would have on me. But, the ending is a little easier to watch than I'd thought it would be. It doesn't have the tension that you can almost palpably feel building throughout the rest of the story, but that's not to say that this is so because the ending is so much easier to view than the other parts. Actually, it's probably the grittiest, most overcast part of the entire movie, but it has this undefinable stillness around it's characters. It's a stillness of confusion, a stillness of resolve and camaraderie, a stillness of fear, a stillness of dread, a stillness of screaming... Even now, days later, I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is, except to say that it's like the stillness before a storm - only it's after the storm. And, it's that contemplative stillness that one takes away from the film once it's over. 

The most difficult part for me to watch was just before the ending. It is during this time that both boys change into matching "stripped pajamas" and Bruno digs a hole under, and joins Shmuel on the other side of, the fence (to help Shmuel find his father). That was where my dread reached it's peak. But once a viewer realizes what's happening (and realizes the lack of control that these two small boys have over their situation), all of that tension begins to ease. Then, the ending just blows right by you in a series of choppy edit cuts back and forth between the two sides of the fence... between the desperate race to save life and the eminent extermination of it. 

Overall, this movie was a sweet tribute that left out a lot of the more sensational images of the concentration camps of World War II. (If you are seeking something more graphic in nature, I would absolutely recommend, "The Devil's Arithmetic", although it is much more difficult to watch. Since it is told as a flashback, you have an easily identifiable protagonist in "Devil's" that contributes much more inter-story situational irony and personal insight. Those two qualities give "Devil's" a considerably sharper knife edge and much more personal immediacy.) This little movie held a more omniscient focus on the children, and their immediate and familial surroundings. There was harshness, but it was fairly sparse. "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas", is more character driven than it is documentary, and while it should absolutely stand as a quietly beautiful testament to all of the Innocents who fell during the Nazi regime, it isn't going to be too much help to someone who is viewing it for the purposes of writing a detailed report about the facts of the Holocaust. 

Kisses, 

Kayla

OTT: Sometimes I go a little overboard

Today I went to the Holocaust Museum on Caroline St. in Houston. As far as experiences go, I thought it would have a very different effect on me than I believe it actually had. I was expecting it to feel like taking an emotionally sensational, disturbing roller-coaster ride into the the hellish place that was Nazi-occupied Germany and Poland, but it wasn't. It was a simple, graceful, reverent, solemn place. There was not much that was nightmarish or horrific about it. 

In fact, it smelled overwhelmingly of gardenia and cape jasmines (my favorite). 

Strange though, were the thoughts I was prompted to ponder while escorting myself from exhibit to exhibit. 

"Wow, they actually house a version of 'Mein Kampf' here. I hadn't thought they'd have that."

"I hadn't realized that they burnt Hemingway too."

"That suitcase is so small. It looks like a child's toy." 

"Those broken glasses frames and lenses were actually worn by people before they became victims of the brutality. To think that a glass box is all that separates me from holding something that they wore on their faces... wore on the faces that I see in all of these photographs all around me... wore over the eyes of those faces before they became vacant and hollow."

"Isn't it odd that the Danish rescue boats to salvation were about as big as the railroad cars to extermination?"

"Now that I'm standing in it, this railroad car is much smaller than I thought it would be! They squeezed how many people in here again? 200?!?!? "

The hardest thing to endure was listening to the first-hand accounts of a few of the survivors. 

     One remembered having to try to beat to death a fellow prisoner, who'd recently arrived from the Warsaw ghetto. The man remembered that his fellow Warsaw prisoner had been paraded naked, dragged by a chain around his neck, in front of all of the other prisoners who were later forced to beat him to death in order to avoid being beaten themselves. That Warsaw man stood alone against his fellow prisoners, taking beating after beating after beating, refusing to fall. The  strongest of the other prisoners were hitting him the hardest out of pity... trying to at least put the man out of his misery quickly... but he just refused to die. Eventually the survivor had been forced to watch as the Nazis had to forcibly shove a baseball bat down the man's throat and pour fouled latrine waste water into his mouth and nose to drown him. 

     Another had been forced to watch two men hung for various "crimes" against the Nazi officials. The first was a 16 year old who was to be hung for singing a "communist" song. The survivor had been forced to watch while the boy's first rope snapped. He saw the 16 year old fall then plead for his life a second time on his knees, only to be hung again. The other man, the survivor remembered, was to be hung after the 16 year old. This second man (who had somehow managed to conceal a razor), while watching the 16 year old hang for a second time, had slit his wrists. They hung him bleeding.  

Listening to those accounts was pretty difficult.

On the whole however, this wasn't a place that tortured me mentally and emotionally. It was, overwhelmingly, a place of contemplation.

I've had much more difficulty getting a good night's rest after evenings of self-inflicted torture, while reading about the horrible medical experiments of Josef Mengele and viewing the images of malnutrition and starvation that abound online. Still, being a place of contemplation, I couldn't get it out of my mind, and I still can't... such is the nature of such a place. So, upon arriving home I looked up the Museum's online site and found out that. 

A) Senator John McCain is to be honored in May by the Museum.

B) The Museum is hosting a theater production of "The Timekeepers". 

and 

C) There had been (or was to be) a recent (or upcoming) viewing of the 2008 award winning movie "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas"

This new search (of course) led me to others.... predominantly concerning, "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas". My intense interest in this movie is probably inspired by another similar film that I recall seeing bits and pieces of a few years ago that still haunt my mind. That movie being, "The Devil's Arithmetic". Even though I have not yet seen "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas" myself, I do feel the need to see it... and eventually (hopefully) I will have more news concerning it once I do. 

( I do caution - from what I have seen in previews and trailers, if you are of a mind to view this movie yourself,  this isn't a movie that I'd strongly recommend taking children to, unless you REALLY want to have a serious discussion about the Holocaust. 

     As it's main characters are children themselves, and as children are relatively quick to identify with other children, it would be understandable to have children coming away from seeing this movie very hurt and confused. 

     I am not going to say don't allow your children to see it, but I would definitely advise some parental precaution in this instance. Have a talk about it beforehand and afterward and listen to what your kids may have to say or ask.)

To those who refuse to forget... all my best!

Kisses, 

Kayla

You are cordially invited!

I never know how to begin these things. I have plenty that I want to write about and share, but I never can quite get over my "foot in mouth" enough to express myself properly. So, to start, I suppose I'd better do what my English teacher was forever reminding me to do and "tell you what I'm going to tell you - before I tell you what I told you that I'd tell you".
(This would be English the subject, not English the nationality... Although, I'd probably have a much firmer grasp of the language if I'd had an English English teacher. )

I'm starting this blog for two reasons, the first of these reasons being that I wanted a place of my own where I can make public my thoughts on anything I'm wanting to write about.
These thoughts may include (but are by no means limited to):

~ Books, Art, Movies, & Music

(to be know as the "BAMM" blogs)

~ Plays, Museum Exhibits, & various other "out on the town" excursions:

(to be known as the "OTT" blogs)

~ Personal Hobbies & Interests

(to be known as the "HOBI" blogs)

The second reason being that I would like to eventually make a little extra money doing this - once I figure out Google's AdSense thingamajig. So, if you see an ad here one day that you decide to be gracious enough to click on... I just want to say "Thank You" in advance. Through your clickies... you are helping a poor country bumpkin make her world a "greener" place.

Well, now that all that razzmatazz is out of the way, what shall I write about first?

I know! How about the kitchen sink?

I always felt badly that the kitchen sink had to be left out of that whole "everything but the kitchen sink" phrase. So, for my purposes.. I decided to include it in my title because the kitchen sink deserves the chance to shine just as much as everything else!

And boy, you have got to check out some of these crazy sinks!

If you think those are neat you should head over to http://www.toxel.com/. They have an insane number of super neat things to check out... particularly if you are into interior design! It's quickly becoming one of my new favorite sites!

Kisses,
Kirby