A perfect gem

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 1999)

Contains Spoilers - if you have not seen the movie do not read this comment.
I was just going to read the comments here and not add my own but after seeing how many people trashed this movie I have to say a few words. Don't read this if you have not seen it because I must discuss key plot elements (including the ending) to make my point. It seem those who criticize it for too much slapstick, not enough humour, not enough seriousness about the Holocaust, did not allow its simplicity to move them. Have they never known true love, have they never read any other fables where good triumphs over evil? If you are determined to be cynical and if you believe there is no hope then of course you would find this movie irritating.
Now my story. I didn't even care to see this because from reviews I read when it came out it seemed like a standard tale with nothing original or worthwhile. I was completely uninterested.
I happened to rent it for my daughter and was doing other things so missed the first half hour or so. Then I went to watch it without expecting anything. I sat down as critical and bored as you can be, but within minutes I was drawn into the story - even having missed the whole introduction. It was such a perfectly told story of a man's character that watching it in reverse did not ruin it.
I was in tears 4 or 5 times, as well as laughing out loud at least once. This almost never happens in a movie, as I am not easily fooled, always knowing "it's only a movie." What was the difference?
Unlike most movies it didn't have miles of boring, useless footage just put in to look pretty or set a mood. Every frame was vital to the story. If you want to quibble and say Schindler's List was superior, here's why it's not: Most of my friends refused to see Schindler's List because they "didn't want to be depressed," not to mention that its length was daunting. So it's the greatest movie that was never watched by those who would have liked it if they didn't have preconceived notions that a story about the holocaust is "unbearable" to watch.
Life is Beautiful, in contrast, is a touching love story that only incidentally takes place during the holocaust and can be seen by those who are afraid to see scenes of death. Everyone is quite familiar with available films about its horrors; we have the Diary of Anne Frank, for one. The big difference is that you are left with horrific despair at the end of that. There is no hope, only bleakness. If we want bleakness there are plenty of documentaries and movies to watch already.
Here is a film where the protaganist dies, and yet we can say good triumphed at the end. Yes, it is fiction but so is all of Shakespeare and his stories are considered meaningful representations of universal human behaviour. In the case of Life is Beautiful, we are struck by how much we wish more people were like the clown Roberto Benigni, so that life would not be quite so plodding and deadly.
The whole family would have died if not for the father's insistence on acting in his normal loving and unpredictable manner during the nightmare situation. He laid down his life for his son, recklessly putting himself in harm's way many times - it was inevitable he would be killed one way or another. Only in this way could the greater good take place - that his wife and son's lives would be spared. He had no guarantee, but all he could do was step out and let his beliefs be manifest. He is the archetypal holy fool, the idiot who shows up evil to be what it is - pompus stuff, but ridiculous and without a chance in a world where there are good people.
The incongruity of his clownish mistranslation of the German orders; the child's recalcitrant hatred of showers saving him from death even before his father was aware that a shower meant death; the boldness of using loudspeakers and music to reach his wife's ears in the camp to bring her hope - all these touches made the Nazi's domination what we now know it was - not a real and universal victory, only a temporary bullying that would soon end when the Americans came in their tank, bringing the story full circle in the child's innocent eyes.
As for a beautiful, small story perfectly told, what could compare to a game his father created to keep him from knowledge of human evil - where the child wins in the end - even though he later will learn he lost his father. As narrated by the child when he is grown, it is a love story of his father's sacrifice - it is a model of two people who fell in love, who lived purely, and who passed on their purity of spirit to their child.
Those who call it a standard screwball comedy in the beginning fail to notice the darkening shadow of anti-semitism and the decision the non-Jewish woman makes when she hears her fiancee spouting evil, in contrast to the Jewish clown who has been pursuing her in his whimsical way. It couldn't be further from the standard Hollywood epic. A heroine played by Paltrow or Diaz would not have got on that train to be with her loved ones. The Italian passion for love and family ties gives us spoiled, jaded westerners (of which I am representative) something deep to ponder. What would we do?
Great movies have moral decisions. That is why blockbusters like Austin Powers and Blair Witch Project will never be called great. They are fun for young people to watch, but add nothing to one's intellectual or spiritual growth.
A great movie draws you into the story and makes you forget it's only a movie. You don't care if there are errors in continuity, you don't care about the settings. In Hollywood movies that's all you can think of - gosh, look at the setting, must have cost a lot to make. This was a LITTLE movie. Like Cinema Paradiso, which one of the other reviewers here mentioned. But I disagree that it was greater than Life is Beautiful. It did not contain as many perfect elements.
A great movie has many perfect elements, and even if the story is an ancient one it never seems trite. Everything fits together. The movie would not have been complete without the doctor who was obsessed with riddles, without the child accidentally saying thank you in Italian, and the way his father solved that crisis instantly, as well as a dozen other surprises which alternately create suspense and relief.
There was no need to show the young couple getting married and having a child. The editing was done only to show what was needed to advance the story. The rest is easialy understood. There is no saccharine concentration on sentimentality at the expense of reality. There is no throwing out of happiness to show the desolation of life's hardship.
I say this movie is as great as Citizen Kane. It is told sparingly, it is moving, it is gripping, it doesn't try too hard, it isn't phoney, it transcends criticism, it stands alone as a perfect gem - the fimmaker is not going to be dismayed if everyone doesn't love it. He knew what he wanted to do and did it!