FANTASTIC MOVIE

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2018)

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I've now seen it three times and every time am still amazed at the genius mix of comedy and tragedy in a movie primarily about love and the relationship between a father and son with the holocaust mostly as a bitter setting. Although historically inaccurate in several ways, including not only the survival of a child in a camp such as the one the movie is set in, but also the lack of starvation for both father and son in the camp, the movie is meant to be more of a fable than a historically accurate depiction of life in a camp. This inaccurate depiction actually allows us to look at camp life through a different lens. The game that the character of Guito makes up in the film for his son is actually more believable than some of the things that happened in the camps, such as making "soap and buttons" out of human beings. When Guido laughs at the ridiculousness of making objects out of humans and putting humans in ovens, it makes perfect sense, because those are ridiculous things to do. We are able to see the camps through the eyes of an innocent, young boy which, though not a view that delves into historical analysis, allows us to look at the camps in a way less normalized and more as the literally unbelievable and seemingly fake places that they are. Additionally, the movie conveys the importance of retaining a sense of humor and life in a place like this. Guido acted the same way in the camp as he did before the camp, and this is what helped him retain hope throughout the movie. This was true within the camps in real life as well; hope was one of the few things that helped inmates of these camps maintain their will to live, and Guido conveys this idea perfectly.