Good drama with some humor

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2013)

Life is Beautiful
There are many stories from the holocaust that have been produced into a movie and many have been successful but few have captured the attention and the emotions of the audience like "Life is Beautiful" by Roberto Benigni. The story of A Jewish waiter named Guido takes place in Italy where he is waiting tables and living the life of a normal bachelor of the time. One day he stumbles upon a beautiful young lady who instantly captures his attraction, her name, Dora(Nicoletta Braschi) or otherwise referred to as princess throughout the movie. The key to remember is the time period this story takes place in. In the 1940's the Nazi's were rounding up all Jews and taking them to concentration camps all over. After Guido and Dora settle down and have their first and only child Joshua, the war begins to affect them in ways it never had before. On Joshua's birthday, they are taken by the Nazi's and sent to a concentration camp. Now, this is where things begin to sound a lot like the graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, Maus. In the story by Spiegelman, Vladeks father did everything possible to keep him out of the war and Guido did everything to keep Joshua out of harm's way. The similarity between the two fathers is their instincts as parents to protect their child. They both knew that they had wanted a better life for their kids and did everything possible to make that happen. While there were many other ways that these two stories connected to each other, there were a few twists in either side that prevented them from being the biggest connection points unlike this, which is clearly and easily relatable to both.