Life is Beautiful opens on a note of hilarity as the protagonist, Guido, and his best friend, Ferruccio, rocket down a country slope, the brakes on their rickety old car having given way. They pass through a parade, and the audience is immediately aware of where we are: the bystanders, believing Guido to be a Fascist leader, all raise their arms in the "Heil Hitler" sign. While Ferruccio attempts to fix the car, Guido happens upon a little farm, where the woman who is to become the love of his life literally falls from the sky into his arms. "Good morning, princess!" he cries, grinning widely.
Guido and Ferruccio find lodgings with Guido's uncle, Eliseo, who recently has come under attack by Fascists. Eliseo also helps Guido to get a job as a waiter in a fancy hotel. Guido visits a moneylender in an effort to secure a loan to open up a bookshop, and he soon realizes that the disagreeable man, Amico, who refuses his loan is also the betrothed of the woman who fell into his arms, Dora. The following series of events demonstrates what a truly extraordinary character Guido is: he is uniquely capable of manipulating his surroundings so that events that are "coincidences" take on the aura of genuine magic. It is this ability that ultimately sways Dora: on one rainy night, Guido virtually steals her away from the insipid Amico and takes her on a journey through her imagination to a place where pillows can be used as skirts, the Virgin Mary throws keys from the heavens, and red carpets unroll through darkened piazzas.
At Dora's engagement party to Amico, she decides once and for all to run away with the mysterious man who keeps appearing out of nowhere. Guido rides Uncle Eliseo's horse (which has been painted green and graffitied with the words "Jewish horse") into the ballroom and spirits her away to the home where they are to leave for several joyful years. They have a son, Giosue, who has his father's enthusiasm for life and his mother's tendency to hiccup.
A far darker event occurs: Guido begins to be harrassed by the Fascists. Soon he, Eliseo, and Giosue are taken away on a train to a concentration camp. Dora, refusing to be left behind, insists that she be allowed to go to the camp as well.
At the camp, Guido decides that he will create an elaborate ruse to protect his son from the horror of their situation. He tells Giosue that his own father took him on a "trip" just like this one when he was a boy, and that if he stays silent, does not cry or ask for his mother, and obeys all the rules, he will win points. After he wins 1,000 points, he will get first prize: a real tank. Giosue, excited at the idea, approaches the camp as a game rather than what it truly is: a prison.
The three adults go in very different directions once at the camp. Eliseo, since he is an old man, is taken to the showers. Dora goes to the women's camp, where she hears stories about the children being slaughtered and fears for the safety of her husband and son. Guido and Giosue go to the barracks, where Guido continues to imbue the darkness of the camp with an air of levity and joy. He even commandeers the loudspeaker so that he and Giosue can cry out to Dora that they miss her and love her.
Guido's hope for escape arrives when he is asked to be a waiter at an event where Doctor Lessing, an old friend of his from the restaurant back home, now a doctor in the Nazi army, will be dining. Doctor Lessing, however, ignores the gravity of Guido's situation; it seems that he only wanted Guido to wait tables at the party because he needed help solving a riddle. Desolate, Guido takes Giosue back to the barracks, but not before stopping to play the Offenbach opera that he and Dora once attended over the loudspeaker in an effort to lift his wife's spirits.
Soon the war is over, and the camp is thrown into a state of confusion and panic. All of the prisoners are being loaded onto trucks that are returning empty. Desperate to warn Dora, Guido tells Giosue to hide in a cabinet until everyone has gone, dons women's clothing, and sneaks over to the women's camp. He is discovered, but as he is marched off to his death, he manages to give his son one last moment of joy: as he walks by the cabinet where Giosue is hiding, he throws his son a wink and does a funny little walk--playing the game to the bitter end.
When morning arrives Giosue, seeing that everyone has gone, tentatively crawls out of the cabinet. He looks around in confusion and then hears a rumbling in the distance. His eyes light up: a real tank is rounding the corner! He has won! An American soldier pulls him up into the tank, and they ride out of the camp. As they pass the crowds of escaped prisoners, Giosue recognizes his mother and runs to her. She wraps him in a tight embrace. "We won!" he cries out. "Yes, we won," Dora says.
After World War I, Italy was in a state of turmoil. Political groups such as communists and anarchists were vying for attention and sway, and King Victor Emmanuel III was losing control over his country. Angry, bitter soldiers had returned to a broken country. Without the direction they were accustomed to in the military, they were aimless. Benito Mussolini gave these soldiers direction. He organized them into the "Blackshirts," groups of armed peacekeepers ready to do his bidding. In this way, Mussolini cultivated martial strength and eventually overthrew the weak government of Italy in 1922. The Fascist party ruled Italy until its fall in 1943.
Under Mussolini's rule, anti-Semitism in Italy experienced a dramatic increase. On July 14, 1938, the Ministry of Popular Culture issued a manifesto della razza, or "manifesto of the race." This manifesto declared that there is a hierarchy of races and that the Jewish race is inferior to the Aryan race. In the wake of this publication, many Jews experienced persecution, lost their homes and jobs, and eventually were shipped to concentration camps. There was little outcry after the manifesto della razza or the resulting treatment of the Jews. This is not surprising, however, because Italy's history of persecuting Jews extends back before Mussolini and the Fascist party (as long ago as the early 1800s, Italian Jews were being placed in ghettos; recall also Shakespeare's play Merchant of Venice). Thus, the lack of national indignation at these new anti-Semitic laws is understandable. The people, though uncomfortable at the harshness of these laws, were not uncomfortable enough to do anything to stop them from being implemented.
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany joined hands as the Axis Powers in World War II. They not only joined forces on the battlefield, but they also worked together to send Jews (as well as other "problematic" citizens) to concentration camps. Many prisoners died from malnutrition, disease, exhaustion, or execution. These camps were scattered throughout Germany and Poland, with some in Italy and elsewhere. A program of euthanasia called "The Final Solution" was created during the final years of the war. This program called for the annihilation of all "undesirables." Extermination camps were set up in Poland for the purpose of killing off Jews, gypsies, and whomever else the state had a political or personal animosity towards. The extermination camps, including Auschwitz and Treblinka, killed millions. Men and women were shipped from Poland, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere to these camps. A Jew living in Italy during this time was likely to be shipped to a concentration camp or even an extermination camp. The survival rate was very low, though some survivors of these horrific camps are still alive today.
Life is Beautiful seeks to convey, for one thing, the reality of life during this period, especially life in a camp for one family in particular. But it simultaneously injects a new spirit into a story that has been told many times. This story of some of the horrors of the Holocaust includes a unique, almost lighthearted element, something beyond the material reality that on its face is so horrible. Benigni's willingness to use comedy to underscore the evils of fascism is undoubtedly shocking, but it is extremely effective in conveying Benigni's firm belief that beauty and light can be found even in the most horrible of places.
From many theme that were used in this movie, I wanna share two of them; Innocence and Bravery:
Innocence
Guido is decidedly naive, or at least, he presents himself that way. When Ferruccio describes the Schopenhauer Method to him, he takes it very seriously and very literally, failing to understand that it is a state of mind and not a magic trick. This naivete is a form of innocence that often makes him seem incapable of understanding cruelty or evil in others. When his uncle Eliseo shows him that his horse has been painted wih the words "Jewish horse," he takes it as an annoying prank rather than an omen of violence and hostility. Guido's naivete belies his faith in the good of humanity.
Giosue has the innocence of a child, and Guido fights to preserve this innocence. The game he concocts for Giosue shields him from the uglier parts of human nature. In addition to protecting his son's life, Guido protects his son's innocence. In Life is Beautiful, innocence is an outlook, not something pure that can be tainted. Though the film spans several years, Guido never learns to drive, choosing to ride a bike instead. Guido understands the misdeeds that are being done to him by the fascist leaders of the concentration camp, but he prefers to maintain a positive outlook. Giosue is exposed to the same misdeeds, but Guido imposes his positive (albeit deliberately constructed) attitude on his son. Guido chooses to cherish innocence in himself and others because he loves humanity and refuses to become jaded by man's failings.
Bravery
Bravery is an ubiquitous theme throughout Life is Beautiful. The pressures of anti-Semitism, cruelty, and prejudice affect everyone in the film, and each character's reaction to these pressures is highly indicative of his or her personal beliefs and proclivities.
Dora is a paragon of bravery, and her dilemmas in the film mirror the dilemmas faced by countless inhabitants of Italy in the 1930s. At the beginning of the film, she finds herself trapped in a relationship with a man she does not love, surrounded by socialites who do not think or act like she does. She hates her surroundings but feels helpless to escape. When Guido comes along, however, she realizes that there is another option: following her heart. She bravely leaves the safety of her surroundings to be with her true love, and she becomes far happier for having done so. Dora's sense of being swept up by the inertia of her surroundings recalls how many Italians felt when the Fascists came to power. Dora does not like what is happening in her life, but she sees no viable alternative. Likewise, many Italians felt that opposing the government was impossibly difficult and dangerous. On the one hand, their silence amounted to consent; on the other hand, their silence could be interpreted as cowardice and a lack of bravery. When Guido sweeps in on a horse and rescues Dora, he shows that such bravery is possible and highly desirable; his act serves as an allegory for (and an endorsement of) opposition to the government.
A disaster such as the Holocaust is much more complicated than a natural disaster such as a hurricane. Natural disasters test an individual's bravery but are initiated in ways that normally are wholly external to humanity. The Holocaust, in contrast, was the direct result of individual choices and decisions (and most likely not the result of an impersonal Schopenhauer-like "will").
Whereas a natural disaster can be seen as a battle between society and nature, disasters such as the Holocaust pit society against itself. During the Holocaust, each person had to analyze the situation and decide whether or not to embrace society's new values. Bravery was tested along with personal allegiances and personal values. The conflicts that arose in the wake of these complex choices tested bravery even further. For example, a Nazi official with a Jewish uncle would have had to weigh his allegiance to his state against his allegiance to his family, and the question of how to be "brave" would not have a simple answer. An Italian-Jewish farmer who owned land in Italy would have had to decide whether to flee the country or keep the land that had been in his family for ages, weighing his love for his home against his instinct for survival. Perhaps "bravery" provides too simple a scale on which to weigh the decisions of those involved in such a complicated matter. Humanity, idealism, individuality, and willpower are pertinent factors, and sometimes "doing the right thing" is not so simple as being brave or courageous in the face of risk. Brave actions depend on a host of intellectual, practical, and theological virtues.
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