THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS SERVES AS AN UNLIKELY ROLE MODEL
A nagging question about the Holocaust is whether, aside from mass Heil Hitler rallies, ordinary Germans supported Hitler and his Final Solution. Based on the novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas contributes to the debate by portraying a fictional friendship between two eight-year-old boys—Auschwitz prisoner Shmuel (played by Jack Scanlon) and Bruno (played by Asa Butterfield), the son of that camp’s commandant (played by David Thewlis). To set the premise for the friendship, the film begins in Berlin, where Bruno contentedly enjoys playing with several boys his own age. Informed that his father has been promoted but must relocate to a location, Bruno is upset that he will miss his friends. And indeed he has no playmates in the new home, which is to be in the middle of nowhere. When he spots what appears to be a farming community, his curiosity takes him to the barbed wire perimeter of Auschwitz, where he has conversations and plays checkers with Shmuel, who is also for a time a servant in the family’s home. The move also impacts other members of the family. His grandmother (played by Sheila Hancock), evidently sickened by the course of events in Nazi Germany, falls ill and dies. His mother (played by Vera Farmiga) also has strong opinions and clashes with his father. His sister Gretel (played by Amber Beattie), who is amorously attracted to his father’s assistant, Lieutenant Kotler (played by Rupert Friend), becomes disaffected after he is sent to the front because he failed to disclose that his father left Germany because of political opposition to Nazi rule. The father eventually agrees to have the mother take the children to live near Heidelberg, but tragedy strikes on the day of their scheduled departure. Directed by Mark Herman, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas has been nominated by the Political Film Society as best film on human rights of 2008. MH
MILK IS A BIOPIC OF THE MAN WHO MOBILIZED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The election of Harvey Milk as San Francisco Supervisor in 1977 was of the first openly gay American politician of stature. The film Milk begins with a montage of documentaries about police hostility to gays, including the famous Stonewall Riots of 1969. In 1970, Milk (played by Sean Penn) concludes on his fortieth birthday that he needs to accomplish something worthwhile in his life. Accordingly, in 1972 he moves from New York to San Francisco to start anew, and he buys a camera shop on Castro that soon becomes a hub of gay activism as he organizes gays to boycott businesses where they encounter hostility and reward those found friendly. His first success is a boycott of an openly gay-hostile business, Coor’s Beer. He then runs for office but loses thrice until his election in 1977. He goes on to mobilize a defeat of the Briggs Initiative on the California ballot in 1978 that would have sanctioned firing gay teachers and their friends, thereby stopping a gay backlash initiated by Anita Bryant’s campaign to repeal gay rights laws, starting in Miami. Meanwhile, Supervisor Dan White (played by Josh Brolin), whom Milk intuits is a latent homosexual, goes through a personal crisis, presumably about the success of the gay movement, drinks heavily, resigns from the Board of Supervisor, and assassinates Mayor George Moscone (played by Victor Garber) when the latter fails to reappoint him to the Board. The film features many episodes where Milk’s mobilization efforts, including the campaign to have gays “come out,” appear to say that rights are gained through confrontation. Kissing and bedroom scenes stop short of sex scenes but make the point that gay rights are about life, not just about issues. The Political Film Society has nominated Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant, as best film exposé and best film on democracy as well as human rights of 2008. MH