[REVIEW] LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL(1997)By Roberto Benigni.

A screenshot from the film Life is Beautiful.

Hi. Back again with another movie review. This time, I was given a movie titled "Life Is Beautiful" filmed in the year 1997 to watch. According to Wikipedia, Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella [la ˈviːta ɛ bˈbɛlla]) is a 1997 Italian comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian book shop owner, who employs his fertile imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The film was partially inspired by the book In the End, I Beat Hitler by Rubino Romeo Salmonì and by Benigni's father, who spent two years in a German labour camp during World War II. Without wasting time, let's get into the brief on the film plot.

MOVIE PLOT (SPOILER ALERT)

    This film started off with a jolly intro, where the main character Guido Orefice met his future wife, Dora. Dora was already engaged to another rich but arrogant man. However, Guido kept on setting up "coincidental" incidents to show Dora his interest in her. Finally, Dora ran away with Guido on her engagement day. This set up for the next part of the film was comedic and light, which is in contrast with the second part of the movie. 

    The film welcomed its transition when Guido and Dora were shown having a son, named Giosue. They were living peacefully and Guido owned a bookshop. Unfortunately, all good things came to an end. World War II was going on at that time. On Giosue's birthday, Guido, Giosue and other Jewish people were seized onto the train by Germans to the Nazi Concentration Camp. Dora was able to catch up with the train shortly after she realised that her husband and son were gone. Guido tried his best to not let his son know what was happening as it would scar his childhood by lying to him that it was all a game, and the winner gets to leave with the first prize-- a tank. Giosue believed his father and did whatever his father told him to in order to get points to win. The truth is, there was nothing to be won in the first place. Guido had to do something to make Giosue behave. 

    As the film progresses, Guido worked for the Nazis as slaves, where the Jewish people work until they finally collapsed and die. Every day, lesser slaves came back from the working site. Guido was still able to make up stories to fool Giosue that all he did was to win the tank. His effort did pay off until the chaos broke down in the camp as Germans started to lose the war. Guido hid Giosue and tried to find Dora so that she wouldn't be killed by the Nazis. He was spotted by a Nazi soldier and executed in an alley. The movie ended when the sun rose. Giosue walked out of his hiding spot and an American soldier carried him in an allied tank, which somehow made Guido's words came true. Giosue reunited with his mother Dora when Giosue saw her from the top of the tank. 

FINAL WORDS

    This movie gave me a deeper insight on the impact of war on the normal citizens. Millions of people lost their lives and family in the war to fulfil few peoples' lust of power. The film is very powerful because it shows how many amazing and talented people sacrificed in the name of war. The futility of war was pictured and it reminds us to not repeat the history in the future. See you next time.

Referenced links: http://alainelkanninterviews.com/roberto-benigni/
                             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful