powerful flick

I just finished watching "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." I can't remember the last time I was so riveted by a movie. Wow. Powerful, to say the least.

Set in World War II, the main character is an 8 year-old boy whose father is a high-ranking Nazi official. The family is uprooted within 10 minutes of the opening credits--they must leave Berlin and move into a house in the country. Unbeknownst to the mother, the new home is near a concentration camp. The main character, Bruno, is an adventurous kid. He eventually makes his way over to the camp, and forms a forbidden friendship with another 8 year-old, a Jewish boy named Shmuel. I won't go into details as to how the relationship or the rest of the plot plays out; you've just got to see the movie.

I've never been so impacted by the power of relationship. How is it that an 8 year-old, a child, a second or third grader, learned more about authenticity and the value of a person through one situation than I think I have in years? Maybe we adult-folk are jaded by life's experiences. We've listened with a careful ear to the pundits, to those who deem it in their authority to tell us just what another person is worth. Instead of forming our own opinions or discovering for ourselves the true worth of friendship, we let everyone else fill our heads. They're _____, so of course they'd do something like that, you hear your neighbor say as you recount a recent headline or observed event.

Somehow, a person has become the sum of his or her labels, a mixture of skin color, socioeconomic status, and/or religious background, with a demeaning stereotype that ties it all together in a neat little package. While still living in Berlin, Bruno is portrayed as exactly what he is: a boy. He plays with his friends, running through the streets pretending to be an airplane. He isn't yet jaded; he hasn't yet listened to those pundits I've listened to for far too long. When he is finally confronted with the propaganda of that era, he bucks the system. There are a few scenes where it's obvious he's wrestling with it all, but Bruno ultimately chooses to see his friend as a person and not a stereotype.

Powerful movie. Check it out if you have the chance.