Life is beautiful - a marvellous film.

Rating: 10/10 (24 April 2006)

Over the years we have all seen Holocaust films and TV documentary's, read harrowing Holocaust History books and by using our imaginations we have slept in the barracks, spit out the food offered, and walked in striped prisoner clothing the degrading camp streets of Auschwitz- Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sorbibor, Dachau and Mauthausen. We need to remember that there was 2700 concentration camps, most of which, Chelmno and Gross Rosen for instance, no one remembers today.
Whilst watching this wonderful film Life is Beautiful, we ourselves become Jews, we instinctively identify with camp people of all races and deep down we know we would not have survived the camps, perhaps most of us would not want to survive such inhumane and incomprehensible treatment. So, let's imagine we did survive the camps, if we did then hopefully Life would be beautiful. So it goes without saying that we have a duty especially if we have not been in a concentration camp to see that it is beautiful for us and for all others within our family circle and orbit. And this is for me the humanitarian message contained in this great film - to make life beautiful for all.
It is without a top 10 Classic film, there's no police chases, no street-smart gangsters, no blonde molls, no letters of transit, or aeroplanes to Lisbon and freedom, but it contains pathos, real life true-isms we cannot not ignore, and a hero who rides a bike and laughs. I understand the actress who played our hero's wife is in fact his real life wife, which is rather touching, if only we all had a wife like her. The acting, lighting and filming are first rate, and without doubt it is the film of the decade, and in 50 years time it will have a huge audience. If you have it on a video then save it, this film and anything connected to it, including old posters, will one day fetch thousands on Ebay and at Sothebys auctions.
One personal regret "I wish I had been involved with the production, the tea boy observer perhaps, and whoever wrote the script and placed it on the screen for us all to enjoy is a genius. Thank you to all who worked on this film, thank you for allowing your world and your unique Italian humour to touch our lives. Thank you for telling us that Life is Beautiful.
E Wilson, Leeds, UK.