Editing Life Is Beautiful (section)

===Critical response===
[[File:Roberto Benigni Nicoletta Braschi.jpg|thumb|[[Roberto Benigni]] received positive reviews for his film and performance, which he starred in with his wife [[Nicoletta Braschi]].]] 
The film was praised by the Italian press, with Benigni treated as a "national hero."<ref name="Stone" /> [[Pope John Paul II]], who received a private screening with Benigni, placed it in his top five favourite films.<ref name="Stone" /> It holds a "Fresh" 81% approval rating on review aggregation website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 93 reviews with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "Benigni's earnest charm, when not overstepping its bounds into the unnecessarily treacly, offers the possibility of hope in the face of unflinching horror".<ref name="Life Is Beautiful">{{cite web |url=https://rottentomatoes.com/m/1084398-life_is_beautiful/ |title=Life Is Beautiful |access-date=26 December 2022 |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110413013903/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084398-life_is_beautiful/ |archive-date=13 April 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Metacritic]] assigned the film a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/life-is-beautiful?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c | title=Life is Beautiful | website=[[Metacritic]] }}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film 3.5/4 stars, stating: "[According to Benigni] the movie has stirred up venomous opposition from the right wing in Italy [and at] Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use of [[Holocaust humor|humor in connection with the Holocaust]]. What may be most offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity. The film finds the right notes to negotiate its delicate subject matter ... The movie actually softens the Holocaust slightly, to make the humor possible at all. In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But ''Life Is Beautiful'' is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than they are right now."<ref name="Roger Ebert">{{cite web |url=https://rogerebert.com/reviews/life-is-beautiful-1998 |title=Life Is Beautiful |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=30 October 1998 |access-date=11 September 2016 |website=Rogerebert.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925213925/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/life-is-beautiful-1998 |archive-date=25 September 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> Michael Wilmington of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' gave the movie a score of 100/100, calling it: "A deeply moving blend of cold terror and rapturous hilarity. Lovingly crafted by Italy's top comedian and most popular filmmaker, it's that rare comedy that takes on a daring and ambitious subject and proves worthy of it."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://moviemonitor.com/watch/life-is-beautiful |title= Life Is Beautiful |website= Moviemonitor }}</ref>

[[Richard Schickel]], writing for ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', argued, "There are references to mass extermination, but that brutal reality is never vividly presented". He concluded that "even a hint of the truth about the Holocaust would crush [Benigni]'s comedy."<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Schickel|first=Richard|date=1998-11-09|title=Cinema: Fascist Fable|language=en-US|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,989504,00.html|access-date=2022-02-07|issn=0040-781X}}</ref> [[Owen Gleiberman]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave it a B−, calling it "undeniably some sort of feat—the first feel-good Holocaust weepie. It's been a long time coming." However, Glieberman stated: "There's only one problem. As shot, it looks like a game".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Glieberman|first=Owen|date=6 November 1998|title=Life Is Beautiful|url=https://ew.com/article/1998/11/06/life-beautiful|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118063516/http://www.ew.com/article/1998/11/06/life-beautiful|archive-date=18 November 2016|access-date=12 September 2016|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref>

Michael O'Sullivan, writing for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', called it "sad, funny and haunting."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/reviews/lifeisbeautifulosullivan.htm |title='Life's' Surprisingly Graceful Turn' |last=O'Sullivan |first=Michael |date=30 October 1998 |access-date=11 September 2016 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919153705/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/reviews/lifeisbeautifulosullivan.htm |archive-date=19 September 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Nell Minow of ''[[Common Sense Media]]'' gave it 5/5 stars, saying: "This magnificent film gives us a glimpse of the Holocaust, but it is really about love, and the indomitability of humanity even in the midst of inhumanity."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/life-is-beautiful |title= Life Is Beautiful |website=Common Sense Media|date= 24 August 2009 }}</ref> [[Janet Maslin]] wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that the film took "a colossal amount of gall" but "because Mr. Benigni can be heart-rending without a trace of the maudlin, it works."<ref name="Maslin" /> ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]''{{'}}s [[Kenneth Turan]] noted the film had "some furious opposition" at Cannes, but said "what is surprising about this unlikely film is that it succeeds as well as it does. Its sentiment is inescapable, but genuine poignancy and pathos are also present, and an overarching sincerity is visible too."<ref name="Turan">{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-oct-23-ca-35479-story.html |title=The Improbable Success of 'Life Is Beautiful' |last=Turan |first=Kenneth |date=23 October 1998 |access-date=12 September 2016 |work=[[The Los Angeles Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305013821/http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/23/entertainment/ca-35479 |archive-date=5 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

David Rooney of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' said the film had "mixed results," with "surprising depth and poignancy" in Benigni's performance but "visually rather flat" camera work by [[Tonino Delli Colli]].<ref name="Rooney" /> In 2002, [[BBC]] critic Tom Dawson wrote "the film is presumably intended as a tribute to the powers of imagination, innocence, and love in the most harrowing of circumstances," but "Benigni's sentimental fantasy diminishes the suffering of Holocaust victims."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/06/06/la_vita_e_bella_1997_review.shtml |title=La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful) (1998) |last=Dawson |first=Tom |date=6 June 2002 |access-date=12 September 2016 |work=[[BBC]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160726215746/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/06/06/la_vita_e_bella_1997_review.shtml |archive-date=26 July 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2006, [[Jewish American]] comedic filmmaker [[Mel Brooks]] spoke negatively of the film in ''[[Der Spiegel]]'', saying it trivialized the suffering in concentration camps.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/spiegel-interview-with-mel-brooks-with-comedy-we-can-rob-hitler-of-his-posthumous-power-a-406268.html |title=SPIEGEL Interview with Mel Brooks: With Comedy, We Can Rob Hitler of his Posthumous Power |last=Brooks |first=Mel |work=[[Spiegel Online]] |date=16 March 2006 |access-date=3 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610031938/http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/spiegel-interview-with-mel-brooks-with-comedy-we-can-rob-hitler-of-his-posthumous-power-a-406268.html |archive-date=10 June 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

By contrast, Nobel Laureate [[Imre Kertész]] argues that those who take the film to be a comedy, rather than a tragedy, have missed the point of the film. He draws attention to what he terms 'Holocaust conformism' in cinema to rebuff detractors of ''Life Is Beautiful''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=MacKay |first1=John |last2=Kertész |first2=Imre |date=1 April 2001 |title=Who Owns Auschwitz? |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/36875 |journal=The Yale Journal of Criticism |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=267–272 |doi=10.1353/yale.2001.0010 |s2cid=145532698 |issn=1080-6636}}</ref>

Israeli screenwriter, author and art critic Kobi Niv published the book ''Life Is Beautiful, but Not for Jews'' (in 2000 in Hebrew and an English translation in 2003), in which he analyzed the movie from a highly critical perspective, suggesting that the film's underlining narrative is harmful for Jews.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Niv |first=Ḳobi |url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810848757/Life-is-Beautiful-But-Not-for-Jews-Another-View-of-the-Film-by-Benigni |title=Life is beautiful, but not for Jews : another view of the film by Benigni |date=2003 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-4875-9 |edition=1st |location=Landham, Md. |oclc=52312653}}</ref>

Another academic analysis of the movie was undertaken by Ilona Klein, who analyzes the film's success and refers to the "ambiguous themes hidden within." Klein suggests that one of the reasons the movie was so successful was its appeal of "sentimental optimism". At the same time, she points out that "Miramax's hype billed this film as a fable about 'love, family, and the power of imagination,' yet most Jewish victims of the Nazis' 'Final Solution' were loving, concerned, devoted parents. No amount of love, family, and power of imagination helped their children survive the gas chambers."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Klein|first=Ilona|date=2010|title="Life Is Beautiful, Or Is It?" Asked Jakob the Liar|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4801&context=facpub|journal=Brigham Young University Scholars Archive Faculty Publications|volume=3836|pages=16–31|via=BYU ScholarsArchive}}</ref>

David Sterritt of ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' highlighted that "Enthusiasm for the movie has not been as unanimous as its ad campaign suggests, however, and audiences would do well to ponder its implicit attitudes." He pointed out that the movie implicitly suggests quick-witted confidence was a match for the terrors of fascist death camps, then added that "[Benigni's] fable ultimately obscures the human and historical events it sets out to illuminate."<ref>{{Cite news|date=1998-10-30|title='Life Is Beautiful': Too Light For Heavy Subject Matter?|work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/1030/103098.feat.feat.5.html|access-date=2022-02-07|issn=0882-7729}}</ref>

The movie received some criticism for the scene of the [[United States Army|US Army]] [[M4 Sherman|Sherman M4 Tank]] coming to liberate the concentration camp, despite [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] was liberated by the [[Red Army]]; however, as stated by Benigni, the camp of the movie is not Auschwitz: "… Around the camp there are mountains, which in Auschwitz there are not. That is "the" concentration camp, because any camp contains the horror of Auschwitz, not one or another".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.open.online/2023/01/28/la-vita-e-bella-roberto-benigni-auschwitz-fc/|title=No! Il film "La Vita è bella" di Roberto Benigni non è ambientato ad Auschwitz|author=David Puente|publisher=Open|date=28 January 2023 |language=Italian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=20 Dec 2017 |title=La vita è bella: il capolavoro di Roberto Benigni compie 20 anni |url=https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/la-vita-e-bella-roberto-benigni-20-anni/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130115956/https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/la-vita-e-bella-roberto-benigni-20-anni/ |archive-date=30 Jan 2023 |access-date=9 Mar 2024 |website=Cinematographe.it}}</ref>