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Analysis Of The Movie ' Butterfield Stars ' Essay

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Butterfield stars as Bruno, a curious, stubborn eight-year old whose family is relocated to the countryside when his father receives a new job as a head member of the Nazi party, working for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Lonely and frustrated from having no one his own age to talk to, Bruno explores past the limits of his backyard. He comes across a barbed wire fence, with a young boy named Schmuel (played by Scanlon) on the other side wearing what Bruno perceives to be striped pajamas. The two boys strike up a friendship through the fence, with Bruno coming to visit Shmuel almost daily. Neither boy grasps that Schmuel is in a death camp, and when Schmuel confesses to Bruno that he is Jewish, Bruno doesn’t not seem to understand why that matters. Curious as to what really lies on the other side of the fence, Bruno and Schmuel plot for him to sneak into the camp, which leads to the demise of both of them. The film is more emotion based rather than fact based, in an attempt to appeal to the audiences symphonies rather than instruct them on a historical event. It has been criticized for its accuracy, specifically pertaining to the ages of the boys. Many critics claim that boys as young as Schmuel would never have been at Auschwitz, because all children too young to work were gassed upon arrival. Others argue that the film is symbol of innocence, and the two boys reflect how children are able to look past each other’s differences easier than adults. Critics also

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