SEEING THE LIGHT IN A DARK TUNNEL
If you want to watch a movie to
learn about the Holocaust, I do not suggest you watch La Vita e Bella (Life is
Beautiful). However, if you want to watch a fictional, romantic, comical and
tragic movie about the Holocaust, I highly encourage you to do watch this film.
Seeing hope and having optimism in
inevitably unfortunate events is the main theme of the film which could not be
appreciated if you watch it seriously. One may say that it is a form of mockery
of the Holocaust but it is seriously more than just that; although it may be considered
that it tried to become a form of political allegory as depicted in some of
scenes in the plot-driven film.
At the beginning of the story, Guido
who is the protagonist unwittingly gives a fascist salute in a car with
defective brakes to the people who were waiting for a government personality to
pass through. It symbolizes the strong presence of hierarchal society that the
Jews are left with no choice but to live and go through with.
Also, in the early parts of the
film, Guido shows how keen, resourceful and quick thinker he is at that certain
scene when he accommodated two Nazis. Another scene which also showed this kind
of character he has is when he impersonated a school inspector and said that he
was brought forth by racist scientists just to make way in meeting his apple of
the eye, Dora. Fate and divine intervention was also comically observed in the
love story of Dora and Guido through repetition of events in the earlier parts
of the film along with coincidence.
The casting of the film was
wonderfully woven. Each character was justified and portrayed perfectly by the
actors/actresses in the film. Possessing such kind of humor that Guido has is
not an easy thing that comes naturally. Roberto Benigni, the actor who acted
out the character of Guido, amazingly fitted the character. No wonder that he
grabbed the best actor in the Oscar Academy Awards.
I commend the cinematography of the
film. Each scene was amazingly established by the shots. Although the last part
was quite awkward because Joshua’s mother was lying on the ground when at the
later part, everyone was walking by the US tanks and there were no shots that
established the reason why Dora was situated in such setting. And with regard
to the setting, it really is commendably perfect that it did effectively suspend
my disbelief.
As a whole, the movie moved me by
its approach of comical tragic love story. It is one unique way of presenting
such setting in a lighter manner but still stigmatized the same effect in me.
Though others say otherwise, the film did attribute in my appreciation and awe
of how strong the Jews were during those times of sorrow and sacrifice in the
period of Holocaust.
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