How Does One Cope with such horrors.

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 1999)

Watching La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful) I began to ask myself, how did parents explain a situation like this to children. How does one explain a deathcamp to someone of that age. I felt that the backdrop of a holocaust death camp was indeed appropriate. The laughter during the second half of the film was extremely sobering. There was a sense of extreme sadness because I knew what in reality was going on. There is a sense of suspense that tugs at my soul as I wondered how he would escape the confines of a death camp. Benigni's timing was brilliant in the first half, the whole way he sets up situations that later pay off in intense laughter was brilliant. But all of the laughter was just like a means of coping with a complex situation. I don't see how anyone who lived through the holocaust could be offended by this movie. I'm sure that many faced the same problems that the characters felt. Humor is a very powerful coping mechanism. Another movie where humor helps alleviate the atrocities of a serious situation (i.e.- Cold War) was the Late Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Serious events don't always have to be taken in a droll serious moment. I've had personal experiences with tragedy at which humor was a very good help, making light of a bad situation is always something to strive to be able to do.