Sep 22, 2008 05:10 PM
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Let's paint a worst case scenario: technological upgrades have somehow not mangled their way into your 70's styled living room. Which is primarily the reason why, there still sits a VCR ( a VHS player) on the shelf below the TV, instead of the upgraded multi-player DVD!
Whichunfortunately, sunsequently means, the later movies cant find their way to your television monitotrs! But if you ARE reading this review, then you have to have access to the internet!!! Then log on to youtube or search the multi-faceted web world for various other means to procure this movie, but do watch Life is beautiful!
All of us, each and every one of us, somewhere believes in the goodness of being alive. But every once in a while we need reminding of just how lucky we are! Life is beautiful is one such reminder!
One of the most cliched romantic plots comes alive in shades of witty humour, as Guido, a jewish waiter in the tense times of World War II, loses his heart to Dora and upper class girl and sets out to woo her! The twist in the romance is in the form of a councillor, who is affianced to Dora.
You fall in love with Guido as he tries unfailingly to win Dora over. You fall in love with falling in love as the two souls come closer together and unite as one. And you fall in love... laughing all the way.
Guido and Dora get married. Life for the couple living their fairy tale just gets more romantic with the birth of Joshua. Happy to be married to the beautiful love of his life, completely in love with his son, Joshua and content to be running his own small bookshop, Guido does not let the Nazi invasion of Italy pull him down.
He laughs his hearty laugh and spreads his mirth, to the sometimes dread filled hearts of tiny family. One such instance which stays with you long after the movie is over is when Joshu asks Guido, why a sign outside a store says
"No Jews or Dogs" Guido, not wanting to subject his son to the impending doom which lingers in Italy, makes a joke of it and explains that they just don’t want Jews in their shop or Dogs in their shop, promising to place a sign in his shop tomorrow that says: “No Spiders or Visigoths.”
When teh NAzi hatred for jews escalates and Guido is ordered with Joshua to a concentration camp, Dora has the choice to stay behind and begin a new life as she is not a jew. She pleads with the officials to accept her into the concentration camp so that no matter how remotely, but she is on the same plain as her husband and son.
Surrounded by the dire state of the merciless concentration camp, Guido is unwilling to let his little son believe that the world is a bad place, filled with lofty racists. He tells his son that they have just bought tickets to a game and the winner of that game will win - not a toy tank, like Joshua wanted for his birthday- but a real tank! This has Joshua's eyes widening in wonder and has him willing to accpet the stringent terms and conditions of this game with a wide smile.
Even dires situations, like the probable death of a fellow jew, is kept away from Joshua under the garb of humour. Surrounded, by sorrowful moans, grief and lack of faith and above all gruesome death, Guido still manages to make Joshu believe that Life can be and is Beautiful!
