Life Is Beautiful
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claudio Alfonsi, Gil Baroni, Lidia Alfonsi, Massimo Bianchi, Sergio Bini BustricDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-11-09
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Miramax
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Movie Reviews of Life Is Beautiful
Movie Review: Whimsy in a Technicolor Death Camp
Summary: 5 Stars
How to show the horrors of the Holocaust? Spielberg created scenes of almost documentary quality on black and white film in Schindler's List because he believed color would make it too terrible to watch. Roberto Benigni chose to make his Holocaust film in gaudy quasi-Technicolor with unnaturally rosy cheeks, bright pink dresses, and bright green horses. Its main character is a live-action cartoon, complete with slapstick humor, running sight gags, and broad yet deep romance. The result? Life Is Beautiful is more than gut-wrenching. The humor doesn't ease the horror of the Holocaust or make a joke out of it. Contrary to what some reviewers here say, the humor makes the reality of the Holocaust all the more grim in contrast.
While Spielberg certainly captured the facts (and one wonders if one way in which Benigni could be faulted is that he has made a Holocaust movie with no violence), Benigni's film has a different kind of very real emotional truth. Life is Beautiful is a must see, recommended for everyone. At the same time I don't think I could ever own it. One to watch every ten years, if that, because it's so hard to watch. Life is Beautiful is a singular movie--horrifying, sickening, but somehow you still remember the jokes after it.
From here on, there will be some spoilers:
It is not the basic plot which makes this movie good, but the way in which the story is told. All of the advertisements and many of the reviews focus on Benigni's character. (He did after all win several Best Actor awards around the world.) During the film he does seem to monopolize the attentions of the audience and the onscreen characters around him. But the mastery is evident in that much of the story Benigni is telling is actually told very subtly. We can see the love Guido has for Joshua through the father's tireless antics despite his complete exhaustion after a day of hard labor. But Dora's love for her husband and son is even greater than theirs for her. She demands that she be put on the train with her family, even though she is not a Jew. And although Guido tries to involve other prisoners in his game with his son, their attempts are half-hearted at best. He certainly hasn't eased their condition. What's more, he knows that he wouldn't be joking if it weren't for his son.
Later, Guido's uncle instinctively helps a female German guard when she trips near him. She is stunned and the audience should be as well. On the opposite end of the spectrum of human kindness, Doctor Lessing seems to promise help for Guido and his family in the camp, only to ask Guido another riddle when they are able to meet in private. It is the smallest actions which move this story forward, and which evidence just how well-told this story is.
Summary of Life Is Beautiful
Italy's rubber-faced funnyman Roberto Benigni accomplishes the impossible in his World War II comedy Life Is Beautiful: he shapes a simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. An international sensation and the most successful foreign language film in U.S. history, the picture also earned director-cowriter-star Benigni Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor. He plays the Jewish country boy Guido, a madcap romantic in Mussolini's Italy who wins the heart of his sweetheart (Benigni's real-life sweetie, Nicoletta Braschi) and raises a darling son (the adorable Giorgio Cantarini) in the shadow of fascism. When the Nazis ship the men off to a concentration camp in the waning days of the war, Guido is determined to shelter his son from the evils around them and convinces him they're in an elaborate contest to win (of all things) a tank. Guido tirelessly maintains the ruse with comic ingenuity, even as the horrors escalate and the camp's population continues to dwindle--all the more impetus to keep his son safe, secure, and, most of all, hidden. Benigni walks a fine line mining comedy from tragedy and his efforts are pure fantasy--he accomplishes feats no man could realistically pull off--both of which have drawn fire from a few critics. Yet for all its wacky humor and inventive gags, Life Is Beautiful is a moving and poignant tale of one father's sacrifice to save not just his young son's life but his innocence in the face of one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated by the human race. --Sean AxmakerAn inspired motion picture masterpiece, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL was nominated for 7 Academy Awards(R) -- winning 3 Oscars, including one for Best Actor Robert Benigni. In this extraordinary tale, Guido (Benigni) -- a charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colorful imagination and an irresistible sense of humor -- has won the heart of the woman he loves and created a beautiful life for his young family. But then, that life is threatened by World War II ... and Guido must rely on those very same strengths to save his beloved wife and son from an unthinkable fate! Honored with an overwhelming level of critical acclaim, this truly exceptional, utterly unique achievement will lift your spirits and capture your heart!
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