Benigni respects the Holocaust, makes a masterpiece.

Rating: Null/10 (19 February 1999)

I sympathize with those who were offended by Benigni's use of the Holocaust as a backdrop to this film. For anyone who lost a relative or loved one in the true-life tragedy, this film could easily appear to blaspheme the hardships they had to endure. For that reason, I do not recommend this film for anyone with strong personal attachments to the Holocaust. The very nature of the film dictates such a warning.
But it is not that Benigni fails to show the proper respect. Those who believe he portrays the event as something less terrific than it was must have had their eyes closed when he walks through the fog straight into a towering pile of neatly-stacked human corpses. The sight of it all, along with the sheer look of terror in Benigni's eyes as if straight out of Dante's Inferno that scene alone affirms the terrible realities of the Holocaust.
I will not enter into any other areas of this film, because most, if not all, of what I feel has already been voiced here. It is, simply, a masterpiece. In one film, Benigni has outshone all of Hollywood, and once again renewed my faith in the power of cinema.