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Life Is Beautiful Movie

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Movies play a huge role in our history. Fact-based or fictional, realistic or fantastic, history movies shape the way people think about the past (Metzger). Some examples of great historical films are Hidden Figures, Forrest Gump, Gandhi, and Dances with Wolves. Although these films provided a glimpse of the past, no other movie was as artistic as the film ‘Life is Beautiful’. The movie was a fairytale trapped in a historical period filled with misery and survival, which was why I chose it. ‘Life is Beautiful’ is a wonderful masterpiece that provides a glimpse of the Holocaust and the indomitability of humanity even in the midst of inhumanity.
The film was set in the late 1930s of Arezzo, Italy. The main character, Guido (Roberto Benigni), is an enthusiastic Jewish Italian man who moved to the city to open a bookstore and help his uncle, Eliseo (Giustino Durano), in his Grand Hotel. While Guido is in the city he encounters a non-Jewish Italian woman named Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), who he falls in love with and uses his charm to win her over. The first half of the movie hosted a series of events that demonstrated what an extraordinary character Guido was that not only did Dora fall in love with but the audience did as well. At Dora’s engagement ceremony, Guido whisked her away on a green horse ensuring that they will live together happily. Eventually, they have a son named Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini) together. However, their blissful life is interrupted by World War II and the declaration of racial laws. The second half of the movie hosted a series of sacrificial events by Guido and Dora. On Giosue fifth birthday, he was taken away with his father and uncle to a concentration camp. Dora, refusing to be left behind, sacrifice herself by insisting to go to the camp as well. While in the concentration camp Guido made sacrifices to protect his son from the vile truth, by turning their situation into a game, and he also made sacrifices to ensure his wife that he and Giosue were okay. In order to keep his son interested in the game, Guido told Giosue that the grand prize was a tank. Ironically, at the end of the film, an American tank coincidently came to save Giosue. The film writer/directed, Roberto Benigni,

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