Film Review: Life is Beautiful

Humor amidst the holocaust

Life is Beautiful is a 1997 Italian movie directed by Roberto Benigni, who was also the lead character. It tells the story of a Jewish-Italian Guido Orifice’s love life and his life with his wife and son during the occupation of the German forces in Italy.

The film was set in 1930s Italy. It starts when Guido, who is a Jewish-Italian book keeper, courts and eventually marries a woman from a nearby city. The movie then followed their love story and later on, having their child. The story then made a transition from love story to the Holocaust. Together with other Jews, they were forced to stay and work in a concentration camp. Guido was separated from his wife while their son stayed with him. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of the holocaust, he imagined that all was just a game. This strategy was successful until the end of the occupation. Guido was killed while his family survived.

Though the film started off light, fun, and almost of a little substance, its second half really moved me. It was touching, inspiring, and bittersweet at the same time.

The movie was both plot and character-driven, for it focused about Guido’s life and the holocaust during the World War II. Overall, it was great. Compared to Spielberg’s Schindler’s List which was gory, bloody, and bold, the film showed the situation of the war in a more subtle, not violent manner. Some themes present in the film are innocence, which was evident when Guido kept his son away from the truth; and romance, which was Guido’s love story.

To sum it all up, the movie exceeded my expectations.