The Book Thief. Review on The Book Thief

The Book Thief:

The Book Thief is a movie based on a bestselling novel of Australian writer Markus Zusak. The book was first published in 2005 and won numerous awards and was listed on The New York Times best seller list for over 230 weeks.

The movie was released in November 2013 under the production house of Fox 2000 Pictures and Studio Babelsberg. Movie hits the Box office with its simple and strong story with awesome acting and collected 21 million dollar worth.

Movie was nominated in the Oscar for best achievement in music written for Motion Pictures, original score by John Williams. It was also nominated in the same category in Golden Globes Awards and BAFTA Awards.

The plot of movie is presented in 1938 Germany. The Hitler was rising that time. He was very cruel to communist and Jewish. During that time communist and Jewish were searched by Hitler soldiers and killed. At the same time, a girl Liesel Meminger whose brother died in young age.

He got a book on at his burial. Liesel was then sent to foster parents as her mother was communist and in danger. Her foster parents Hans and Rosa were happy to see a new member in their life. Rosa was very strict to Liesel but Hans is very kind to her. Liesel found new mother and father.

On a first day in her school, the fellow students laughed on her as she does not how to write. Her foster father taught her to read and write. Hans start teaching him from the book which she took from graveside of his brother. She became friend of Rudy who was living in her neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the cruelty of Hitler increased on communists and Jewish. A night, a Jewish young boy came to Hans house and asked for the shelter. Hans knew him very well and given the shelter, food and medicine to the boy. Liesel became his best friend very soon. Hans and Rosa instructed Liesel to not to tell about him to anyone.

One day Rosa sent Liesel to commander house to give the cloth of laundry. Commander mother now that Liesel like read books. So she offered Liesel to read books from her library. Liesel like to read those books daily, after give delivery of books. But this activity ends early when commander know about her.

In winter, Max fell ill with high fever. Hans and Rosa thought that he will not survive more. While Liesel gone to commander house and stole books to read in night in front of Max to entertain and survive him.

The Second World War soon started. Hitler soldiers were searching every house to find out the communists. Then it is very thoughtful that how Hans and Rosa save Max from them. Was Max survived from fever? Was Liesel stopped stealing books? Was there any effect of Second World War in this story?

The most important thing of this movie is that the movie is presented by a voice which is death. If I think about story then I will say that it is marvelous. Director Brian Percival did awesome job with actors and scenes. He strongly presented the story and their all parts. Like when searching parties of Hitler solders entered in Hans’s house that time acting of Sophie Nélisse (Liesel), Geoffrey Rush (Hans) and Emily Watson (Rosa) is highest at the peak. The acting of Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson are fantastic and marvelous.

The set designing team and location of movie is looks like a Second World War German city. The costume designers worked very well on the costumes which just like same as of German during the Second World War period.

Michael Petroni adopted the bestselling book of Markus Zukas “The Book Thief” as challenge to make a movie on this. It was widely released on 27th November 2013 which was ahead of their schedule time. But this movie did good business on box office and attracted many critics.

Robert Abele at Los Angeles Times wrote that "director Brian Percival and screenwriter Michael Petroni serve up is just another tasteful, staid Hollywoodization of terribleness, in which a catastrophic time acts as a convenient backdrop for a wishful narrative rather than the springboard for an honest one."

Well I watched this movie and I like to watch it again and again. I am recommending to all my friends that must watch this movie which is something different from commercial movie current. As it was said above, the writer and director serve very well to the original story and this is the plus point of this movie.

Regards,

Rajeev Roshan.