Life is Beautiful Blog

          Life is Beautiful and Night are two very different types of media, but are similar in ways. Night and Life is Beautiful have very similar plot in connections. Both of them deal with the father-son relationships. Life is Beautiful’s plot is the journey of a family, particularly Guido and his son living instead a concentration camp. Guido protects his son from the dangers of the concentration camp by saying it is all a game. Guido tells his son that if they get 1000 points they will win a real military tank. Guido tries to protect his son while trying to survive in the camp. Then we see different viewpoints from Guido’s wife Dora and his uncle Leo. Uncle Leo is killed in the gas chambers and Dora believes that her child is dead. Guido protects his son from the “showers” and keeps him safe. But towards the end of the movie the concentration camp is in chaos. The war is almost over and the Nazi’s are destroying evidence that the concentration camps even there. Guido hides his child in a locker and safe from the Nazi’s but in his attempt to save him, Guido gets killed. The day comes and his son get out of the lockers and a tank shows up, his son thinks they just won the game and they are going home now, but in reality the American’s have liberated the camp and checking it one last time. He doesn’t know what actually happened in the camp and he doesn’t know that his father and grandpa are dead, and the reason that happened is because Guido protected his son from the dangers of the concentration camp so he could keep living a normal life. Then on the other hand we have Night which is a true story based on Elie Wiesel’s life in the concentration camps. Elie’s father didn’t do anything that Guido did to protect his child but Elie more or less protected his father. His father was beat and tormented in the camps and Elie was there to help him deal with it. Elie was there when his father couldn’t help himself. Night and Life is Beautiful are way different when it comes to reality but they both deal with the same thing, father-son relationships. Elie’s story starts with his father and him in the concentration camps and it ends with his father and him in the concentration camps. Guido’s story doesn’t start in the concentration camps with his son but when it does happen it’s like you are watching a completely different movie. Both are sad and deal with father-son relationships during one of the hardest times in history. 

          But if they don’t have a lot in common what do they have him in common? The tone of both Life is Beautiful and Night are different but show similarities and connections when closely examined. Life is Beautiful and Night have two completely different tones. Life is Beautiful is a happy movie filled with tragedy and Night is a dark book and filled tragedy due to the events actually taking place. But both show signs of similarities. In Life is Beautiful Guido meets a man by the name of Bartolomeo a man who has been a the camp for a long enough time to know how to survive. Elie meets people in the concentration camps he goes to that teach him how to survive and live in the camps. They have relatives who meet their demise due to not knowing what is going to happen. Elie’s mother and two sister were all gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz. Guido’s uncle was also gassed upon arrival at the camp. Then tragedy strikes, Guido is killing while protecting his son and trying to find his wife and Elie’s father is killed when struck with a disease. Guido’s son didn’t know his father died and Elie is not sure that his father was even dead when they put him in the crematorium. Then at the beginning of Night and towards the middle of Life is Beautiful we see that Guido and his family are beginning discriminated because they were Jewish. The same with Elie and his family. Guido’s uncle Leo had his horse vandalized and Guido had his book store spray painted. Elie and his family had their possessions taken away and they were put in ghettos. Both of them show similarities even they are both completely different stories.

           In Life is Beautiful and Night there are two very different points of view. Night and Life is Beautiful have very different things to deal with the concentration camps. Night deals with death, torment, sorrow, and tragedy. The story is told through the eyes of Elie. Night is Elie’s story and his life at the time. Since it is real life you see more realistic things. You see Elie’s life and family taken away from in him in about 100 pages. You see what he went through and why you should feel for him. Elie’s mother and two sisters were gassed in Auschwitz, his faith was lost, and his father was killed from sickness and not the camps. Elie’s camp was liberated at the end but it didn’t matter to Elie anymore. He had lost his humanity and he has a shell of his former self. Then we go to Life is Beautiful which has a completely different point of view. The movie begins in Italy in 1939. Guido is basically a comedian trying to start his own business. Guido is a waiter at a very high end restaurant and hsis trying to start his own book store. While doing that he meets a woman by the name of Dora. Guido had never seen a more beautiful women and to in his words “make love with her multiple times”. Then time passes by and Guido and Dora are married and have a son and on their son’s birthday Guido, his son, and Guido’s uncle Leo are sent to an unknown concentration camp in Italy. There Guido would try to shield the horrors of the concentration camp by saying it's all a game and his plan works. But he ends up dying to protect his family and he does that and dies basically as a hero. 

          The movie Life is Beautiful shows well a lot of beauty. Beauty is shown a lot in the movie. Guido is just normal old guy trying to get by in life. He has friends, a house, a bike, and then he sees this woman. He goes to a farm and this woman named Dora falls on top of him. He is shocked that such a beautiful woman fell on top of him. He goes back to the city and he finds the women again. Guido sweet talks her, and then he gets chased by a banker that he threw eggs on by accident. Towards the middle of the movie Guido marries Dora and they have a child and their life is going well. They have a business, family, and then Guido and his son are taken into the concentration camp. Dora volunteers herself to go into the concentration camp so she can see Guido. Guido and his son are in the concentration camp and Guido protects his child from the horrors of the camp. He tells him that it is all a game, and his son believes him. His son doesn't know that people are dying and that people are being tormented, and at the end Guido dies protecting his son. Making life beautiful.