Movie #124: Life is Beautiful

Movie #: 124
Movie Title: Life is Beautiful
Year Released: 1997

Director: Roberto Benigni
Notable Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano, Horst Buchholz

Short Description: When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: #56
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: #75
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 5/16/2016

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 (Outstanding)

Rationale: I can honestly not think of a single movie that’s thrown my emotions into a rollercoaster ride like Life is Beautiful. The first half of the movie is sort of slapstick in a fun and funny way as Roberto Benigni’s character Guido tries to court Nicoletta Braschi‘s character Dora. I was especially fond of their late night stroll and the situational humor that helped her fall for him. Skip to the send half and you see Guido’s family, including their young son and his elderly uncle, being sent off to a concentration camp during WWII. Guido, being the loving father he is, builds a story and plays it out for his son that the camp being a game and they need to survive to win a prize. His drive and the length he went to to preserve his child’s innocence in the worst of times was tender and heartwarming. A true hidden gem of a movie that, while hard to watch in the second half, I’m glad to have seen.