Review by Michael Rizzo Chessman - La vita e bella - Life is beautiful (Roberto Benigni)

I never watch a dubbed version of a movie when the original version is available with English subtitles. You miss out on a great deal of the flavour and affect and in this respect you lose a lot in the translation with a dubbed approach. This movie is called "La Vita e bella/Life is beautiful" in the combined Italian/English version and that is how I recommend you purchase it.

This is a movie with a lot of potential to teach. It teaches the value of honesty as a way of life in that this can be fully retained when a man is simply acting in a humorous spirit to make life seem more bearable and to spare children an ugly reality that surrounds them. Yet there is a spirit that continues in Benigni's character as a man who'd like to stay sane honestly enough that he will conjure up a version of events to keep his audience with him and in good humour. Such characters are always trying for as much real honesty as the situation will allow however they have learned a defensive coping mechanism to telling it like it is. And in this respect perhaps his son at the end has a better view of the world than is justified however fact is that he is being lied to by a man who thinks he is being a better father this way. Its a great story that touches on the travesty and the tragedy of the holocaust, as Italian jews were not spared this fate although many were harbored by good Italians who could not go along with Hitler's madness in this respect.