Life is Beautiful

      Today, we watched the movie, Life is Beautiful. We also recently read the book Night by Elie Wiesel and did research about the Holocaust. There were many ideas and events that were similar in the book and the movie. For example, something that is similar is the father/son bonds. In Night, Elie talks a lot about the relationship he had with his father. In the movie, Life is Beautiful, we see how Guido, the main character, is trying to protect his son, Joshua. The whole time they are at the camp, he is trying to convince his son that it is a game. That if they follow a specific set of rules, they will win a big tank. That is what helps Joshua to survive, since almost all of the other kids were killed. There were also a lot of similar ideas in the beginning of the movie. For example, we see Guido's property get vandalized. We also see Guido's uncle's horse get vandalized with the words: "Jewish Horse". There were also references to heiling Hitler. Also, when Guido was pretending to be a school inspector, he is supposed to give a speech about how "one race is superior", which is a theme we see during Holocaust research a lot, and during the speech, he starts out by saying, "I am of pure Aryan blood..." This is something that comes up in both the research and Night. Some other things that are similar are the tattoos. When the Jews got to the camp, they were given number tattoos. Elie was also given a number tattoo, and mentions it in his book.
      There were a couple differences between the book and the movie. For example, in the movie, we get to see the mother throughout the camp. In the book, we learn that Elie's mother and sister are sent to the crematoriums on the first day. Another difference is that in the book, before Elie's family went to a ghetto before they went to a concentration camp, but in the movie, they were taken from their homes and forced into the cattle cars. An obvious difference is the location. Elie was born in Sighet, Transylvania and is taken to Birkenau, which is in Poland. In the movie, the main character is from Italy. We don't know which concentration camp Guido and his family went to. Another difference is that the characters are older. Guido, his friend, and Dora look like they are in their 30s. Elie was 15 when he went to the camp. Some other differences are that in the movie,  the main character really wants to open a book store in the beginning, and in the book, the main character really wants to study religion in the beginning.
      In the movie, there was a lot of humor. Especially in the beginning. For example, when Guido is trying to open his book store, he runs into some mean people at the office. And he accidentally knocks a plant out of the window and onto the man's head. When he trys to help clean up the mess, he accidentally causes raw eggs to break on the man's head. Twice. The second time was at his wedding announcement party. Another funny part was when Guido was driving around with Dora, because he liked her, and when she asked, "When did you learn to drive?" he said, "Ten minutes ago." Another funny moment, probably the funniest in the whole movie, is when Guido pretends to know how to speak German and volunteers to be a translator for a German Nazi in his barrack. The entire time the Nazi was giving instructions about what the rules were at camp, Guido was just making up funny things about the Nazi, pretending that it was the translation, because since the Nazi did not speak Italian, he would never know the difference. One of the things that Guido said was. "On some days you will get lollipops, but not today, because I ate all of them. We Nazis do that sometimes." Or something along those lines, I cannot remember exactly what he said.
      In the movie, Life is Beautiful, life is shown as beautiful in many ways. One of those ways is that Guido and Dora keep running into each other everywhere they go. When his car breaks down, and he ends up on a farm, she literally falls into his arms after jumping out of the barn window (I think to avoid being attacked by a chicken). When Guido and his friend go to stay in the city, they run into each other when she is walking to work. He happens to be the waiter at her engagement party. Before that though, he would try to find out where she was going and meet her there. At the opera, at the school, everywhere. He saves her from her own engagement party, and they end up getting married and having Joshua. Another way that life is shows beautiful is when they are in the concentration camp, Guido keeps finding ways to let Dora know that he is alive. Even though Dora was not supposed  to go to the concentration camp, she forced the Nazis to stop the trim so that she could  get one she did not want to leave her family. When they were in the concentration camp, Guido wanted  to let Dora know that he was alive. So, when the guard went on break, Guido went to the intercom system and said what he always says to her: "Buongiorno Principessa!" He gives a whole speech too, just to let her know that he was alive. Also, when he got a  job as a waiter for a Nazi dinner, he had to change the music. He noticed in the pile of records the song from the opera that he followed her too. He opened the window and flipped the record player so that it was facing out the window, hoping that the song would get to her barracks. Luckily, it did, and she knew that it was coming from him. It was really beautiful.