Life is Beautiful. La Vita è bella. A Hollywood Jesus Movie Review.

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This is a movie well worth watching. It is about life, hope, dreams and overcoming impossible odds. Highest recommendation.

-Review by David Bruce

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
La Vita è bella
(1997)
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Grand Prix du Jury 98

Guido: Roberto Benigni
Dora: Nicoletta Braschi
Giosue: Giorgio Cantarini
Zio: Giustino Durano
Ferruccio: Sergio Bustric
Doctor Lessing: Horst Buchholz

Directed by Roberto Benigni.
Written by Vincenzo Cerami and Benigni.
Running time: 114 minutes.
Rated PG-13 (for Holocaust-related thematic elements).

Roger Ebert says: "Life Is Beautiful'' is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than they are right now."

"Gaiety is often the reckless ripple over depths of despair." -Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814–1880)

THE POWER OF HAPPINESS

Happiness doesn't depend on the actual number of blessings we manage to scratch from life, but on our attitude toward them.
-Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918– )

Happiness is a matter of my attitude. Happiness begins in the head.
-John Powell

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
-Margaret Lee Runbeck

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
-Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1907– )

Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.

Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.
-Denis Waitley

GOD, LIKE GUIDO, LAUGHS TOO!

From the Hebrew Scriptures, Psalms. 37.12-19
This Psalm strikes the same cord as the film.

The wicked plot against the godly;
they snarl at them in defiance.
But the Lord just laughs,
for he sees their day of judgment coming.
The wicked draw their swords
and string their bows to kill the poor
and the oppressed,
to slaughter those who do right.
But they will be stabbed through the heart
with their own swords,
and their bows will be broken.
It is better to be godly
and have little than to be evil and possess much.
For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,
but the LORD takes care of the godly.
Day by day the LORD takes care of the innocent,
and they will receive a reward that lasts forever.
They will survive through hard times;
even in famine they will have more than enough.

Your comments.
What are your views of humor in life?
...of the Holocaust?
...of overcoming the horrors of life?
...of this film?

LA VITA E BELLA
Subject: Life_Is_Beautiful
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001
From: Jan

this is deffinetly the best movie ever about the power of love in a world full of madness give this movie to all the world leathersand tere won't be a war annymore!

BELISSISSIMO
Subject: Life Is Beautiful
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001
From: Alexandre

BELÍSSISSIMO!!!! This movie is more than a movie... is the meaning of life!!! Benigni is a genius!!!! LA VITA È BELLA and the italian people know how to live... I´m brasilian (living in Sao Paulo - BRAZIL) and grandson of italians... for me, this movie is perfect! Really change my life... abracci per tutti!!!!

LIFE IS GREAT
Subject: Life_Is_Beautiful
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000
From: "Geert Burgers"

Great Graet Great Great!!!

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL IN SUNDAY SCHOOL
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000
From: CINDY

I just wanted you to know that we are currently watching "Life is Beautiful," in my Sunday School class at the First United Methodist Church in Plainwell, Michigan. It fit in beautifully with our past two lessons on overcoming tragedy and hard times ,and parenting. I consider this one of the all time great movies.
Cindy Holmquist
- Program Director FUMC, Plainwell

Response: I would love to be in your Sunday School class -sounds great! -David.

A CHRISTIAN\SOCIALIST REVIEW
July 1, 1999. I am an ordained minister and socialist but I often get angry at other socialists. When I read the "Christian" reviews on the net for this movie, I found insight and celebration of a great movie. When I read the "socialist" reviews I found smug misunderstanding and to quote my wife, "people who wouldn't understand subtlety if it hit them on the head." Christians-1 Socialists-0. Glenn Morison

A JOY TO WATCH
April 19, 1999. Life is Beautiful was a joy to watch. The self-sacrificial love of a father for his family makes this the greatest love story of the year. Once you see it, your life will never be the same. God gives us so much to relish every day, and yet man is consistently blind to his daily blessings. Benigni embraces the miracles that are placed before him and shows us the true extent of God's grace.
-Bonnie K.

FULL RANGE OF EMOTIONS
April 20, 1999. The first time I saw this movie I was deeply moved to both laughter and tears. It is rare to find that kind of range of emotions in the movies these days and I found myself profoundly moved by the experience. I understand Italian, so the subtitles were not a problem for me, but for those of you that are hesitant to see foreign films, take the plunge on this one... you won't regret it. -Jim

BRILLANT PICTURE OF THE GOSPEL
April 10, 1999. There is a wonderful scene in the film where Guido has been given a job working in the officers' dining room at the camp. he knows that his Dora is out there somewhere in the camp. One night he finds in a pile of records next to the old phonograph a record of "the tales of Hoffman" the opera they went to the night he won Dora's heart. He puts it on and turns the speaker towards the window. The music drifts out on the night air and in her cell Dora hears it and goes to the window to listen. As she listens the music tells her two things - her Guido is still alive and he stills loves her and is thinking of her. What a brilliant picture of what the Gospel is!!!–Sean