Is life Beautiful?

[EvilElitest]

I've just watched the film, and i have to say i was very disappointed. While i understand what the writer is trying to say, that fact he has to down grade the Holocaust in such a manner to the point of unrealistic (those were the nicest Nazis i've ever seen) really makes me rather sick. Does anyone else feel this way about the film
from,
EE

[Prophaniti]

I thought it was a good movie. They did a decent job of portraying what happened in such a way as to make the movie suitable for younger audiences. I would show it to my daughter at a younger age than say, Schindler's List, though I do intend to show my kids that one as well, just not until they're older.

[EvilElitest]

Even so, it seems somewhat, I don't know, indecent to show the holocaust in such bright terms. I mean the uniforms are so clean along with the bunkers ect.
from,
EE

[Prophaniti]

Well, I dont know if my reasoning is correct... more likely it was brightened up because it was made by europeans who may not wish to graphically portray a very dark period in their history. Is it a realistic representation of what happened? Of course not. Is it still a good movie with a decent message? I think so.

[Wizzardman]

I dunno. While Life is Beautiful doesn't exactly create an accurate Holocaust atmosphere, or display the gore and cruelty inherent in a concentration camp, it is really set from Joshua's point of view. At the time the movie is set, Joshua's too young to understand what's really going on; the latter half of the movie is really just reliving his old memories of his father and the war, so its naturally dumbed down because this is all Joshua was able to understand at the time.

Additionally, considering that the movie targets a younger audience, it provides a fairly good impression of the Holocaust. Not everything about the Holocaust can be Schindler's List, after all--especially not if we intend for children to watch the movie. And to make up for its lack of accuracy, Life is Beautiful plays up the audience's attachment to the characters, so that
the father's death, the grandfather's death, and the suffering they're put through
can have as much effect as possible. Additionally, I'd argue that it carefully hints at the reality of what's going on, to show that its not 'nicer Nazis' so much as 'naive Joshua' that hides the cruelties around him.

Personally, I really liked the movie. But that may just be me.

[EvilElitest]

While the message is ok, i think it is silly to try to hid the truth from children. My younger sisters are 8 and 10 and they know the general idea of what happen during the Holocaust very well (not the detail, but they know what happened and who was involved) and they know the lesson of the Final Solution, that this is what happens when fear, hatred, and racism get out of hand. Such a whimsical film seems almost insulting, as it says that one can survive their troubles by relying on luck and overt optism, as well as lying to protect them from the truth.
from,
EE

[averagejoe]

Watched that movie in high school, and don't really remember it well enough to comment much. I remember liking it, but no doubt I'd be all jaded and stuff now. However, I do remember the bit at the beginning, where their car was out of control, and they were trying to get people to move out of the way, and everyone thought they were heil-ing, and I thought that was pretty hilarious.

[Turcano]

I saw it as part of a Holocaust Lit class, and the tone really did bother me a bit. Although there are things that bother me much more, like the idea of concentration camps as tourist attractions. (If I find out that Auschwitz has a gift shop, someone's gonna die for it.)

[Wizzardman]

While the message is ok, i think it is silly to try to hid the truth from children. My younger sisters are 8 and 10 and they know the general idea of what happen during the Holocaust very well (not the detail, but they know what happened and who was involved) and they know the lesson of the Final Solution, that this is what happens when fear, hatred, and racism get out of hand. Such a whimsical film seems almost insulting, as it says that one can survive their troubles by relying on luck and overt optism, as well as lying to protect them from the truth.
from,
EE

If that's the message you want to take from it--but, then again, that's what movies such as Schindler's List are for: to remind people of the true horror of the Holocaust. My viewpoint is that Life is Beautiful exists to remind people that hope, beauty, kindness, and love are eternal, and were the only things the Nazis were never able to take away.

Meh. Maybe I'm just catering to the whimsy of the film, and the whimsy of family-oriented filmmaking.

...Not that I'm recommending that your sisters watch Schindler's List just yet. I first watched it at age 13, and I was hardly ready for it then. Its a hell of a movie, but it doesn't pull punches.


I saw it as part of a Holocaust Lit class, and the tone really did bother me a bit. Although there are things that bother me much more, like the idea of concentration camps as tourist attractions. (If I find out that Auschwitz has a gift shop, someone's gonna die for it.)

Yes, it does. Auschwitz does have a gift shop. Fortunately, most of the proceeds go to charity groups and the families of the survivors.

[Winterwind]

...Not that I'm recommending that your sisters watch Schindler's List just yet. I first watched it at age 13, and I was hardly ready for it then. Its a hell of a movie, but it doesn't pull punches.Hmm. I watched it when I was around 11, and I was glad I did - while it was saddening and shocking, what I really took from this movie was, rather, how moving it was what Schindler did. And the movie's message is important, so that what it is about never repeats.
It's definitely not for everyone at that age, but I think important movies should be seen early.

Here (and, as my parents told me, in Poland too) it is more or less mandatory for school classes around 14 to visit a concentration camp.
Now that is truly a traumatising experience. :smalleek:

Auschwitz has a gift shop? I admit I have trouble wrapping my mind around this idea. :smalleek:

[Wizzardman]

Hmm. I watched it when I was around 11, and I was glad I did - while it was saddening and shocking, what I really took from this movie was, rather, how moving it was what Schindler did. And the movie's message is important, so that what it is about never repeats.
It's definitely not for everyone at that age, but I think important movies should be seen early.

Here (and, as my parents told me, in Poland too) it is more or less mandatory for school classes around 14 to visit a concentration camp.
Now that is truly a traumatising experience. :smalleek:

Auschwitz has a gift shop? I admit I have trouble wrapping my mind around this idea. :smalleek:

Oh, I agree, important movies should be watched early. I was just forewarning him. Important movies should be watched early, but hopefully late enough that the kid will understand it and not be traumatized by it.

Meh. I'll admit I was a bit of a wussy kid. Having my parents talk about the parts of the family that didn't make it out of there didn't help, though.

...Wow. That's actually a really good program. Props for Poland.

[EvilElitest]

While i won't allow my sisters to watch it, i saw Schindler's list when i was 13 and was fine. I read Maus when i was 12, and read Night when i was 14. I just find the idea fake in Life is beautiful, those events should always be approached with an understanding of the horrors commited. I'll say more tommorrow
from
EE

[fireinthedust]

well, there is a certain elegence to the math of the universe...

Oh, the movie. Huh.

I thought it was simplistic; good up until the holocaust part. Then it's kinda funny, but interrupted by the realization of the horror. then they play sad music and expect catharsis because we've already seen Schindler's list (which deserved the response) and milks our memories of good films like that. Or Anne Frank, iguess (which had Tony from West Side Story in it!!!)

really I think these films are a genre all their own. Holocaust movies, y'know? Includes more than just ww2 films: Moses, sure (prince of egypt anyone?); but also xmen films... I had a whole list. Oooh, Roots (african americans, a-thank you!), and, let's see... dunno. Gladiator? The great escape? (although, along with Chicken Run, I think those are esscape movies)

basically I think a persecution film needs a group of people who are captured and put in a camp or enslavement atmosphere; they suffer through a series of trials and near-death experiences, using their wit or humanity to escape brutal torture and death... which doesn't work out. Inevitable doom, and the exposing of the beauty of life before this crushing wheel of despair.

something like that.

[Paragon Badger]

While i won't allow my sisters to watch it, i saw Schindler's list when i was 13 and was fine. I read Maus when i was 12, and read Night when i was 14. I just find the idea fake in Life is beautiful, those events should always be approached with an understanding of the horrors commited. I'll say more tommorrow
from
EE

The message wasn't to showcase the horrors of the holocaust, 'Night' does that well enough.

The message was that you should never surrender to your dispair and give up hope. That there was something after all the horror, that 'Life is beautiful.'

What if the film had instead focused on a story of a similiar family; save for the fact that all three of them died. What would the message be?

"Life's a bitch and then you die"?

A movie like that would be revelling in the deaths of the holocaust. This film celebrates the life that continued.

Although there were alot of 'nice' Nazis. It was entirely fake, of course. It's easy for people nowadays to think of Nazis being utter monsters during every second of the day, but alot of them were adept at hiding their true motives.

The Nazis were very sneaky about putting people into the concentration camps. Many of the people going on the trains had believed that they were in no danger. You had to mark your bags so they could be 'returned' to you, and even if you knew you were going to a 'camp', it was a labor camp- not a death camp. You were about to get a shower with water, not poisonous gas.

If the Nazis hadn't acted somewhat nice, there could have been no way they could have convinced so many people to get aboard the trains without constant revolts. The camp SS were so incredibly outnumbered; that I'd be confident to say that a large revolt at any time during the whole 'process' would have succeded.

Unfortunately, not many were willing to commit to a mass revolt. :smalleek:

With 20/20 hindsight, It's easy to think of the Nazis as being heartless murderers... and they were, but at the time, even the Jews were ignorant of their true nature until it was too late.

Err...what was I saying? Oh yeah, as contrary as it may seem, the Nazis did often act 'nice'. Particularly at the train stations and early on in the 'process'.

[Lemur]

I thought it had a good message. It's been a while since I saw the film, though, so I'm not sure what you mean when you talk about Nazis being nice.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

I saw Schindler's List when I was six or seven, but I was watching the Rodney King riots outside the window a week or so before that, so it failed to make the impact it perhaps should have, given that it didn't really pull punches.

As for life having beauty, if life were placed within a frame like a painting on a wall, I think we'd see the beauty there and stand staring in awe at our still lives posed, like a bowl of oranges, like a story told by the fault-lines in the soil.

[Charity]

I think as Mr Badger points out up there ^ you may have missed the point somewhere EE.
I loved the film, one of the roundest reviews I have read resides here (http://www-tech.mit.edu/V118/N58/life.58a.html) worth the time to read EE, you may be convinced to re-assess the film, you may not, but at least you can view it undistorted.