In Life is Beautiful the audience is engaged by the unique way the holocaust is looked upon. The combination of the personalities used by the three main characters; Joshua, Guido and Dora, steers the audience in to focusing mostly on the comedic side of the movie despite how dark and daunting the genre is and on the feelings of Joshua instead of what’s really happening to him.
In the first half of the movie, there is no plot to it. During this first half of the movie there is little warning as to what is going to happen to the characters and instead just shows a combination of happy, funny and romantic events. This allows the viewers to be able to adapt better to the character and their personalities. This is why the director Roberto Benigni postpones the complication of the movie. Because of this sudden turning point of the movie the audience cannot accommodate well enough to what its main theme really is because they are still adjusted to the happy and funny side of the movie, therefore making the audience view the holocaust differently to a movie where the theme is constant.
Another reason which makes the viewer’s experience of the holocaust different in the movie Life is Beautiful , than any other movie with the same theme is the way the characters personality barely change when they become victims of the Jewish death camp, but there are reasons for this. Because of the unexpected turning point of the movie, Guido’s son Joshua is un-aware of what is going on. So for Joshua’s sake, Guido pretends to Joshua that they are going on a competition camp, where the winner, who must reach one thousand points, wins a tank. Guido does this because for Joshua’s birthday, he wanted a toy tank, pretending that the death camp is all just a game and the prize is a real tank keeps Joshua’s spirits high and more importantly protects his innocents. For Guido to continuously do this he must behave exactly the same as he did before the death camp, in the death camp and commit heroic acts and be a larrikin at the same time. An example of how he has done both is when the Nazi commander gives instructions of the death camp and Guido volunteers to translate, even though he cannot understand German he translates the German in to saying instructions about the pretend game instead.
The unique and comedic heroism displayed in the movie by Guido overall makes the personality and behaviour of Dora, himself and Joshua remain the same and the unique connection between the audience and the characters because of the delayed complication makes the presentation of the holocaust theme different in Life is beautiful, to any other holocaust movie.
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