The greatest movie of all time?

Rating: 10/10 (13 May 2007)

Although many will not say this is possibly the best movie ever made, I say it is. I mean, there is almost nothing wrong in this film.
Starting out as a romantic comedy, we meet the characters in Life Is Beautiful. Much depth is given to the main character, Guido Orefice. The man is just awesome and never once does he regret the life he has, even when shut behind the evil of the concentration camps. Dora is the girl he's in love with. Although I found her performance the weakest in the film, she still did a good job at portraying a woman dying to escape the lonely and miserable rich life. She decides finally to run off with Guido, and this is when the movies transitions from romantic comedy to a beautiful drama.
The movie puts us ahead by five or so years. We meet the adorable son of Guido, Joshua (I may have forgotten his name so I'm not sure if I'm right). Although given only about ten minutes to develop before the Holocaust, you can't help falling in love with the little boy who just unconditionally loves his father. Some Nazi stuff is foreshadowed before the next part of the film, preparing the audience for what is to come.
Finally, our characters shipped off to a concentration camp. The movie drastically changes but in a comfortable manner. Guido convinces his son they are in a game in which they are competing to win a tank. Joshua eventually believes this, and their lives begin to spiral downhill farther than ever. They see some ugly things and everything they do has death knocking on their door. But they stay alive, and you really feel for the characters when some hope is lost in them. You know they don't deserve such a life.
But things only get worse when the war ends. Back in the Holocaust, Nazis would start a massacre within the camp when they would hear that their enemy was coming. One of the characters (I will not say which) is killed rather suddenly, but still is effective in a good way. It is so sad because of what has happened. Two characters are finally reunited as the prisoners escape from the Nazi camp, and the story ends at that.
After this I found myself appreciating just the making of this film because it was so well-handled. The Holocaust is a touchy subject but not once is the situation abused in the comedy and wealth of the story. The movie was well-penned and directed, and Bengini really knew what he was doing. The movie had the perfect balance of light and dark, and flaws are invisible unless you try really hard to find out what they are. This movie deserves a perfect score: a 10/10. Life really is beautiful.