Comedic melodrama in concentration camp? Impossible, obviously.

Rating: Null/10 (3 February 2004)

I was very surprised that this film drew so much critical acclaim. It is noteworthy for trying to view the holocaust from a different angle, but fails miserably in the attempt. I can understand why people liked this film, but I believe these people have kept themselves blissfully ignorant about the reality of the holocaust.
The movie is, roughly, in two parts. The first half is a rather beautiful love story taking place in some world of fantastic realism. It's nicely poetic, but spoiled for me by the frequent appearance of a hyperactive Robin Williams imitator overdosed on speed: unfortunately, the lead actor.
The second half is, obviously, more problematic. After Benigni and his "princessa" have created a model Italian core family with a cute little son, and after a gradual and skillful build-up of the antisemitism theme, the three of them are suddenly deported to a concentration camp. The mother is separated from them, and the father tries to protect his son by telling him that it all is a big game and that the winner will win an actual tank. I do not object to this idea; it's a good premise for a movie.
The problem is the depiction of the concentration camp. The barracks are tidy; everybody has a bunk for himself; the prisoners are reasonable friendly; it's only that there is little to eat and that everybody has to work very hard. There are some references making clear that people are murdered and cremated, so we understand that this is supposed to be a death camp. But the movie painfully avoids really conveying these horrors to the audience. It has to do so, of course. You can't have comedic melodrama between piled-up corpses, people sleeping on top of each other, and sick people left to die without treatment.
There is a reason why almost nobody ever really tried to depict a death camp. (In case you wonder, the camp shown in detail in "Schindler's List" is just an "ordinary" KZ, no actual death camp. In Spielberg's film, Auschwitz is only depicted from narrow angles in subjective perspective, so that you never really see anything; which might be the only appropriate way to show anything at all.) I understand what the filmmakers tried to do here, but what they have accomplished is the belittlement and playing down of the holocaust.
In my view, the film's critical reception only goes to show how little is known today about the atrocities of the Third Reich, and how many people have spared themselves opening their minds and imaginations to what really happened. I grant the movie three stars because I don't doubt the good intentions, but I felt decidedly appalled by it.