Not a bad movie - honest. Great shots, sad story, some minority opinion, but nothing compared to the original. The original novels dark, cynical tone has been decimated. The main character naivety, his acceptance of abasement and everything, his enjoyment of the rare peaceful moments, his understanding that the Germans ARE better than him, 'cause they dressing nice and he's looking awful... All the things that makes you sometimes hate the stupid kid. Most of them gone from the movies - tough there was time for the inner monologue. Also the part that refers to the title, a very hard, dark, philosophical thought is missing.
And the really embarrassing thing (in what the guys at Berlin were right)that some junctions are missing. The lack of reason of why he wasn't simply shot with his wounds (even in the book there are just some hints of medical experimentations) could misunderstand as the work-camps were so nice places the cared about the incapacitated (actually some prequel scenes clearly negate that...). But in the other hand of this so cold "understate of holocaust" its important to realize, this book focus on a very "lucky" guy, who evaded death a dozen (or thousand?) times and returned. The power of the story isn't in the gas chambers and incinerators, even the death of others are irrelevant. The dark depth is about how people change in the simple process of surviving the next day, hour or minute.
And the really embarrassing thing (in what the guys at Berlin were right)that some junctions are missing. The lack of reason of why he wasn't simply shot with his wounds (even in the book there are just some hints of medical experimentations) could misunderstand as the work-camps were so nice places the cared about the incapacitated (actually some prequel scenes clearly negate that...). But in the other hand of this so cold "understate of holocaust" its important to realize, this book focus on a very "lucky" guy, who evaded death a dozen (or thousand?) times and returned. The power of the story isn't in the gas chambers and incinerators, even the death of others are irrelevant. The dark depth is about how people change in the simple process of surviving the next day, hour or minute.