Claire Hennessey

Mr. Mastroianni
Global History II Honors
February 7, 2017

Life is Beautiful Review

The movie, Life is Beautiful , tells the story of Guido, a humorous Italian Jew, and his

family, as they live through the most devastating event in human history. In the beginning of the

film, Guido marries Dora, who he calls his principessa, and they have a son, Joshua. Later,

when Guido and Joshua get taken by Nazi soldiers, Dora insists on going with them on the train

to the camp, although she is not Jewish. At the camp, Dora is separated from her family and is

forced to work with the women, while Joshua and Guido live with the men. Guido goes out of

his way, even through exhaustion and fear, to preserve Joshuas childhood innocence by

convincing him life in the Holocaust is a game. He motivates Joshua to stay away from the

Nazis by hanging the final reward of a tank over his head. Guido uses humor and love to counter

the pain and suffering of the Holocaust, and the fear and hate of the Nazis, maintaining their

humanity. After a long struggle and many close calls to being caught and killed, the war finally

ends. The Nazis are focused on leaving the camp and killing the remaining prisoners. Guido

hides Joshua in a box while he leaves to find Dora. Subsequently, Guido is caught by the

soldiers and killed, leaving Joshua hiding until he no longer hears people outside. After all the

soldiers and remaining prisoners have left, Joshua leaves the box to be greeted by a tank, driven

by an American soldier. He is brought to safety out of the camp and is reunited with his mother.

He is saved by the sacrifices Guido made throughout the story to preserve his sons mind and

life.

This film provides cultural and historical insights into the time period of the Holocaust.

The audience is first introduced to Italys culture at the beginning of the movie, as family

appears to be a large part of their everyday life. The beginning of the movie focuses on the

relationships the characters have with one another. This shows that although many of the
Claire Hennessey
Mr. Mastroianni
Global History II Honors
February 7, 2017

prisoners had Judaism in common, they came from around Europe, with different stories and

personal backgrounds. The Nazis wanted to group them together as genetic defects that cause all

issues in society, while the truth is each person is unique and deserves to live. Historical aspects

of the culture are seen that show life in the 1930s and 40s. Guido explains to Joshua that they

are not allowed in certain stores because they restrict Jewish customers. This was common

around Europe as the Nazis ideals spread even to small towns like the one featured in the movie.

The audience witnesses more historical references to the time period as Guido and Joshua are

captured and loaded onto a train, along with other Jews, to be transported to the camp. When

learning about the Nazis rise to power, we learned they first identified and separated the Jews in

their communities, then transported them to the camps. These first two steps are shown in the

movie, as we see Guido and Joshua living under the Third Reich. At the concentration camps,

the audience watches the struggle of the prisoners. They are separated by gender and age. The

elderly, for example Uncle Eliseo, are deem him unbeneficial for work, and are killed off. Later,

when Joshua comes running into the worksite complaining that he does not want to shower, the

audience realizes the Nazis have just performed the mass execution of all the children in the

camp with the use of the gas chambers. All of these examples actually occurred during the

Holocaust, so the audience gains historically accurate knowledge of the events. Finally, at the

end of the movie, we see the release of the camps as the war is over. The soldiers are frantically

burning records and killing people as they flee the camp. The US soldiers come in and attempt

to save the last of the survivors. Overall, the movie teaches the audience about life in the

Holocaust historically and the cultural aspects that explain character relationships and further the

story.
Claire Hennessey
Mr. Mastroianni
Global History II Honors
February 7, 2017

The main distinction that sets this movie apart from other Holocaust movies is that its

purpose is to show the humanity that existed in the Holocaust. It is often taught that the

Holocaust was a horrible time of the mass execution of 11 million people by the Nazis.

Although this is true, this explanation lacks a side of the story, that of the people, not the

numbers in the record books, that lived through this time. As shown in the movie, the

mistreatment of these people did not cause them to lose what made them human, love and

emotions. The strong love bond that holds Guidos family together, never falters throughout the

movie, and grows even stronger, as they fight for life together. One of the goals of the Nazis was

to strip the Jews of their humanity, for example when they shaved their heads, and treated them

as less than human. As the audience follows and gains a connection with characters like Guido

and Joshua, they see that even with what all the Nazis do, their humanity is never taken away.

Guido lives to the end of his life in the strong pursuit of protecting Joshua from the horrors of the

world around them. This movie was effective in bringing awareness to this side of this historical

event and left the audience feeling emotional, not because of the intensity of the statistics that

represent the event, but the connection they felt to the people who lived through it. I have taken

away a new mindset that when I learn about historical events, I have to think about the people

and families that were affected. This allows us to view other cultures focusing not on what

happened, but how the events affected the people of that culture. We cannot discount how

important humanity is in our lives and how greatly it affects events. For example a lack of

humanity led the Nazis to commit such a destructive genocide, while the presence of humanity

allowed Guido to protect his son in a place of fear and hate. This film is important for everyone

to see, so they can witness the effects the Holocaust had on families and gain a deeper

understanding of how humanity is present in our world.