A brave movie

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 1999)

I've read all the previous comments. It's amazing to see someone advocating this is one of the best movies ever and someone else saying this is a very bad and offending show. Very few moderate comments...
Usually a movie so much debated is at least interesting. I believe this is really valuable, first of all because making such a blend of humour and drama isn't easy at all. No other filmmaker did something like "Life is beautiful" in the past: the Holocaust, humour and a lovely story in the same film. Probably this is one of the best movies ever for bravery and originality, yes.
Do you want a harsh, historically correct view of the Holocaust? Please read the books written by survivors, like Primo Levi's "Se questo è un uomo", and watch original footage filmed at the end of the war, for example by the Russians when they entered Auschwitz, if you absolutely need something visual too. Even "Schindler's list" doesn't show the worst of that tragedy, for I believe it's simply impossible to represent such an horror with a fiction work, with actors and special effects. "Life is beautiful" doesn't want to represent the Holocaust, and IMHO this is a Good Thing.
BTW, I'm Italian and Benigni here is a superstar; you see him everywhere on TV. If you saw the Cannes ceremony you have a vague idea about what he's capable to do. I saw him live years ago and he's even completely different: much better!!