Life is Beautiful 观后感

The most beautiful lie

I have heard of Life is Beautiful(Italian: La vita è bella) for many times, but haven’t watched it until this weekend, which was really worth watching .

With three most significant elements: war, love, death, Life is Beautiful no wonder won so many prizes. As The Grand Prix winner at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Life is Beautiful, is much like two films in one. In tone, temperament, and intent, they are vastly different -- one is poignant and powerful, the other is light, airy, and a little silly.

The background of the story is like Schindler's List, about the World War Two. While Life is Beautiful is not as serious as Schindler's List. I also find the father’s great love for his son from the film.

The story happened in 1945, and Guido and Dora had a five year-old son, Giosue. The second World War was in its final days, and Jewish Italian families like Guido's were the recipients of nonstop persecution. One day, the police broke into Guido's home and took his family into custody. Soon after, they were herded like cattle into a train bound for a nameless concentration camp. It was a place of horror and death, where healthy men and women worked all day long melting down metal for weapons while those who were too old, too infirm, or too young to endure hard labor were finally sent to the poisonous showers.

Guido was well aware of what was happening, and was determined to shield his son from the terrifying reality of the situation. So he carefully concocted a storyteller's web of fantasy around Giosue, informing the boy that this was all part of an elaborate game. The object was to get 1000 points; the winner would get a real tank, not one of the toys Giosue used to playing with. The rules constantly changed, but they usually involved a lot of hide-and-seek, plenty of make-believe, and something called "silence." The police weren't really bad guys; they're just acting that way because that's how they win. Anyone complaining about not having enough food would be disqualified and had to go home. By deflecting or laughing off his son's most serious concerns, Guido managed to transform Giosue's ordeal into what seems like a vacation.

Even in the hardest and darkest days in camp, on the verge of death, Guido was still in deep love with his wife and son ,and protected them in whatever means. His courage and wisdom flash with dazzling light even when the death comes. He exhausted all his efforts to create a beautiful scene of fantasy in the miserable concentration camp for his son. He told Giosue that all the cruelty was just a game, so Giosue got enough courage to survive the years of the period of extreme misery, and finally boarded the allied tanks, his happiness beyonding the words. While he didn’t know his happiness was at the expense of his father’s death.

I really admire Guido, a great father and husband. He never gives up any opportunities to produce a bit of joy for his family in the bitter storm. When passing the broadcasting room in the camp, he risked shouting out his wife’ name to inform her that he and their son were still alive. He took advantage of the opportunity of being a waiter to play for his wife the song that can be described as a love token. He

supports his family to go through the toughest period.

On the last night of Guido’s life, he put his son in a mental box, and then, to find his wife, which is the most impressive scene in my opinion. Passing that mental box when he was arrested, he knew his son was watching him, so he put on a funny appearance to make his son laugh. He still insisted, insisted to make Giosue believe that all this was just a game, don’t be afraid and always be smiling and optimistic to confront it. Then, the gunfire rang, Guido forever left his son and wife, and they were liberated. When they cuddled together in the sun, Giosue said,” We won!” Indeed, they won , in the catastrophe, because they have a husband and father of a hero. The film can be regarded as Giosue’s memoir of his father. In his memory, his father is still alive. Gunfire, dynamite, poisonous gas, death, hunger seem powerful than human beings. But the final winner is people and life. As long as we have the courage and hope, life can be beautiful, which is just the director want to tell us. Nothing can cover the bright color of human nature since a brilliant attitude to life is able to illuminate all the haze of the darkness.