For a story meant to evoke a period of intolerance and piercing hatred, there is nary a scene of violence, foul language or genuine repulsion. While Zusak’s novel contains a vivid depiction of Nazi Germany, unafraid to show the brutality and terror that both Jews and Germans resistant to join in with the nationalist fervor went through, the film adaptation is pallid and bland. “A person is only as good as their word,” Hans tells her. Max is Jewish and had to abandon his mother during Kristallnacht to find shelter and Hans and Rosa press Liesel not to give away that they are keeping a Jew in their basement. However, the basement soon becomes the hiding place for Max (Ben Schnetzer), whose father was a friend of Hans’ and gave him an accordion. He then sets up giant letters of the alphabet on the walls of their cruddy basement, gives Liesel chalk, and tells her to scribe the words she wants to learn on the walls.
#The book thief cast how to#
He teaches her how to read The Grave Digger’s Handbook – a slim book she retrieved from the gravesite of her younger brother. Hans is helping her out in this pursuit of literacy. However, during a period where hundreds of villagers pack the streets for book burning festivities, Liesel wants nothing more than to learn to read and write. Liesel is quiet, with sorrow-filled eyes, and her classmates scorn her for not knowing how to read. The Book Thief follows the life of young Liesel Meminger (Sophie Nélisse), a nine-year-old girl abandoned by her mother and left in the custody of Hans and Rosa Huberman (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson). Brian Percival’s film adaptation, in comparison, is too plain, lacking any of the dynamism that drove Zusak’s bestseller. It was a vibrant tale set against a dismal wartime backdrop. However, Zusak’s novel was a book of deep feelings and big thrills, with an aching humanity filling the story and the haunting spirit of Death narrating.
When Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief hits bookshelves in 2005, one critic referred to it disdainfully as “Harry Potter and the Holocaust.” This reaction likely spurred from that decade’s ubiquitous Holocaust literature aimed at teens among them, Everything is Illuminated and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which received lesser film adaptations.
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