Monday, March 6, 2017
"Reading" Response: Life Is Beautiful (last opportunity before Midterm)
In Roberto Benigni's 1998 film, Life Is Beautiful, we encounter a strategy for telling the story of the Holocaust that may seem unlikely, or even offensive: comedy. In your response, I'd like for you to explain how the film works to elicit a response from the viewer. Why laughter? What is the significance of the comedic overtones of the film? As you would use particular passages from a novel or story, you will use scenes as your evidence to argue for the most convincing interpretation of the film's reliance on comedy. You will want to think about the overall message, or the most important theme, that the film is grappling with, and how comedy serves the purpose of that message/theme. This response is due no later than Thursday, March 9, at the end of the day (11:59 pm), and it counts towards your total reading responses before Midterm (you must have two).
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There is certainly a stereotype about the attitude of the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust. Supposedly, the Jews were heartbroken and deeply angry because of their circumstances. For the most part, this stereotype is right, and for good reason. The Jews had been mistreated in nearly every imaginable way during the Holocaust, and it only makes sense that they were a broken people because of it. However, Life is Beautiful does not adhere to this stereotype. Instead of using sadness and anger, the film tells the story of a Jewish family by using comedy. Surprisingly, the comedic tone of the movie serves its purpose well. The reason comedy is used throughout the film is to convey the message that, even though the Nazis stripped the Jews of nearly every right imaginable, they could not take away their choice to respond with courage and determination. In other words, the Nazis did not have complete power over the Jews, because they maintained the choice to respond.
ReplyDeleteWhen Guido was sent off to the concentration camp with his family, his mission became keeping his wife and son safe, and giving them hope. Unfortunately, the circumstances they were in made it difficult to give them hope. Nonetheless, Guido chose to use comedy to give this hope to his son. Within the first day of being in the concentration camp, Guido took a huge risk. A German official ordered someone to translate his German into Italian, for the rest of the Jews to understand. Guido did not speak German, but he volunteered to translate anyway. Instead of properly translating the message, he made hilarious statements that had nothing to do with what the official said. His son was relieved and given home judging by his funny reaction. Through comedy, Guido showed that the Nazis did not have complete power over him.
Later in the movie, Guido finds a comedic way to give hope to his wife. He is wheelbarrowing some tools off to a working site, when he notices a radio and communication room that is empty. He grabs his son, and proceeds to talk over the loudspeaker. To flatter his wife, he speaks in the same tone as when he first met her, calling her a “princess.” The situation is hilarious, and it works to provide comedic relief to his wife, and show that the Nazis did not have full power over him.
Finally, after Guido had crossed the line and been caught, a Nazi ordered his execution. He had previously hidden his son in a metal crate, with a whole just big enough for his son to see him. Knowing he was about to be executed, Guido still did not give up his mission. He winked at his son, and marched in an overexaggerated manner, to make fun of the way the Nazis marched. In this case, the Nazis practically had complete power over Guido. But they still could not suppress his choice to give hope to his son, and he used comedy to show this up to the point of his death.
In the film, Life Is Beautiful, the comedic outlook on the Guido, main character’s life is unique perspective that shows where the true power lies. Although the Nazi rule had a devastating effect on all who lived through it, Guido did not give up on his mission, the mission showing his son that true power comes from something greater, laughter.
ReplyDeleteJosue Guido’s son is young and naïve and he wants to keeps his son this way, to witness such horror would have been psychologically damaging to Josue and so Guido’s way of protection is through his comedy, this defense not only saves the boys life, but its saves his outlook on the world.
From the very beginning of the movie and through the end, takes the misfortune and turns it into moments of precise opportunity, making a life with nothing but positive outlook. When he meets the girl of his dreams everything seem to fall into place, although we know these are just great timing, this is where the comedic factor is played out the most, timing. Timing is everything in this movie, from the key, to the hat, to the German children paying hide and seek, you can see that something bigger is playing a role in this man’s life. Throughout these scenes we can see a glimpse of the insult and oppression the Jews like him faced everyday, and with this he elicited timely responses from the people who oppressed him which worked in his favor.
His big personality and ability to smile in the darkest of times shows that although life is cruel, you can look at it as something beautiful even if it is just a defense mechanism. If you see the beautiful things they can be your light at the end of the tunnel. Guido used comedy as a barrier to protect his son from the reality of the tragedy that was forced upon their family, after all the years of oppression he faced, the challenge was even greater as he was split from the woman he fought so hard to get and threatened of loss or death at any moment without knowing. We can learn much from this story but the main message I think we can all take away is how we should look at life amidst our own tragedies, and how we can encourage others within their suffering. Many people will never know what it is like to go through something as horrific as Guido went through but there are people out there today whose lives still do not give them favor in the worst of circumstances and there are other who will never know true earthly suffering. Guido has taught me that there is no place for the wicked amongst a life full of laughter and beauty. This is their weakness and even if we cannot beat them physically we can remain victorious through endurance and our laughter is our armor in the face of battle.
In the film Life is Beautiful, we are hit with a grim reality amidst a happy tone. The film is upbeat and comical in the beginning, then slowly gets darker as the story progresses into one that deals with oppression and death within a concentration camp in the Holocaust era. However, as the tone shifts, the characters still continue to make light of the situation through humor, laughter, and most importantly, love. The uniqueness of this approach to this harrowing subject shows the audience the importance of light and love even during the most difficult times. It makes the audience feel compassion and root for good to ultimately reign over evil.
ReplyDeleteWhen Guido and Joshua get rounded up to go onto the train and when they get to the concentration camp, Guido continues to keep his spirits high to set a good example for Joshua and to distract him from the awful situation. Because Joshua is so young, he is easily distracted under the guise of making the imprisonment into a “game” where they can win points by obeying the guards. Guido pretends to translate the German guard while actually explaining rules for the “game” in order to humor Joshua and keep him from knowing their true purpose at the camp. As Guido continues to work and live at the camp, his cheery attitude never falters because if it does, Joshua will have no motivation to stay hidden and follow the rules—things that are keeping him alive. It is hard to see Guido being slowly defeated by the workload, yet inspiring to see how much he loves his son by continuing to do what he can to protect him and keep him happy.
Additionally, Guido uses comedy again when he sneaks into the loudspeaker room and speaks to his wife into the microphone to let her know they’re safe. In a situation where anything could happen, she wouldn’t have known that they were still alive otherwise but this is a tender and funny way to communicate a heartbreaking reality. It shows that love crosses even the toughest barriers and that it will always find a way through when it is worth fighting for. The existence of a loved one gives Guido, Joshua, and the wife hope in a hopeless situation.
There are many messages that we could take away from this film, but the one that is most important to recognize is to always keep your spirits high because love transcends all difficulties. For this family, the separation from one another and the fear from oppression made it tough to stay positive. However, they were able to utilize powerful forces--laughter and love—to keep pushing onwards through the pain. This ability to move on through horrible times is possible when there is love and laughter present, because it distracts from the evil and makes life beautiful.
-Clare Mulvihill
In Life is Beautiful, we see comedy used as a vehicle to make tragedy more accessible to a wider audience. Often, the Holocaust is portrayed as a purely tragic event—this is not to say that it was not a tragic event, but that it was a life event like any other, tinged with both comedy and tragedy. We see the comedy even in the concentration camps as Guido interacts with his son, attempting to keep his child from realizing how dire their situation is, and that they are not likely to make it out of the camp alive. The comedy of the first half of the movie serves to attach us to the characters, giving them ordinary, relatable lives so that we could find a way to connect with the characters.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, films dealing with the Holocaust and similar material take a very serious tone; Schindler’s List and The Hiding Place are just two examples where similar material to Life is Beautiful where the subject matter was approached very seriously, and while both of these films are extremely powerful, Life is Beautiful becomes powerful in a completely different way because of its approach. The comedy of Life is Beautiful gives us a way to connect with the characters; if we only saw them going through the difficulties of life immediately before being taken into the camp, we would have trouble connecting with them because none of us have ever had experiences like those. However, with the introduction to a more ordinary time in the characters’ lives, we are able to find similarities between theirs and our own and build empathy for them.