Thursday, March 30, 2017

Life is Beautiful Blog

 
The movie Life is Beautiful and the book Night, are very similar. One of the ways the two pieces are similar is that they both show father-son bonds. In Night the main character is the son and in the movie the main character is the father. In Life is Beautiful if the father died then the little child wouldn't know how to survive in the camp alone. Joshua, the son,  was living there in secret and he thought that it was a game. Unknowing of the real circumstances that he was in, Joshua could have accidentally gotten himself killed. If the father died in the book then Elie wouldn't have a reason to live and continue on. His dad was the lifeboat that kept him afloat. In both pieces they depend on each other to live. Another reason the movie and book were alike was that the concentration camps both worked in a similar way. The men and women were separated into different barracks. Elie lost his mother and sister, while Guido lost his wife. There was also selections that made the old and very young go to the crematoriums. In addition to selections there was physical examinations. Elie had to run, and Guido was looked at. Both Elie and Guido were tattooed their serial number. One of the last things that was similar was that if both the main characters would have stayed at the camp a few days longer, then they would have been free. They both decided to try to run away, but in the end it caused more of a burden. 

The movie and book were also different in a few ways. One thing that was different was the ages of the main characters. Guido was in his 30s or so, and Elie was a teenager. Another thing that was different was how the characters were treated. In Night Elie was beaten and yelled at multiple times. It seemed as if he was treated a lot more cruelly than Guido or Joshua were. There wasn't a lot of detail of the conditions that Guido was in. Life in Life is Beautiful seemed a lot more relax than they did in Night. Another thing that I noticed was different was how there wasn't as much security. In the book it made it appear that someone was always watching them and overseeing their work. However, in the movie Guido and Joshua were always doing something that they weren't supposed to. An example of this was when they were walking at night after Guido was a waiter. They got to their barracks without anyone suspecting or seeing them.

The tone of the movie was a lot more carefree than the book. In the movie Guido is making jokes and laughing with the hopes of cheering up Joshua. He makes it seem like it isn't really a horrible place to live, compared to how Elie made it seem. Joshua's perspective on the camps really affected his experience of his time there. Since he was innocent and didn't know what was happening, the realness of his situation never got to him. For example, when he was hiding in the box at the end he must have been nervous. He was nervous because he thought someone might find him and he would lose the game, not that someone would find him and kill him. If he was Elie, for example, then he would have been terrified waiting in the box. The levels of suspense between the two people are very different.

Even though the movie was based in a concentration camp, there was beauty shown. One of these instances was when Guido talked over the speaker with Joshua. He talked about his dream and that Dora was in it. Dora listened with hope and love. This experience showed her that her family was still alive and well. This also shows beauty because Guido risked his safety to let Dora know their existence. A guard could have walked in at any moment and shot both of them on the spot. Despite these risks, Guido still knew in him that talking on the loudspeaker would help his wife more than anything. Another moment that beauty was shown was when Guido played the song for the entire camp to hear. This one song transported Dora and Guido to a time when live was good. They were in the opera house once again. The song makes them remember how life used to be.





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