...is how a civilized society is capable of gradually dehumanizing a group of its citizens to the point where their mass imprisonment and even murder seems like a good idea.

I guess, given the choice between this and "Anne Frank - the musical!", I'd probably just stay at home and watch the test pattern on TV.

Dig that copy of The Day the Clown Cried out of the vault. You don't need the original actors or anything; CGI can produce the unshot scenes, or you can even replace actors in the sequence.

You've got a built-in cult audience for this film, which has never been theatrically released or viewed, except by a select few. The script is on the Internet and it reads just like I'd expect it to...you trying to play for pathos and failing badly.

(For those who are unenlightened, Lewis plays a Jewish comedian in Nazi Germany who cynically insults the Fuhrer. He is sent to a concentration camp where he has to entertain Jewish children to keep them happy while they get sent to the gas chamber. A place where he eventually joins them, to prove he is a true Jew and willing to pay for his sins. Right.)

If you're afraid that you might throw a dark shadow over your existing filmography (unlikely) you can always get Lloyd Kaufman to release it as a Troma film, direct to video. You'll clean up.

I saw the trailer for this movie tonight – and it was all I could do to keep from shouting with laughter. It looked like something from the Onion, except the Onion generally isn't guilty of obscenely sentimental kitsch. Two little lads playing checkers through the barbed wire, one sweet and perky, the other one oh-so-sad...

If you think I'm exaggerating, watch the trailer yourself:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/theboyinthestripedpajamas/

(Watch out for the sinister smoke signal!)

Calling a movie about the Holocaust "Oscar bait" is a cheap shot and an insult to members of the Academy. How about reviewing movies on their merits?

Fuck Schindler's List!

At least that would seem to be Stephanie's thesis here.

There are enough Hollywood films about the holocaust to spawn at least one documentary about them (Imaginary Witness). Could it be that this movie's real crime was not using the death camps as Oscar bait but as a cheap short cut to pathos and weepiness?

I've found that some of the most intriguing films weren't Oscar contenders...i.e. Into the Wild, Sweeney Todd and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. And if we examine the other end of the spectrum we'll find other films that weren't worthy of Oscars, but won them anyway. Alas, life isn't always fair, is it?

The book, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" wasn't written to be "bait for an award", it was written to make a point, encourage discussion and put forth a perspective that's uncomfortable for everyone. As a children's librarian I know that this book caused parents and professionals to squirm and to hesitate allowing it to be read by their children.

Regardless of the kudos of the film industry, this well-made, thoughtful film will spurn conversation, and may cause an examination of one's own feelings about the Holocaust. My hope is that the film sparks a bit of rage in this new generation that seems to be indifferent to genocide in our world today.

But then again, in a country that is obsessed with what is popular, trendy and comfortable - I highly doubt that many will choose to view this film and spend their dough on an entertaining film instead. Therefore it won't even be considered by the Oscar committee, and that would be a real crying shame.

Hey Stephanie!

Why don't you rent the Grey Zone and invite all the Hannah Montana fans in your life to the screening? You'll find all the actors there affecting English and Mamet-like Brooklyn accents [pace Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel]. And the realism! You could set up a facsimile of Canada (look up what Canada means in the Holocaust Encyclopedia-- it was a little spot in places like Treblinka. Or if you really want to find out, read "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen" by Tadeusz Borowski) in front of your plasma tv and treat the kids to booty. The representation of the Holocaust in film is an entrenched and lively aspect of Holocaust historiography. Your snarky little review is oh so well informed and deserves to be ranked along side Pauline Kael's finest. Avant!

The book deserved all the praise it received, but I didn't believe the book's premise would work on the screen.

Is that you David Irving?

filled with overwroght performances and symbolism and pregnant pauses ... oh, and that it compared badly to the book ...

Hell, the various incarnations of The Miracle Worker would doubtless appall Stephanie as well...

I'm not sure from reading this review as well as the review in the NYT if this film's intended audience is the endlessly cynical, world-weary Zacharek or Manolo ...

This sounds like a "movie for the whole family" as we enter into the "Holiday Season" ...

I wish Mary Beth Williams or some other actively-parenting staffer had reviewed this instead.

Like many things, the significance of the holocaust changes with age ... from the simple horror of the visuals to the coldness of the German military industrial complex to the warehousing of the undesirables to the individuals responsibility for the actions of their "state" or "nation" ..

This movie sounds infinitely less offensive than "Life is Beautiful" ... I don't know the origin of the book but, like "Cache" recently or like reflections on events not appreciated at the time, there are many stories still to be told.

This movie may be maudlin and simplistic ... but like sex, the holocaust is a subject better to be introduced openly, as something worthy of discussion, rather than as simply a "natural function" or an "unspeakable atrocity" and left to that. Like racism or sexism or the 2 million prisoners languishing in American prisons, it can be ignored in "polite company" but that does not magically remove its presence in our (American) cultural "reality."