Guido is a witty waiter living in late 1930s Italy. He's the quintessential Italian: emotive, charming, outgoing and impossible to hate. He has one thing going against him, though: he's Jewish.
Throughout the first half of the film, his charm and humorous nature is omnipresent, making him, although over-the-top, completely irresistible. Dora thinks so too, and ends up marrying Guido, and together they have a child, Giosue.
Antisemitism is a light-motiff throughout the first half of the movie, and some may find themselves offended at how lightly the movie portrays these incidents, but this is wrong. The incredible lightness and humor of Guido allow us to experience the Holocaust from the other side, like no other movie I've ever seen. In most movies portraying Holocaust victims, we are present as observers, and our empathy is exercised through pity, pain, and rage against the perpetrators.
This movie challenges us to go deeper. It made me see the "village idiot", who always assumes good intentions as the loving father of an innocent child, sentenced to die through no fault of their own. He protects his son from the horrors of the Holocaust even as he is faced with them every day.
Religion teaches us that the purpose of life is love, and Guido, who is so full of love for his family, simply has no space inhis heart for hatred. Even when he is hungry, ragged, and faced with the utmost horrors, (like the scene where he stumbles upon a mountain of corpses in the fog), never do we see him dishonored - because he doesn't consider himself so.
The parabola of the Chinese man with a kangaroo for a pet is the most consideration a vile ideology like Nazism should ever get from modern society, and Guido shows us the way.
Not to be disregarded is the role of his loving wife, Dora("Principessa", as Guido and Giosue call her), the light of his life, who demands to be transported to the camp with her family. She loves Guido for who he is, never demanding that he defend his honor with violence or anything that is not aligned with his values.
This movie is an offering at the altar of tolerance and nonviolence, a tragic triumph of love over hate, and a victory for Guido, who laughed through it all, because even if the laugh was staged, he knew it was good for the soul.
I cried my eyes out watching the movie. I cried during the first part, angrily imagining the horrors this innocent man would be subjected to, unable to shake of the feeling of life's unfairness. In this misery I found myself laughing completely uncontrollably when Guido's hilarious character broke through the solemn tone like a ray of sunshine punching through a cloudy sky. This movie possibly caused me a minor nervous breakdown because of the impossible contrasts within the story, a rollercoaster ride that made me angry, sad, happy, and depressed in quick succession.
While there are some inconsistencies in the way the story unfolds, like the unexplained access Guido had to get his son a meal with the German kids, I found these too trivial to even consider in the final score. I've studied the Holocaust, and I know that lots of crazy stories that nobody could make up actually came to pass, and hence I'll never be able to shake the feeling that this, this really happened.
Without a single on-screen death, and the most serious depicted injury(aside from emaciation and one arm wound) being an egg to the head, the movie is incredibly difficult to watch. Even so, I think it should be mandatory watching.
In the end, love triumphed over hate, even if only in a movie. To me, it was more than that.
Throughout the first half of the film, his charm and humorous nature is omnipresent, making him, although over-the-top, completely irresistible. Dora thinks so too, and ends up marrying Guido, and together they have a child, Giosue.
Antisemitism is a light-motiff throughout the first half of the movie, and some may find themselves offended at how lightly the movie portrays these incidents, but this is wrong. The incredible lightness and humor of Guido allow us to experience the Holocaust from the other side, like no other movie I've ever seen. In most movies portraying Holocaust victims, we are present as observers, and our empathy is exercised through pity, pain, and rage against the perpetrators.
This movie challenges us to go deeper. It made me see the "village idiot", who always assumes good intentions as the loving father of an innocent child, sentenced to die through no fault of their own. He protects his son from the horrors of the Holocaust even as he is faced with them every day.
Religion teaches us that the purpose of life is love, and Guido, who is so full of love for his family, simply has no space inhis heart for hatred. Even when he is hungry, ragged, and faced with the utmost horrors, (like the scene where he stumbles upon a mountain of corpses in the fog), never do we see him dishonored - because he doesn't consider himself so.
The parabola of the Chinese man with a kangaroo for a pet is the most consideration a vile ideology like Nazism should ever get from modern society, and Guido shows us the way.
Not to be disregarded is the role of his loving wife, Dora("Principessa", as Guido and Giosue call her), the light of his life, who demands to be transported to the camp with her family. She loves Guido for who he is, never demanding that he defend his honor with violence or anything that is not aligned with his values.
This movie is an offering at the altar of tolerance and nonviolence, a tragic triumph of love over hate, and a victory for Guido, who laughed through it all, because even if the laugh was staged, he knew it was good for the soul.
I cried my eyes out watching the movie. I cried during the first part, angrily imagining the horrors this innocent man would be subjected to, unable to shake of the feeling of life's unfairness. In this misery I found myself laughing completely uncontrollably when Guido's hilarious character broke through the solemn tone like a ray of sunshine punching through a cloudy sky. This movie possibly caused me a minor nervous breakdown because of the impossible contrasts within the story, a rollercoaster ride that made me angry, sad, happy, and depressed in quick succession.
While there are some inconsistencies in the way the story unfolds, like the unexplained access Guido had to get his son a meal with the German kids, I found these too trivial to even consider in the final score. I've studied the Holocaust, and I know that lots of crazy stories that nobody could make up actually came to pass, and hence I'll never be able to shake the feeling that this, this really happened.
Without a single on-screen death, and the most serious depicted injury(aside from emaciation and one arm wound) being an egg to the head, the movie is incredibly difficult to watch. Even so, I think it should be mandatory watching.
In the end, love triumphed over hate, even if only in a movie. To me, it was more than that.
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