Life is Beautiful Blog

       The movie Life is Beautiful and the book Night by Elie Wiesel are both about the same subject, the Holocaust. Though they may be similar in this category, they are very different from each other. One of the main differences between the two is the tone and mood. In Night everything is very serious, depressing, and disturbing. In Life is Beautiful there is a touch of humor even in the most unlikely events. They are similar because they both have characters with a strong father son relationship.

        In the book Night and in the film Life is Beautiful, the relationship between the two main characters (father and son) is very strong and important. However, the relationships are very different from each other. In Night Elie and his father have one purpose, they live for each other. Their care for each other is equal. When Elie is sick, his father cares for him. When his father is sick, Elie does everything he can for his father. In the book it says, "My father had huddled near me, draped in his blanket, shoulders laden with snow. And what if he were dead, as well? I called out to him. No response. I would have screamed if I could have. He was not moving. Suddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight." This shows Elie lived and fought for his father and his father did the same. This is different from Life is Beautiful because throughout the entire film the father mostly cares for the son because he is so young. He protected him from the truth, Guido made his son believe it was a game. Even though their relationship is as strong as Wiesel's,  it is certainly different. Joshua (the son) isn't scared for his father to die or anything because he doesn't know what's really going on. They both know they shouldn't separate, but only the father knows why. Guido is fighting to protect his son, but his son isn't fighting for his father. This may sound bad, however it was just the son's innocence that protected but stopped him from helping his father at the same time. 

        A very large difference between the book and film is the mood and tone. In the book Night the tone and mood is extremely serious. There are hardly any light moments throughout the story. An example of this seriousness is when they arrive at Birkenau, "In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been about midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau." This is only one example of the level of seriousness in this memoir. There are many examples and circumstances that add to the depressing mood and tone. Examples such as all of the death and starvation and misery during this unfortunate time. This differentiates from the movie Life is Beautiful because throughout the whole film there are moments of humor. Humor is displayed mostly through Guido because he has such a goofy and weird personality. Even to his end he still displays this level of humor. Though the Holocaust is an extremely serious topic, the humor was still demonstrated very appropriately. 

         Life is Beautiful obviously shows how life can be absolutely beautiful. There are many examples and ways this is shown in the film. Guido's son's innocence plays a huge part in the movie. Without his innocence their lives could have gone even more down hill. Keeping his son believing it was a game let's Guido keep him safe and happy. I think this shows life is beautiful because he is hiding his true fear and emotions to protect his beloved son. It didn't matter what was happening, Guido kept his act together while around his son. This also represents sacrifice. Sacrifice saved his son. Dora's sacrifice of herself to get on the train to the camp even though she wasn't selected, and Guido's sacrifice of his true emotions protects their son from fatality. This is beautiful because they put their son's life in front of theirs. 

          Another example of beauty in life shown in the film is laughter. Moments of joy and laughter occur during the whole film. These light and funny moments add to how much they love living life. These moments show how happy the characters are. Happiness is beautiful, and these characters really showed that. They showed this through making jokes, being silly, and just plain weird. They also showed this happiness and laughter through Guido and Dora's love for one another. They were completely in love and loved every minute with each other. They laughed and had inside jokes, they were just completely happy with their lives together. I think that is just beautiful.