The Summary to this is written in the review below.

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2013)

Synopsis: Life is Beautiful takes place in 1940's Italy, Roberto Benigni stars as Guido, a Jewish-Italian man, filled with joy. Guido mysteriously runs into the same women (Nicoletta Braschi as Dora), time and time again, before he falls in love with her and they eventually marry. They have one child named Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini). They live happily together until one day, their lives are flipped upside down when they are thrown into a Nazi prison, and they must fend for their lives.
Review: Roberto Benigni was able to direct an incredible movie, and at the same time, play the main, award winning role. Guido started out as just a fun, crazy man. But once havoc struck, and his family was endangered, be became a protector, and was the key to his sons survival.
Throughout the whole film, there was always a joyous mood, with the character Guido and his family. No matter what had been going on, even in dark times, he was able to bring joy into the room. This film did a great job at getting the point across about how terrible life was at these Nazi camps, but it did it without being too deep, and depressing.
Overall, La vita è Bella, was a very entertaining film, that was able to make one feel good, but at the same time, was able to get the point across, about how terrible Nazi Germany was.
Critiques: The only critiques I have for this movie are that when Guido and his family got taken away to the Nazi camp it was very sudden, the film did not do a good job by setting the scene as 1940's Italy, with the Nazi invasions.
The only other critique of mine, was the subtitles could be hard to follow at first, but after watching for just a couple minutes, you barely notice them, and are able to follow quite well.
Connections: In my high school English class, we read the book Maus, by Art Spiegelman, and we were asked to compare the two stories. I feel that the stories are similar but at the same time they are complete opposites. Both of the stories at times had the same theme, for example when at the concentration camps, people are being killed left and right, there are themes of evil.
The main difference, was how the stories showed presented the common theme to the audience. The story Maus, at times is very depressing, and sad, the book portrays it as how it really was, and it shows the true evil in the situation. However, Benigni's film, was able to get the same point across, and was able to show the same evil, but it did it all without turning into a sad depressing film, at all times there was a sense of joy in every scene, this may be the first movie I have seen, that has dealt with something that was so terrible, but was able to make the audience feel good while watching.