I watched this movie for the first time last year and was blown away. How I had never heard of this film before that baffled me, because in my opinion it's a classic. It tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the film), who must employ his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.One of the things this movie get's across is how sad and desperate the camp's must have been. It doesn't do this with shocks tactics though. Instead it uses the relationship between a father and his innocent son, who for his sake does everything in his power to make the camp almost bearable. He maintains a cheery, upbeat attitude through impossible conditions and in doing so try's to make the child believe that this is all a game and that everything will be ok.
That may sound a bit unrealistic or implausible but the performance by Benigni make's you believe everything and you begin to ask yourself what you would do in that situation; and if you would be half the man Guido is portrayed to be.
It is a very sad story and it has to be. Guido's imagination juxtaposes the horror of the camp brilliantly though and that makes this film very watchable. If this film has a message it's in it's title. Life is precious and can be taken away easily. You would think from the content that you would come away despairing on humanity but it is in fact quiet the opposite. The movie echoes hope and the strength of the human character.
At least that's what I took away from it anyway.
Gerry.
