In December of 1997 in Italy, a movie was released. Nearly a year after that, the same cinema was shown in the USA. This movie was entitled Life is Beautiful, and would later become Italy’s highest grossing movie till date, and the winner and nominee of multiple Academy awards and other accolades. The beautiful film not only depicts the horrors of the Holocaust for those living in concentration camps, but is more than that: it shows the true extent of human love and resilience. It begins with the introduction of Guido Orefice (portrayed by Robert Benigni), an optimistic, and witty man who always manages to escape tricky situations in nearly comical manners. Guido meets Dora, a young woman, who, unbeknownst to Guido, is set to be married soon to a haughty aristocrat.

Nevertheless, it was quite literally love at first sight for both characters. After pulling a series of stunts to depict his interest in his “principessa” (Italian for princess), he soon makes an appearance at an engagement party for Dora, and convinces her to come away with him. They soon get married and have a son, Joshua. It is from this point that events start to take a turn for the worst. Guido, Joshua, and Uncle Eliseo are abducted by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp. Dora soon joins them, purely by choice, but is separated due to different gender. At this point, Guido’s main aim is to shield Joshua from the injustice surrounding him. He tells his son that this is entirely a game, explaining each portion of the camp to him in terms of the game, things that would otherwise be considered traumatic scenes for a young child. It is in this way that Guido manages to keep Joshua alive among the other youngsters who were immediately led to the gas chambers. The movie is classified as a tragic comedy, a genre one does not often see as the norm for major successes in the film industry.

 The cinema begins in 1939, Italy; the start of the Nazi revolution. Fascism has taken over the political climate in the country, fostered by Benito Mussolini. Throughout the first portion of the movie, multiple hints are dropped of the increased shift towards anti-Semitism. Most notably, in one stunt to impress Dora, Guido impersonates a school inspector at the academy where she teaches. He does so by using the concept of “racial science” in a satirical way. This was one of the many beliefs of the Nazis that we have reviewed in class. Guido overemphasizes the idea to such a degree that reveals the true absurdity of it; he points out his perfect “Aryan bellybutton” and the “Aryan exit” he pulls when escaping from window in a hurry. Yet another clue of the rising racism in the area is depicted through Uncle Eliseo’s horse. Guido comes to his uncle to borrow his horse; he wants to ride in to Dora’s engagement party to carry her away with him. He realizes however, that the creature has been painted over completely with anti-Semitic slurs. Despite this, Guido uses this particular animal to grandly steal away his principessa. Later on, when he and Joshua are walking down a road, Joshua notices a sign outside a store banning Jews and dogs and inquires about it. Guido quickly assures him that this was a random selection, and they themselves should put up a sign outside their bookstore prohibiting spiders and Visigoths. This is just the start of Guido’s cunning when it comes to his son. The obvious other relationship between our notes, Night and Life is Beautiful is the setting for the latter part of the movie. The entire Orefice family is taken to a concentration camp, along with many other Italian Jews. Reminiscent of the bunks prisoners slept on (what Elie Wiesel was seen on the famous Buchenwald photo), the captives are taken to a dormitory where Guido and Joshua “choose” their “bed”. Also, later on that day, all the prisoners get tattoos of their numbers on their arm, similar to how they did it at many other concentration camp as a way to catalog the victims. There are a myriad of ways the film incorporates very real aspects of the Holocaust in the otherwise fictional tale.

I have never quite watched a movie as poignant and wonderful as Life is Beautiful. After experiencing the 116 minutes of the movie, I was left speechless. I could not fathom how I could possibly do justice to the cinema by limiting it to words. What words could possibly truthfully describe a story of such juxtaposition? Was it tragic? Or was it comedic? One cannot confine it to just one category. I loathe to call the film tragic, because really, it’s not. Yes, I cringe writing that sentence. How could a movie about the Holocaust be anything other than tragic? I wondered the same while pondering Life is Beautiful. Somehow, this work of art managed to paint such a character, such an elaborate scheme, that the terribleness of the Holocaust fades just a little in comparison to the real message of the story. At first glance, the idea of the film seems absurd. Contrasting comedy and a hugely serious topic such as the Holocaust seems like a disaster ready to happen. However, this did not receive as much backlash as one might expect. It has quite a delicate subject matter, but artfully shows the viewer a hidden side of the Holocaust: the human perspective. Often, pictures that focus on this time in European history largely emphasize the horrors of the camps and treatment of captives. Life is Beautiful, on the other hand, gives a fresh take on the issue, one that works to reveal the human spirit, and how many Jews had to make do with the situation at hand. Even in the midst of mass murder and terror, Guido doesn’t lose his personality, his sense of humor, but most importantly, his responsibility as a father and husband. He flawlessly shows Joshua and the audience that something positive can always be found in the worst possible situation. Guido lives for his family. He risks (and loses) his life trying to find Dora, and ensure she’s alright. It is true these actions of the character that this film has the extraordinary power of turning a story with a bleak backdrop into one about the celebration of life and spirit. Nonetheless, that led me to wonder: what if Guido hadn’t cooked up a story for Joshua? What if Joshua didn’t have a fortunate distaste for showers? What if an American tank hadn’t miraculously appeared in the camp after Guido’s death? It was these thoughts that truly made me recognize the sorrowful aspect of this story. The tragedy lies not in what happened on screen; it lies within what could have happened. So many of the scenes in the story couldn’t have happened in the reality of the Holocaust. Guido was exceptionally lucky that even after his death, Joshua was hidden from the true happenings in the camp with the appearance of his “prize”, the tank.

In its entirety, Life is Beautiful can’t really be labeled a “Holocaust Movie”. The theme of the story outweighs the heaviness of the genocide. All in all, it simply is the tale of a father showing his son that life is, in fact, beautiful.