Analysis of Holocaust Films - Movie Review Example

The Holocaust is a bleak and horrifying event in the 20th history that has been portrayed seriously and horrifyingly by films and literature. Holocaust was a massive killing of Jews by Germany's National Socialist regime, which was led by Germany's notorious leader, Adolf Hitler. Hollywood and other international production studios despicably portrayed the inhumane brutality of the Nazi's attempted genocide during the peak of the Second World War, where millions were killed just because they belong to the race, religion and organization "undesirable" to Nazis (The Holocaust). Only few films mellowed the utter disgust and dismay of this notorious period. Steven Spielberg's, Schindler's List, for example, conveyed realistic, truthful, and tragic accounts of the holocaust. Though its writers retained the atrocious and abhorrent feelings of the moviegoers for the holocaust, they have shown it in a comical fashion. Instead of focusing on the unnerving atrocities done by the soulless tyrants: Mussolini and Hitler, the film emphasized the triumph of the human will and courage against the brutality and the evil that they experienced during World War 2. One of these movies is La vita bella (Life is Beautiful). The film "Life is Beautiful" is an Italian movie co-written, directed and starred by Roberto Benigni. It is about a young Italian Jew who virtually lives in his imaginative made up fairy tale world during the time when Italy was under Hitler's regime. He later needed to learn how to use his imaginative powers to help his son survive while they were detained in a Nazi concentration camp. The film can be divided into two parts. The first is about Guido's life before he was deported to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, while the remaining half illustrated the experiences that Guido, his wife, Dora, and his son, Giosue had in it. The first scene of the movie immediately provides us a foresight on the mood and tone of the entire film. In it, the lead actors Guido (Roberto Benigni) and Ferruccio (Sergio Bini Bustric) was telling a story while riding a car. The first line of the story, "[T]his is a simple storybut not an easy one to tellLike a fable, there is sorrowand like a fable, it is full of wonder and happiness." served as a summary of the movie. It also provided us the treatment that Benigni had in his interpretation and portrayal of the Holocaust. This told us that he wanted to present us the holocaust in a positive, even comical, way to inspire us to live our lives in an optimistic and energetic way. Living at a time when political belief of fascism forms an integral part of the social fabric Benigni, from the time of the film's opening credits, immediately used representations in the scenes to express the political and social milieu. He was able to show in, oral and visual form, the fanaticism and the senselessness of the political ideology that the Italian society embraced dearly in those times. One of the prominent parts of the movie that elaborately exemplified this is the scene when the car passed by a crowd eagerly waiting for the king. In this scene the car's brake malfunctioned as they as they drove it on the road. Because they could not stop the car, they were forced to pass by a crowd of Nazi supporters waiting for the king's caravan. To signal them that the automobile lost its breaks Guido warded of the crowd by his hands. Due to their loud commotion, the throng did not hear his voice. Instead they perceived his hand gestures as Nazi salute, which gave them the impression that his was the king. The waiting din shouted and waved frantically because of this. The film presented the fanatical following of Italians to their king. At a time when the fascist ideology was prominent in Germany and Italy, Hitler and Mussolini's charismatic influence of their philosophy to the minds of their constituents was very intense. Their principles of racial supremacy was generally accepted by their countrymen so much that they even failed to provide rational explanation in following them, as shown in their readiness to wave their hands to anyone who does the Nazi salute. Affiliation to the Nazism meant life to Italians. To express this, they were forced to adapt the Nazi lifestyle. Even names of minor characters acted as representations of the holocaust. Oreste's sons were actually namesakes of the two dictators who ruled almost the whole of Europe during the Second World War, Benito and Adolph. Also during the scene when Guido asked Oreste regarding his political views, the latter scolded the playing kids to stay put and be good. This reflected the attitudes and behaviors of these two dictators. The scene implied the unruliness of the two kids signifying the two tyrants' rambunctious characters as if they were two children wildly playing around the innocent lives of the Jews. Ferruccio mentioned Schopenhauer's philosophy regarding will power in the movie. The quote "I am what I want to be" expressed the will power concept of the German philosopher. This belief had given Guido the courage and will power to become optimistic on the events that was to unfold before him. This also expressed Benigni's philosophical insight on the film that, by will power, one can achieve or get he wants despite the oppressive and challenging environment where he is. The racial supremacy issue was discussed in the classroom when the Inspector from Rome came to the school where Dora was teaching. The inspector checked the school if it is really teaching that Italians belong to the superior race. He even demonstrated to the principal, the teachers and the students the physical features of Italians that guarantees their affiliation to the supreme race. This defined the bias that fascism does to a member of a particular member of a race or a clan. Fascism is about the unity of a country by emphasizing their racial supremacy (e.g. Aryan) from other race, and by mobilizing the whole country to even wage war against inferior race (Jews) due to the anticipation that the inferior ones would endanger the morality, purity and supremacy of their race (Lyons). The first time that Guido was labeled a Jew was when the horse of Guido's uncle was painted green and with the phrase, "Achtung, Jewish horse." Guido's indifference towards his stature as a Jew acted as a representation of the whole Italian Jewish community's sentiment towards their race. Being branded as with writings, "Achtung, Jewish waiter" does not distinguish Guido from other Italian waiters. It does not also gauge his character and contributions to Italy and to mankind. The riddle scene wherein Doctor Lessing was fascinated by the intelligence of seven-year old Germans because they can answer a riddle that only adult Italians could depicts the superiority of Germans to other races. The second riddle reveals the plans of Germans concerning the elimination of lunatics (mentally deranged), cripples (physically disabled), and epileptics (permanently sick). One of Nazi's aims was to retain the superiority of their race, free from weaknesses and incompetence of any kind. For "economical" purposes the Nazis were willing to eliminate the weaklings, considering the costs that would be incurred if they take care for them. The next significant scene was during the time when Giosue was already born. The signage "No Jews or dogs allowed" snatched the attention if the child as Guido rode a bike with Giosue. The innocent questions of the child exposed the senselessness and irrationality of the Nazi principle concerning their desire to eradicate the Jewish race. The deportation of Guido's family during Giosue's birthday is one of the tragic and compelling scenes in this movie. Guido's imagination and will power had enabled him to tell Giosue that they were just taking an adventurous when, in fact, they are about to be sent to a Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. This represented the devastation of innocent Jews at the time they were about to be brutally slaughtered by the Nazis. It was at this bleak and hopeless moment that Guido told Giosue that the repulsive events that they were about to experience were just parts of a game. This is the point when the movie made the wit and the comic antics of Guido tools in saving his son from being brutally murdered. He told his son that the prize of the game is a real tank, the very wish of his son. Though his antics he sugar coated the reality to his son so that the boy's perspective on reality would not be filled with fear and despair. The next scenes portrayed the daily routines that were happening in a Nazi concentration camp. Holocaust was an efficient and systematic attempt to assemble and slaughter the most number of people possible (The Holocaust). This was depicted in the movie as the Jews were ordered to form an organized queue, and to form themselves into a group of men, women and children, only to be killed later. The systematic process of mass murders convinced Giosue that this execution was indeed merely a game. In a concentration camp, strong and able men and women were assigned to work on the laborious tasks while old women and children were sent to gas chambers. There was a scene when children were ordered to take a shower, but in fact, they were sent inside a gas chamber. Giosue, fortunately declined to join the batch of the children that were about to be sentenced. For the Nazis it is better for Jews to be burnt and to use them as experimental specimens for their scientific breakthroughs, especially to intensify their campaign to weed out Jews and to conquer the world. Giosue, in an encounter with his father, told the latter that he was able to hear voices saying that their corpse would be used as ingredients for buttons and soaps. His father soothed him and told the boy that this was just part of the game. The last part of the film highlighted the recovery of Auschwitz and Italy from the hands of the Nazi and Axis forces. He left his final instructions to Giosue on how to receive the tank that he desired. Unfortunately the reunion of the family never took place as Guido was tragically killed. Yet the Giosue's dream was fulfilled when a tank of American soldiers came to Giosue's place. It fetched him from the concentration camp to meet his mother. Life is Beautiful is a movie that presents the Holocaust in a different light. While almost all historians view holocaust as a despicable and atrocious experience, Benigni presented it in an optimistic manner that have stunned the critics. Tatara in his review in CNN on Life is Beautiful considered the second half of the movie an "Epcot representation" of the holocaust. It was not able to show the actual accounts of the atrocious events that transpired in the holocaust years. Instead it presented a fairy tale version of the holocaust and its imaginative representation of reality. Because of this Guido's carefree and almost psychotic living has been criticized by critics as unbelievably optimistic. They also questioned the unrealistic account of the holocaust in the film saying that holocaust is too serious a subject to play antics and pranks with. What Benigni did was to intentionally alter the truth behind the holocaust to prove his philosophical message through this film. The film used the holocaust to symbolize the trials and oppressions that we face in our lives. The title itself, Life is Beautiful, denotes the universal truth behind what we experience in our daily lives. We can perceive it either from the pessimistic side or from the optimistic side. Benigni showed the optimistic perspective of life. Even though life has so many trials and challenges, still we can use our will power to see life in a positive side. Despite the depressing and debilitating effects of a worn down morale of a person, there is still hope if one will use his will power to challenge reality and see the good things in it. Benigni also pointed out the irrationality of fanaticism to pointless principles propagated by Mussolini and Hitler. Even from the start of the film, the director comically portrayed the ridiculousness of blind and cult following to the charismatic but illogical ideologies. He used comedy and satire to show us how senseless and irrational fascism is. Guido's role as a person who lives in his fairy tale world to make his life happy, at least in his figments and daydreams, despite the harsh and inclement realities that he had to face is even more useful and beneficial than the manipulative and autocratic thinking of fascism. Benigni also presented the representation of what Italian Jews felt during the time of the holocaust. The first part of the movie emphasized the tension that a Jew felt before their annihilation. Again the antics of Guido produced a light and comical effect to the Jews in those times. In whole, Life is Beautiful is a movie that used the events in the holocaust to portray that, despite of all these nerve wracking and loathsome events in our lives, there is still hope and good things are still possible in life. Guido's comical relief to the almost unbearable sufferings and oppressions that men experiences because of irrational and intimidating beliefs we, as viewers, can realize that despite all of these, we can still use our will power to heave our spirit and to continue living a beautiful and worthwhile life. Works Cited Life is Beautiful. Dir. Roberto Benigni. Perf. Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giustino Durano. 1997. Lyons, Matthew N. "What is Fascism" 1995. Public Eye. 05 Mar. 2007. Tatara, Paul. Review: "Unbelievable optimism in 'Life is Beautiful.'" 10 Nov. 1998. Cable News Network. 05 Mar. 2007. "The Holocaust." 2007. Wikipedia. 05 Mar. 2007. Read More