After seeing the film a second time, I knew it had made it into my Top 3 All Time Favorites. The third time I saw the movie, I concentrated on all the technical aspects and once again marveled at Benigni's brilliance. Cinema doesn't get any better (i.e. original, memorable) than this. I am only sorry that it did not win the Oscar for Best Picture as well. I can't wait for it to come out on video. It is number one on my list, and I can't imagine another film knocking it out of that position!

A Wonderful and Uplifting Story (Rating: 4.00)
Review : "Life is Beautiful" is a pleasant return to movies that express emotion well. This story isn't quite your average WWII hideout plot, though.

In this movie, Roberto Benigni, who plays a funny, romantic father and husband, must cope with the effects of World War II, which has changed his life forever. The movie, however, does not start out darkly- it begins with Benigni romantically persuing a beautiful and kind woman, whom he has fallen in love with. Benigni is very funny, and does wonders with this role. His character uses wit and humor to gain the affection of his object of affection, played by Nicoletta Braschi. Soon they start a family: the two of them, with their young, innocent son.

This is where things take a turn for the worse. The War begins, and Benigni and his son are sent off to a Nazi prison camp, where Jews and other people are being enslaved and killed. Faced with having to explain this to his son, he turns the entire situation into a pretend game, so as not to frighten his son. From here things worsen- but throughout it all, Benigni tries to keep his son happy, refusing to give up on life.

This movie, while very tragic, is also uplifting. It give us a better sense of the value of life when we watch it, and it amuses us at the same time. If you enjoy movies that are funny, romantic, and uplifting, this one is definitely for you.

"I want to make love to all of hollywood" (Rating: 5.00)
Review : The pride of Italy Roberto Benini in his WWII masterpiece, tastefully combining comedy with drama in an oscar winning foreign film. A must have. Make sure you watch it in Italian with the subtitles.

Life is Beautiful, Movies can be Weird (Rating: 2.00)
Review : After skimming the reviews here, Roberto Benigni has obviously struck a chord with a lot of people.
I would not argue with them but I found myself with the reviewer who called this film MR. BEAN GOES TO AUSCHWITZ. Actual history proved just too distracting for me to get caught up in this "fable."

Actually, the film I kept thinking of has never been seen: Jerry Lewis' THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED. I've read the script and I can only imagine the reviews of that film if it was ever released! (Now there's a film in itself: a daffy but deranged filmmaker, popping pills and performing pratfalls, producing his movie about a German clown entertaining Jewish kids on their way to the ovens. Yikes.)

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL doesn't go that far, but I found myself constantly distracted by Benigni's rubbery slapstick taking place in a concentration camp. Yeah, it's sweet that he wants to spare his son the horrors of the camp...but they're in a camp, a concentration camp.
The first half of the film actually plays like a whimsical, slightly-more-witty Jerry Lewis movie. Then the Nazis arrive. Individual scenes manage to touch and charm, but overall it just feels very odd.

Jerry Lewis must have gone nuts when Benigni won the Best Actor Academy Award (William Goldman, the sage of screenwriters, certainly did in print by saying this was the greatest Oscar abomination since THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH won Best Picture in the 1950s). I admit I was put off at Benigni's antics at the Oscars--"I LUFF YOU, I LUFF YOU ALL, I MAKE LUFF TO YOU ALL!" I can't even picture Jerry Lewis carrying on that much if he'd won Best Actor for THE BELLBOY. Now that I think about it, maybe he would....

Yes, movies are a great escape from reality--but there are some realities that shouldn't be part of that escape.
We have new generations of kids coming up who are quite removed from the terrifying reality of the Holocaust and the near-slapstick version of it portrayed in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL could diminish the true horror of it.
That heaviness, that memory, made buying into the humor nearly impossible.

Film as art (Rating: 5.00)
Review : Often you will go to the theater and watch a movie and be entertained for 90 minutes, only to forget most of what you have seen within a week. Love it or hate it you will remember "Life is Beautiful." This is a masterpiece. The writing is superb. Every element of the story is connected masterfully. Think of the key, the horse, the hat, the riddle and the fact that Joshua does not like to take baths; each of these is used by Benigni to move the plot along.

As for those who say the movie sugarcoats the Holocaust, I think they may have some merit to their argument in that there is truly nothing funny about the Holocaust, but I do not think Benigi overlooks the horrors of Holocaust life entirely. Guido's main intent was to protect his wife and son. He was going to do anything to accomplish this goal, even the outrageous and the humorous. Yes, it is true that most children were killed immediately upon reaching the concentration camps, but if we remember that Benigni called the movie a fable we should try to overlook this one discrepancy. A fable has at its core a moral or a lesson to convey to us. What was Benigni trying to say? Was the movie about the Holocaust? Yes it was, but it was also about sacrifice and what one man can and will do in face of cruel and inhuman conditions. He wanted to shield Joshua from the horror around him. Guido thought that by making everything a game Joshua had the best chance for survival. Remember the look on Guido's face when he first walked in the barracks? It was the face of horror. I felt he [Benigni] knew and understood the Holocaust. For example, Benigni depicted scenes consistent with the Holocaust. There was a "selection" when the prisoners first got off the train. Also, he showed women, children and the elderly being sent to the gas chambers. The scene with the doctor was another example of a "selection." The doctor, who was a man he shared riddles with in the first half of the movie, is another casualty of the Holocaust. He appears so overwhelmed by what he has experienced in the camp that when Guido finally sees him he has gone mad, reduced to a shell of a man babbling about unsolvable riddles.

Guido's only goal was to make sure his family survived. I have two dauthers, and if I am one-half the father that Guido was to Joshua, I will think of myself as a successful parent. Guido, to me, was a hero, not a buffoon as some reviewers are apt to state.

ETMR - Life is Beautiful (Rating: 5.00)
Review : 1. Humanity: How does Guido express the human quality of endurance?

2. Implications: Life is Beautiful expresses the need for family strength. What does this mean for today?

3. Evolution: Life is Beautiful employs a style that is at first jarring to watch, and then succeeds on its own as a force of comedy. How has this affected cinema since its release in 1998?

4. Realism: Is the game Guido plays with his son feasible realistically?

5. Stageplay: The basic story is one of a man trying to remain optimistic during a time of intense suffering. How does the light-heartedness of the plot change the realistic consequences of the Holocaust?

A Beautiful film (Rating: 5.00)
Review : Never before has such a brilliant hybrid of comedy and the tradegy of war been so skillfully woven togen. The film, although disjointed slightly in its early stages, presents a delicate balance between the otrocities of the second world war and the genuine warmth and kindness of its protagonist. There are times when you will you laugh, others that you will feel deeply saddened by the plight of the characters, with the comfortable compromise reached at the film's conclusion leaving a pleasant after taste in spite of the circumstances. Brilliantly acted and filmed, Life is Beautiful presents a different take of what life was like in that dark period of history whilst leaving intact the integrity of the central themes and the brutality of war. This is a movie that can be enjoyed on multiple levels and is a worthy Oscar winner.