Guido Benigni example essay topic

Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni's moving film, Life is Beautiful, is a film that is set in a concentration camp and combines comedy with the seriousness of the extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Benigni's task in making this film was significant, by taking a tremendous risk, making a "comedy about the holocaust", and the fact that he pulled it off so well, despite the expected controversy it has aroused in some, is downright miraculous. The film's plot structure can be divided into two parts. The first half of Life is Beautiful is basically a slapstick comedy. It tells of two friends who move to "the city" (in Italy) and we follow Guido (played by Benigni) as he falls in love with a schoolteacher (played by Benigni's real wife, Nicolette Bruschi.) This takes place in pre World War II Italy, and the fascists are in rule. When he finally succeeds in wooing the schoolteacher and marrying her, the film jumps forward to the mid 1940's, when the war is in full swing.

The racism shown toward Benigni, who was a Jew, becomes more apparent. Benigni gets himself into hot water with big bullying authority figures and uses slapstick comedy to get his point across. He is then shipped to a concentration camp in Germany. There, Benigni invents an elaborate ploy to hide the truth of what is really going on from his son. He tells him that it is all a big game, and whoever is first to get 1000 points will win a real tank. Anything that threatens to break in on this fantasy is explained away as just part of the game.

The movie is an attempt to keep the reality of the situation from his son; but equally important is the way he builds up the horror of the camp and then breaks the spell with a comic moment. We see from the beginning that Benigni does not hold authority in high regard. He ridicules these people repeatedly in the first half of the film. In the beginning Benigni is mistaken for the king of Italy as he and his friend's car loses control and accidentally ends up in a parade. He is constantly switching hats (i.e. switching roles or identities) with a fascist employer of his.

When the priest is to arrive from Rome, Benigni assumes his identity and winds up going to a local school where he puts down the idea of identity by race, as illustrates to the students the absurdity of Aryan superiority. Finally, when his son asks why a certain pastry shop does not allow Jews or dogs, Benigni tells his son that these classifications are completely random, and that there are stores in town that forbid entry to others (Chinese and kangaroos, Spaniards and horses etc. ). Guido Benigni does however, have enough respect for the rules, in his observation of the rules of being a waiter. He learns them carefully from his uncle, who takes the role of waiter very seriously, and he does his job well, although still with comic moments.

There are three features Benigni employs that are essential to understanding the motivation behind the film. First, Guido continually responds to the particular situations that present themselves, and this explains why this is not, strictly speaking, a film about the holocaust. A good example of this continued responsiveness is Guido's incredibly quick "translation" of the German officers rules to adapt to the story he has invented for his son. Second, Benigni displays an incredible amount of faith in the film. He uses this to keep up his commitment and explains his never despairing at the sight of so much suffering around him. Guido displays this faith throughout the second half of the film and the idea that his son has the possibility of surviving on the last night, allows Guido to march to his own death without losing his identity and therefore without falling into despair.

Guido does not cry because he believes, rather because he has faith that he will succeed in helping his son, even though he has no real reason to believe either of them will survive. His faith is not in some future salvation but in the present moment. Third, and most importantly, Benigni's commitment allows him to do whatever it takes, for the higher cause of easing his son's suffering. He is not bound by the ethical principle of always telling the truth.

You could say Benigni is a liar, he makes up a story just to hide the truth from his son; or you could say he shows insensitivity to those around him, being insensitive to those who suffered and died in the holocaust. He certainly seems to depict the Holocaust in an unrealistic picture of the atrocities committed by the Germans in WWII. Benigni does not lie for the sake of lying, but because it is the best and only way to achieve his ultimate goal, to which everything else is secondary. He is not insensitive to the others; he does not seek their help in his ploy, nor does he try to convince them that they should have a different attitude or that what he is doing is the "right thing to do".

He does not feel the need to explain his action to the others, because he is only trying to save his son, and is undertaking this method to so. The film itself, in the second half, is about his private undertaking. Benigni need not, and indeed cannot, explain his characters actions to anyone who does not understand them. Instead, he shows us a world where individual love prevails in the worst possible surroundings, a world where faith saves one from despair. The film works because we can see that Benigni himself made this film with love and a certain faith that it would be understood.

At the end of the film, Benigni's character is shot and killed, but the war has ended with the arrival of the Americans, and the son and mother survive. The movie was particularly effective and impacted me emotionally, and in a strong way, particularly as a Jew. The film depicted how the Jewish people were affected by the Holocaust. You can read books, or look in museums but seeing the people struggling through the acts forced upon them brought new meaning to what took place during that time. Having heard first hand accounts of the horror people went through, Benigni's mission of not letting his son actually know what was happening was a great gift to his son.

It also shows the love Benigni had for his son, which I can relate to, having a great relationship with my father.