Excellent Movie

Rating: 10/10 (29 April 2013)

Life is Beautiful is a comedic, tragic, drama filled movie that was actually directed and co-written by the magnificent Roberto Benigni who also stars in the movie as Guido, a hotel waiter. As the movie starts, Guido gets to a town and meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), a beautiful teacher, who he fell in love with at first sight. It is obvious to say that Dora has feelings for Guido, but is engaged to be married, so she can't act upon those feelings right away. That didn't stop Guido from trying his hardest to get Dora to fall in love with him. He soon succeeded and they fell in love. The two lovebirds got married and later had a son, Joshua (Georgio Cantarini). As the movie continues, all of the Jewish people in Guido's town, including Guido and his young son Joshua, get taken away on a train to a concentration camp. In the midst of trying with all his might to protect Joshua from knowing what is going on, he tells his beloved son that they are playing a game so he feels safe during that tragic time. While at the camp, Guido continues to do everything he can to prove to his son that they are in fact playing a game. Guido says that if they get the most points, Joshua will win a tank as the first place prize. The characters in this movie were more than excellent and each actor played their role to the fullest. This movie was intriguing and quite heartwarming in an interesting way. I was impressed.
While watching Life Is Beautiful, I was reminded quite frequently of a book I read in British and World Literature class called Maus that is written by Art Spiegelman. In Maus, Art goes to his father and asks him about his experiences during the Holocaust. His father, Vladek, talks about everything he needed to do to survive and explains in great detail everything that he went through. It is very similar to Life Is Beautiful because the movie is also about someone's experiences during the Holocaust. In both Maus and Life Is Beautiful, trying to survive was an everyday thing. Art Spiegelman's father, Vladek, had to do many things in order live on to the next day and not end up like the rest who died in the camps. He made a hole in a coal cabinet to go down to a cellar to hide, went in a shoe tunnel that led to a bunker to hide, worked for different people and basically did what he had to do to stay alive just like in the movie where Guido did everything he could to make sure he and his son lived. Maus had a father and son relationship and so did Life Is Beautiful. In the movie, Guido went through great measures to protect his son by having him hide on the top bed in their cabin, hide in different places to ensure his safety, and to not speak to certain people. In Maus, Vladek protected his first son Richieu by sending him away with a character, Persis, to a safer place. Both the book and the movie had the sense of protecting loved ones and dealt with acts of survival.