Video: Jtube: Life is Beautiful

Torah Reading: Balak

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Published: September 27, 2012

Should we shield our children from the evils of the world?

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Visitor Comments: 12

(10) Cherrie, December 15, 2012 3:27 AM

I love this part of the movie. I love how he looks at this new life and how he translates it to his dear son. Wow how awesome to be that positive. I pray I can be too and trust in HaShem to work it all out instead of worrying or being sad of the place in life I'm at.

(9) richard, October 10, 2012 4:55 PM

German subtitles might help to see the funny side

As I don't understand German, I can only imagine what the tyrant is yelling. If I am to appreciate the obviously "gutsy" side of the "translator" and how it could appear funny, were it not so serious, it would be interesting to see how the bad news is so skillfully portrayed to people in a way that they maintain their sanity in a cruel environment. Does anyone agree with me?

(8) Steve Lurie, October 10, 2012 4:18 PM

It is a sin to lie to your children under any circumstance

If you lie to your child about one thing, what is a child to think about all the other things you have told that child? How many lies do you have to tell to be called a liar?

(7) Anonymous, October 10, 2012 3:49 PM

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

This was the best movie I've ever seen. I laughed and I cried all through it. It was wonderful how the Dad protected the son. There is plenty of time for explaining when they get older.

(6) Sarah Vorchheimer, October 6, 2012 12:25 PM

Parents DID shield their small children

בס"ד Many of my friends are chid survivors. Their parents DID shield them from the true nature of just what was going on while trying to ensure they behaved in a manner that would ensure their survival, just as the father did in this beautiful film

(5) Gordon, October 5, 2012 4:36 PM

Life is Beautiful.....

No, you can only shield a child from the world for a short time. They need to learn that they cannot be protected from every thing and must be made aware.

Rose, October 19, 2012 3:45 AM

Gordon, what you're saying applies to a normal world. The world that child lived didn't play by normal rules. How wonderful of his father to add some sugar to such a bitter existence.

(4) Joyce Shulman, October 5, 2012 2:37 PM

grande Roberto Benigni

Benigni is fantastic

(3) ruth housman, October 5, 2012 12:57 PM

The genius of the film maker

I feel this is a brilliant, and of course, troubling movie, because these Germans, in spouting such evil, in being evil incarnate, are diminished as in a comic book, caricature. Life is so tragic, and the brutality, the excesses of evil as epitomized by the Holocaust, are heightened by the absurdity, the sheer absurdity in the pomposity of such evil. We laugh till we cry. It's a fact. And we need humor to lighten the load, as life is so hard, and how does one ever express to a child, such terrible atrocity as envelopped this child and his father and family. It feels surreal and so to make this surreal, as it is, the father used levity. We need to "rise above this". Evil becomes a kind of craziness that spins us into the reel world, and not, the real world. As in, can this really be happening? The uneasiness of all this, as we know it did happen, is brilliantly exposed. The Hollow Cost of the Holocaust is in not exposing it, for what it was... and we need to think about this, and deeply. It's a turning of tables, similar in my mind, to The King of Hearts, in which the inmates of a mental institution were clearly the "sane" and the war outside, about the "insane", and how telling they all trooped back into the institution on encountering that craziness. Life has these momets of truth, and I believe, for this reason, this is a great movie and yes, totally unsettling.

(2) Frank Adam, October 5, 2012 8:38 AM

Ask a silly question....

Those who would make the World safe for children make it dangerous for adults. There is a difference between protecting children and hiding the World from them. The most important part of teaching is the explanation. People are not daft whatever their current age.

(1) Anonymous, September 27, 2012 7:55 PM

What an amazing scene

I didn't see this movie, but what an amazing scene! It would be funny if not for the fact that we know that it's a concentration camp and perpahs everyone there will be killed. Mixed emotions. I think that the boy should know about the reality because very soon he will find out and without the knowledge his life is in more danger.

Anonymous, October 5, 2012 12:31 PM

he needs to see the movie

You need to see the movie. It makes more sense in context.

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