Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful is the drama every comic probably wishes he had made. In this life-affirming Italian "concentration-camp comedy," Benigni uses the Holocaust as a backdrop for telling a heartfelt story about a father who protects his son from the gas chambers by the use of the only weapons at his command: his quick imagination, outlandish buffoonery, and scrappy determination.
"...plight of a lone man whistling bravely in the dark. In addition to its questionable subject matter, another difficulty..."
Nov. 6, 1998 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten