Love in the time of war

Life is beautiful especially if seen in the eyes of Joshua, thanks to his good-natured papa Guido Orefice who always sees the lighter side of life. Guido never fails to bring a smile on little Joshua and wife Dora’s faces.

Anyone genuinely in love with Italian movies is correct to believe. I’m referring to the classic Life is Beautiful (La Vita è Bella) of Roberto Benigni. The film’s distinctive element of love sprinkled with delight amidst the cruelties of war; skillful editing; powerful character performance and other key features blended together, are precisely the ingredients that draw me towards it.

The movie will simply make people laugh, cry, and most of all, marvel at the goodness of a man’s heart — that is, his genuine desire to see his family happy; away from the harsh realities of life. But the movie doesn’t begin in chaos. In fact, it seems like a true blue comedic love story where the character Guido instantly falls in love with Dora – or should I say, Dora falls unto Guido from an attic of a barn as she frantically brushes away a swarm of bees buzzing around her. In due time, Guido ultimately sweeps Dora off her feet on the night of her engagement to her fiancé, Roberto; taking her to his uncle Eliseo’s house where he (Guido) also lives.

Guido and Dora’s love brings forth Joshua into their arms. For a brief period, Guido’s family and his uncle live a quiet life – until World War II arrives with the crazy sound of guns and bombs. On Joshua’s seventh birthday, the Nazi German army forcibly put Guido, uncle Eliseo and Joshua in a train packed with Jews heading for a concentration camp. Though she’s not a Jew, Dora volunteers herself to a German officer to be taken as well. At the camp however, Dora is not permitted to be with her family since women are segregated from the men. Children are also isolated from their parents, but Guido manages to keep Joshua in his sleeping quarters together with the rest of the men.

Wanting to conceal any form of brutality by the Nazi soldiers, Guido practically "paints" a picture of the concentration camp as a favorite vacation hub of people where a thrilling game of points is played by boys and girls and even by men and women. Indeed, when Joshua first sets foot on the camp, Guido tells him that the first person who gets 1,000 points in the game will be declared the winner of a real battle tank.

Joshua gets wide-eyed at the prospect since he craves for toy battle tanks himself. Whenever Joshua would get bored and disillusioned by news from other Jews hearing them say that old, sick people are gassed (uncle Eliseo is gone at this point), Guido would remind him that such talks are only meant to discourage players, and that if Joshua quits he would not get the prize he wants. As the war comes to a close and Joshua’s imaginary game points come close to a thousand, Guido begins to worry about Dora for the Nazis are frantically herding Jewish women in trucks to be slaughtered in a forest grave. Immediately, Guido tacks Joshua inside a small, inconspicuous steel cabinet lying around the camp for a supposed game of hide-and-seek, and tells him not to come out unless there are no more people around. Afterwards, he sets off sneaking into the quarters of Jewish women searching for Dora. Unfortunately, Nazi soldiers discover Guido and silence him. It was the night before liberation in Italy.

By morning, not a single Nazi German is seen around the Jewish camp. Only a few weary, teary-eyed Jews who survived last night’s pandemonium can be noticed leaving the camp. When everyone is gone, little Joshua slowly steps out of his hiding place and walks towards the camp square — alone - quiet. Seconds later, he hears the sound of a huge machine from behind. As Joshua turns around with eyes and jaws open, a real-life war tank stops in front of him with an American soldier inviting him to hop in. Eventually, Joshua joyously rolls out from the camp on his war tank down the dirt road where he sees his mother Dora among a group of Jews marching along. It’s a happy ending for both, yet a sad one too.

Watching Life is Beautiful teaches me to appreciate how beautiful life really is. Through Guido, I have learned to stop and try to see life’s beauty and goodness everyday, focusing my attention on the bright side of most situations instead of always complaining and sulking at every misfortune and unpleasant outcome that happen to me. Despite the occasional World War II at home, and the annoying "Nazis" I sometimes meet in the street or in school who spoil my day (either intentionally or otherwise) I realize that I occasionally need to apply the Guido Orefice strategy of putting a smile on my face and letting words of discouragement enter one ear and exit on the other ear.

Guido’s courage and imagination are supreme. Even in the face of the severity of a war, he transforms what seems to be a dead-end, no-win, dark situation into a happy, positive and bright condition. How I hope I could emulate that quality when I become a father. Besides since I think I’m still in a long way to be a father, I could even now try to show a Guido-like "clowniness" in small things to have fun with friends and make my loved ones smile. I’m fond of watching different movie genres: suspense-thriller, comedy, spy-action, classic and a few others. But Life is Beautiful tops my list.