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Summary: Life is beautiful
Review: Stunning! Absolutely beautiful! moving and emotional. It leaves you confused as to whether you want to cry or shout with joy.
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Summary: Powerful movie! Must See!
Review: This movie will make you cry in the best way possible.
It celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the face of enormous adversity!
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Summary: Great story about love & hope.
Review: Unless you're Italian, don't forget that you can view the English language version by accessing the setup on the DVD version. :o)
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Summary: Benigni buoyed by brilliant cast, but still annoying.
Review: La Vita e Bella (Roberto Benigni, 1997)Roberto Benigni finally gets out from under the blanket that is Jim Jarmusch (Benigni and Jarmusch teamed for such cult classics as Down by Law and Night on Earth) in America. It should have been obvious for anyone who followed both men that Jarmusch's humor is of a decidedly different sweep than is Benigni's. After all, Benigni released the silly, rather stupid Johnny Stecchino the same year Jarmusch released Night on Earth, with Benigni as one of the cab drivers. Where Jarmusch is intellectual, Benigni is slapstick, often painfully so. To Benigni's credit, La Vita e Bella is his best film. (By far.) He tones down the slapstick quite a bit, though he's as manic as ever. Here, he plays the kind of guy everyone knows, the inveterate liar who uses his talents for storytelling to try and make life better for everyone around him. He gets his big test during World War II; as he is Jewish, both he and his son are taken to a concentration camp, where he spends his time trying to convince his son that they're playing a game rather than trying to keep themselves alive in the face of Nazi oppression. It's impossible not to like the film, really. But I think much of the credit should go to the supporting cast rather than Benigni, who's as annoying as ever. (At least he's not playing with bananas this time a la Johnny Stecchino.) Everyone around him, rather than seeming grateful for his actions, seems to take them with an almost resigned amusement; in other words, every other actor in the movie is set up as a straight man for Benigni and his wild flights of fantasy. The effect is wonderful. There is much to be made of the light tone taken with the Holocaust, and the hundreds of coincidences throughout the latter half of the movie that would have made it impossible, but we must remember: this is Benigni. His character's wild flights of fantasy are nothing more than a mirror of Benigni's own wild flight of fantasy in the structure and content of the film itself. Still, the juxtaposition of manic comedy with the horrors of war (most starkly shown when Benigni gets lost in the fog after the dinner) does leave something of a bad aftertaste in the mouth. Overall, though, a good film. Worthy of the Oscar nominations? Maybe. Benigni winning Best Actor over Edward Norton in American History X? Not even close. ***
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Summary: a million time watch kind of movie
Review: I've been dying to get my hands on this since 1998. when I finally dead, i bought as many copies, and gave it to friends. this is a must-see, honestly! the kind of movie that makes you laugh one second, and cry the other.
the most moving scene to me would be when Dora listened to her husband and baby in the concentration camp. it goes straight to the heart.
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Summary: Everything You Could Want in a Movie
Review: This movie is simply a masterpiece. The story of an Italian-Jew, his wife, and his young son during the Holucost, the husband trying to keep his son calm in a consintration camp by saying it is all a game and that the winner gets a tank. This beautiful tale about a man's love and devotion to his son will have you on the edge of your seat as you experience its romance, comedy, action, and drama. This is a must-see for anyone who owns a DVD player or a VCR. Wonderful. It fully deserves the awards that it has won.
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Summary: PURE GARBAGE
Review: What a pile of *. This guy should be ashamed of himself. Makes it look like the holocaust wasn't so bad, you just had to keep your spirits up. Yeah just keep your spirits up while they were killing people at a rate of 20,000 a day at Treblinka, moving people off the train to the gas chambers as if it were an assembly line. Just make a game out of it as your face is beeing smashed in by rifle butts and shovels. Laugh while jews are being tossed alive into pits of fire. Hey maybe for Benigni's next movie he can make a funny movie about 9/11.
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Summary: A light in these dark times.
Review: 400+ reviewers have already spoken about the film and raved about it. I would like to add that I saw this film recently, after the horrendously immoral US attack on Iraq, that has affected me deeply. But seeing Guido's unflaggingly heroic efforts to shield his son from the obvious horror of the concentration camp ,it has given me some hope, that each of us is an individual, and we must try our best to lead the life we wish.
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Summary: True heroism
Review: Guido is an ordinary man, even, apparently, a weak man. Charming but foolish, hardly hero material in the conventional sense. Yet, against enormous odds and with no resources but his love for his family and his wits, he finds a way to give his family the hope they need to survive the horror of the holocaust. The genius of this film is in juxtapositions; of comedy and tragedy, of love and terror, of heroism and cruelty. And most of all, Benigni's ability to perfectly layer carefree silliness on overwhelming desperation. This is most poignently demonstrated in his final scene as he is marched away at gunpoint and gives his hidden son a last wink and grin that is also a grimace of fear and agony, and the silly marionette march he put on for his son's benefit that sags into a despairing slump; with these bits of body language we know that he has used up everything he had in his effort to save his child; the gunshot that follows is a mere formality. This film has the ability to open a window in the soul. A window that might feel, at first, like a wound, but one which offers a view of the heroism of which even the most ordinary person might be capable.
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Summary: One of the best ever
Review: I've seen a lot of movies in my time, many of which don't deserve what they get. This movie is one of the best I have ever seen, and deserves all it's acclaim. It is at first a drama about the hardships of the Nazi Holocaust, but becomes a masterpiece about a father's love for his son. Parts of this film will make you laugh, parts will make you cry. All of it will change you.
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