One-line summary? Don't miss this movie.

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 1999)

I put off seeing this "romance" because of a basically grumpy temperament. Now I will want to see IL POSTINO as well. Don't want to miss any dimensions of humanity made available through a great and deep comic personality.
I'm an older person who first learned of the Nazi concentration camps through documentary footage from the Nuremburg trials shown in my Texas high school. How to ever recover from this knowledge, much less the actual experience? Well, to paraphrase Andre Gide, you don't get to the far shore without losing sight of the shore behind you.
Roberto Begnini and his fine cast welcome us to the far shore. Here, the love and care for family and children is far more important than any personal pain, even one's own death. That the character Guido is capable of clowning for the hidden eyes of the child while being taken away by an armed soldier is a lesson in courage as great as in the great samurai films.
The quiet and surprisingly strong character of Dora gives a third point of support to the power of LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. Her insistence on going with her family to the camp is humbling when you recognize her options and test your own ability to sacrifice any comfort or advantage. The love between these three -- the adoration of the father by the child, the care between the parents and love for their child -- reflects a transcendent reality which is played against brute power in the ongoing battle between Heaven and Hell.
How can we endure such pain? Through comedy, through love . . .
And please also credit for depth of situation shown to the gentle old uncle, the Nazi doctor going crazy, the Italian school director easily embracing Fascism as she might embrace any other new educational fad. Also must credit the patient horse and the kitten. In SCHINDLER'S LIST (black and white), a touch of color, a little red coat, (thank you Akira Kurosawa -- see HIGH AND LOW) made sharply poignant the loss of a child in the camp. Here, a live kitten looking for the child who cared for it is left with the pile of clothing of the dead children. Life gone, life remaining.
Life IS beautiful . . . the movie is teaching us. Learn, the undercurrent of it whispers, and live well. I'm really grateful for this film.