Think about it: If Bruno hadn't dropped that sandwich, Schmuel would have been chowing it down. Quickly, no doubt, but still it was a huge sandwich.
So, the time it would have taken to eat it was eliminated and the boys got into the barracks all that much sooner. As soon as they hit that barracks, the soldiers came in to hustle them to their deaths.
God. I hadn't thought of that. That is a bone chilling thought and will keep me awake tonight.
shareOh goodness.....
shareThis is actually one of the most interesting posts I've seen on IMDB. I honestly didn't know if you were making a little joke at the beginning, but I thought about that scene where it was on the ground a lot. There was that moment when he realizes he dropped it and Schmuel reacts as if "Oh well, next time," and this actually bothered me immediately. Then when the mother sees it, she knows he's been feeding someone who doesn't have. It was a chilling moment also. The timing aspect might be true, but I hadn't thought of it, but definitely important in it's significance.
shareI need to rewatch, but iirc, the sandwich was only used as a point of info for the mom. She sees the Bruno take off with it in case he gets hungry but then when he's missing, it's the sandwich in front of the open window in the shed that indicates where he's gone. . . . It didn't have any point - to her knowledge - otherwise.
shareI think you need to rewatch. The entire scene revolves around the sandwich. He's making the sandwich extra big for Shmuel, because in his mind, Schmuel is doing him a favor. He's getting him inside "the camp." When he gets there, Schmuel, who was looking forward to the meal, blows it off and he says "next time." While the point isn't about the sandwich at all, it's a chilling reminder that these are children and like all children think, as they are told by their parents, "next time." Yes, the sandwich is used a point of information, but it's also a revelation to the mother, not only that her son is going to the camp, but how he's her son, not his father's. While the OP made the reference to illustrate real world time, the scene is the segue into the finale.
shareSee, I'm not knocking the whole "next time" aspect of the sandwich for the kids, but I AM questioning the idea that the mother realized that Bruno was taking the sandwich to someone in "the camp." That's why I'll need to rewatch - I don't think she ever got -until too late - that he even had a connection to the camp really. Just because he'd climbed out the shed window didn't necessarily mean to her that he was going to the camp, he could've wandered anywhere. But I'll rewatch with that idea in mind, see if it makes sense to me.
Honestly? I think the tragedy of the mother was that she was so blind to everything going on around her until too late. And her knowing that Bruno was actively going and befriending a camp inmate would go against that.
I don't think the mother actively thought this, I think she realized it at this moment. I think the search around the house proves they were in the dark.
shareBut she didn't see him take off with the sandwich. He keeps it hidden behind his back, and walks out sideways to keep it hidden. She doesn't now anything about the sandwich until she sees it in the shed below the window.
And I don't know if having the sandwich would have changed the timeline at all at the camp. Bruno did all the digging from his side of the fence. Schmal (sp?) would have just eaten it while Bruno was digging. We have no reason to think Bruno would have waited for him to finish the sandwich before digging, especially with the weather moving in.
The sandwich also shows the family the connection Bruno made. It told them that he breaking bread with someone there, not just exploring.
shareSorry to go off at a tangent but I wondered when watching the film whether Schmuel would have eaten the sandwich as it contained pork (Bruno appears to put in ham or salami when making the sandwich)I suppose he may have taken the meat out or might not have even thought about it due to his desperate hunger, but it had me thinking nevertheless.
shareDude..... I'd chow down a sandwich of live BEES if I was slowly, painfully starving to death in a labour camp. I seriously doubt his religions beliefs re: pork would override the human instinct to eat/survive
"A day without laughter is a day wasted" - Charlie Chaplin
You have a point there, I know there are children who can't eat sweets simply because they never got used to it, so yea, he could have threw it away as we throw away a banana peel. He didn't looked feral to me and probably got used to be hungry all the time, I mean on a psychological level. In this way kids will always be victims of indoctrination.
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