Today is the birthday of Italys National Treasure, the great ROBERTO BENIGNI. I didnt actually watch his masterpiece, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL until my sophomore year in College. But I remember the 1998 Oscars, that was probably the third year since I started watching the Oscars religiously, and when he won for Best Actor and he literally stood on those chairs, it cracked me up because it was the most ecstatic victory reaction Ive ever seen, nothing like it before, and nothing like it since then. Anyways, fast forward to sophomore year in College, I borrowed the DVD from my classmate, thinking it was something good to kill time on Saturday night. And heres the thing.. to me, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL was kinda sorta similar to THE SOUND OF MUSIC, in that halfway through, the plot turned into WWII Nazy-related and I thought I was in for a total downer. But a masterpiece was what I got instead. Here are 2 reasons why I think LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is timeless. And these are just my personal observations, youre welcomed to come up with your own, but here are my top 2 reasons. O,.. and ya, SPOILER ALERT! 1). The first half of the movie was about this goofball who was unbelievably persistent. And it wasnt the creepy kind or the Forrest-Jenny kind of persistent either. Benigni’s character pulled out all the stops to the point of embarrassing himself just to get the girl of his dream. He would go the distance just to make her laugh and prove to the world that she was meant to be with him. And so there were times when I was watching the movie, I facepalmed, shook my head, even yelled at the screen O, man! Just stop! Please stop! Youre making a fool of yourself. Shes out of your league! Why on earth am I watching this?! I cant believe Im watching this! LOL But only in movies can it be successful and the man succeeded and it gave you that feel-good moment. 2) Now.. Benignis characters persistence continued.. but this time, he did it in a form of making sure that his sons childhood and innocence were intact despite the fact that they were in a concentration camp. They were living in hell on earth, but he managed to maintain his sons hope, joy, and imagination. There were controversies surrounding this film, people wondering if comedy was an appropriate way to tell a WWII story, but what Benigni intended was not irreverence. Ya see.. what he accomplished was this theme that says, yes, life is beautiful in the midst of love and family and all that good stuff, but life can also be beautiful in the midst of tragedy. The evil things that the Nazis did only remind us and emphasize even more how precious life is and how it had been easily taken for granted many times in history. And that kid of his, that little boy, became everything that his father had always championed and embodied all his life. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is the kind of gem that only comes by every once in a blue moon.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 01:48:21 +0000