Critical Analysis Of Life Is Beautiful

A tale not about survival but about sacrifice

Besides being a source of entertainment many films carry a message for the public. The 1997 film, Life Is Beautiful is a tragic comedy directed by and starring Roberto Benigni and is set during the holocaust. This film received several laurels including three Academy Awards. Roberto plays the role of Guido Orefice, a young Jewish who along with his family falls pray to the Nazi death camps. The film is divided into two parts, the first is entirely comic, the second, a bittersweet portrayal of love, sacrifice and suffering. The appeal lies in the challenges Guido must encounter in order to save his family. This forms the dramatic heart of the film.

The film begins with Guido arriving in Italy to

With skillful manipulation and preplanned incidences Guido shows his interest in the beautiful Dora and makes it known that he is about to replace the haughty man in her life. She soon comes to fall in love with him and on the day of her engagement party they elope together leaving her mother and fiancé humiliated. This act of the film allows Benigni to demonstrate his comical character in abundance. Amidst all the comedy the audience becomes unaware of whatever ordeal they are about to witness.

Five years pass, Guido and Dora get married and are doting parents to a five-year-old Joshua. The war breaks out. All the Jewish citizens are rounded up and shipped to the concentration camps via rail. Eliseo, Guido and Joshua are captured on Joshua’s birthday. Guido not wanting to terrify his son by telling him the truth, pretends to be worried about missing the train and being left behind portraying that they are about to go on a happy journey. A courageous Dora, not Jewish, is spared by the Nazis but insists on boarding the train to be close to her family. She voluntarily boards the train and is taken to the camp. In the camp, to conceal the real situation from Joshua, Guido knits a fictitious story. He explains to