10 Times Less Was Definitely More In Movies
4. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - The Gas Chamber
Films about the Holocaust are always going to be harrowing watches.
This 2008 tragedy, based on the book of the same name, follows the young son of an SS officer who forms a friendship with a young boy in a concentration camp.
Both speak to each other daily on the opposite sides of the camp’s fence. Director Mark Herman resists descending into melodrama during any part of the film, telling its story with a stark and unfiltered lens. But the famous (or infamous) ending is perhaps one of the most gut-wrenching in cinema to rely only on a single, silent shot.
The SS officer’s son sneaks under the concentration camp’s fence and the two boys soon find themselves herded into a large shower room with many other prisoners. And then the showerheads start hissing. We don’t see the horrific scene inside the chamber as the prisoners, and the boys, are brutally massacred. Only the door outside, quiet and sealed shut forever.
The movie fades to black over this haunting image, leaving the audience with a sickening feeling that they won’t soon forget.