This works for me but I can understand why someone would dislike it

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2020)

Comedies that use Nazism, WWII and/or the Holocaust as fodder exist in a surprisingly large number. Like how many times has someone made the weird pitch about it being a comedy dealing with Nazis? Apart from this-just from memory-you have JoJo Rabbit, The Great Dictator and various segments in Mel Brooks films (Brooks famously hates this film). Of the ones I have seen I think this one is the best. It somehow manages to be gut-wrenching, honest and hopeful. And funny.
I think the keys to the film are two. First the opening, and closing, narration position the film as a fable; the film is meant to be taken on the subtextual or allegorical level. This smooths out the issues over taste as undermines the literalness of the narrative . Second the film, in context correct ways, isn't shy about the actual damaged and human of the Holocaust. The abject horror is mostly confined to 3 sequences-Guido's fate, the fog and the showers-but each are blunt, striking. Guido's fate especially emphasizes the statistical unlikelihood of surviving. (Weirdly, I think the film handles to aspect better than Schindler's List).
Add in that the film takes the time to show certain Nazis being Nazis because of a callous indifference not merely foaming at the mouth antisemitism and there is a poignancy to the film that rarely gets put into WWII cinema.
This film strikes me as polarizing given its central conceit.