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A comedy about the Holocaust? Surely not. Didn't Jerry Lewis try something like this once in a film that has long been held from public view? Can such a thing actually work? Absolutely. That it comes from Roberto Benigni, one of Lewis's more annoying accolytes, is completely unexpected.

In any event, this plays out against the backdrop of fascist Italy and the Holocaust--take it or leave it--but it never loses sight of the fact that it is, at its core, a celebration of life and of hope even in the most desperate circumstances. We are introduced to Guido, a happy-go-lucky clown of a man who uses his inate good humor to guide him through life. In the first half of the film, we see him woo the woman he loves and make a life for himself. It is nearly 45 minutes into the film before we are told that he is also Jewish. In the second half of the movie, we are moved ahead five years to the fifth birthday of Guido's son. This is the day they come to take Guido and his son away to a concentration camp. The humor in the movie remains, even in the heart of darkness, but its tone changes dramatically as it takes on the form of a desperate game for survival. Guido has to convince his son that it is a game and must maintain the illusion in order to save his life.

This part of the movie is controversial--it is seen in some quarters as making light of the Holocaust--but how can this movie not maintain its humor in the concentration camp setting? To do otherwise is to give up hope....it is who Guido is, it is his only weapon against the darkness; to give up that weapon is to become a victim. There is also the criticism that the concentration camp is not depicted realistically enough, but this is a silly criticism. Life is Beautiful shows us enough of a concentration camp to convince us, and, really, can a movie truly capture the horror of the Holocaust down to its finest detail? The very notion is obscene. To demand it is to declare the Holocaust off-limits to art, which is absolutely disastrous. It is the idea of the Holocaust that forms the backdrop here, and for Begnini's purpose, that is enough. That said, there is one terrifying manifestation of the Holocaust here that is more potent than the entire running time of Schindler's List, in which Guido takes a wrong turn and is confronted by a ghostly 30 foot high wall of emaciated corpses. This image is absolutely dead on perfect for conveying the horror Guido contends against, and it is a testament to star/director Begnini that he is able to overcome the strength of this image and provide the audience with an uplift at the end of the film.