Now, this is a great, great film.

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2002)

Perhaps some spoilers contained herein:
Steven Spielberg should take notes. See, if you're going to make a film about the Holocaust, do so with some originality. I don't care to watch self-indulgent, exploitive, voyeurism, Oskar Schindler and the Temple of Doom, Oskar Schindler, the Extra-Terrestrial, the Holocaust in all its made-for-Hollywood, tear-jerking glory. Just make a sweet, little comedy that captures more drama, more real, human feeling, and more uplifting goodness amid horror than Spielberg in all his overblown ineptness ever could.
Okay, I'm going to leave Spielberg alone now. It's just that, in retrospect, I realize I didn't bash Schindler's List enough when I reviewed it on this site.
Charlie Chaplin understood the power of comedy to make a social or existential point. I was surprised to learn that Roberto Benigni does as well. Assume that your audience is aware of the collective human embarrassment that was the Holocaust...and don't show it. Just put us in that historical context and mock it with the story of a man who, even in the gravest of circumstances, acknowledges the beauty of existence, of the woman he loves, and of the son he brought into this God-forsaken planet. Life is Beautiful is not an ironic title- it is, absolutely, the fundamental transient human truth that permeates every second of celluloid it took to make the movie. The film culminates with the reunion of mother and son, the son yelling joyously, "abbiamo vinto (we won)!", referring to the game he believes he has won, the game his father spent every second of his internment convincing his son they were playing. His mother, with tears in her eyes, gives her tearful agreement, "Si, abbiamo vinto." I am a pretty hard person who's become more so as a result of two and a half decades of socialized masculinization, but I burst into tears every time I watch that scene. What it means to have won is for you to feel, not for Benigni to say.
In fact, Benigni does not explicitly say much. Life is Beautiful begins with a narrator whose identity is later revealed stating, "Quest'e' una storia simplice (this is a simple story)." And on the surface, it is a simple story as Benigni tells it. The understated profundity of its message, however, is not simple. It is a rejoicing, and it an act of defiance. Life is beautiful, in spite of what we collectively do to ruin it. This is film is to be seen again and again.