Life is Beautiful is an Italian drama film by Elie Wiesel and a book written by Roberto Benigni. This happened in 1939 in the kingdom of Italy. Guido Orefise is one of the actors, a young Jewish man who arrives in the city where his uncle, Eliseo, works in a restaurant. According to this film, Guido is not only sharp but also comical. He falls in love with a girl named Dora. Fortunately, Guido meets the girl again in the city when now she is a teacher. She is also engaged by a rich but arrogant man who works as a government official, and Guido knows him. Guido shows a lot of interest to this girl, Dora. Later, Guido wins her heart after she sees the affection Guido has for her. They later get married and have a son by the name of Giosue.
The Second World War breaks out when Guido, his uncle, and Giosue, as well as other Jews, are forced onto a train and taken to a concentration camp. Dora also gets on the train so as to be close to her family. However, in the camp, men and women are separated, and they cannot see each other. Guido keeps on communicating with Dora using the camp loudspeaker to assure her that he and their children are safe. In the camp, Guido tries to convince their child by hiding the situation at the camp and telling him that the camp is a complicated game. In the chaos of shutting down the camp, Guido communicates to his child to stay in a packet until everyone has gone from the camp. They later reunite, and Giosue realizes his father’s narration of the story of sacrifice for their own family (Ceccato, Sabrina, pg 56).
The book tells the same story the movie is about. They both bring out the idea of humanity as well as the importance of the father-son relationship. It also focuses on its importance in times of hardship. For instance, it talks about the experience of being sent to a German concentration camp as well as the suffering in the camp. When the movie starts, in a voice, a man describes his memory of past events. Therefore, the movie is based on a true story (Ceccato, Sabrina, pg 55).
The most interesting event in the movie is in the case where Guido is trying to hide the real situation of the camp and goes ahead to tell his son that it was just a mere game. The most disturbing thing in the movie is when Guido is struggling to communicate with his wife in the camp. According to the movie, the Second World War led to the displacement of people and loss of life. For instance, in the middle of the movie, everybody cared for themselves and could kill others in order to get their food.
The movie was well presented as it critically shows what happened during the Second World War. It enables us to understand the situation of the war as well as how people survived.
Work Citations
Baehr, Ted. Reel to Real: 45 Movie Devotions for Families. BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC, 2018.
Ceccato, Sabrina. “CINEMA IN JAMAICA–THE LEGACY OF THE HARDER THEY COME.” Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies (ARCHIVES) 6.2 (2018): 54-67.
Cusick, William. “Archives, Collective Memory, and the Poetics of Home Movies.” The Films of Bill Morrison: Aesthetics of the Archive (2018).
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