Best film of the year.

Rating: 10/10 (8 November 1998)

I've just gotten back from the theater and I am still stunned. I think what made this film so unusual is that the two principal characters, Guido and Dora, are selfless and truly in love. This is a film about falling in love, as 99% of romances are, but also of *staying* in love and what that that truly means--following your family to near-certain death, thinking of your wife's worry enough to reassure her you and your son still live, sheltering your son from the cruelties of life. Where American cine is absorbed with the self-absorbed lovers, this film focuses on the love expended on others--a rare treat.
I truly think I saw tonight one of the best films of the decade, if not of all time. A few scenes--the boy meeting the American tank, Dora stepping into the train, the rain-soaked wooing--are so specatular they can't help but be indelible.
Two weaknesses--the execution of Guido is so nonchalant that it is almost impactless. Sure, we see him give his son a final salute, but the offscreen shooting is anti-climatic. Secondly, the death camp seems as harsh as a prison, but no concentration camp. The ghastliness of this butchering, seen in clearer focus, would have made Guido's actions all the more heroic.